Does anyone think "Carrie" is a sad story?

[A Plymouth's Fury]

I don't believe there are any similar posts but if there are I apologize. I have always thought that "Carrie" is just a sad story. I do not see it as horror. In fact, I see a lot of sadness in a lot of Stephen King's works. However, "Carrie" in particular is very sad for me. When I read it or watch one of the films I always feel an empathy towards Carrie. Here is a girl that has this amazing, powerful, frightening gift and she doesn't know how to use it and she sure doesn't know how to control it. She lives a life of sorrow and restraint, held down and chastized by a religiously fanatic mother who sees her as a curse. Her mother hates her, her classmates hate her, and I feel she hates herself at times. I believe that all Carrie wanted was to be wanted. Life at home and at school was unbearable for her. Her life started and ended bad. So, does anyone else here see "Carrie" as being sad? Or is it just me?

[JohnDalglish]

I have always thought that "Carrie" is just a sad story. I do not see it as horror.
Or is it just me?

Hi,

Aye, I agree, so it's not just you.

And actually I find much of Sai King's canon not really 'horror'.

Long days and pleasant nights

[Dhasek]

I did find it very sad, up until the point where she ruthlessly massacres the whole town ,, but honestly yes it is kinda sad that she was rejected so harshly throughout the story

[sam peebles]

Can't it be both a horror and sad story?

[bobledrew]

Absolutely Carrie's a sad story. The girl never really had a chance, and when she grabs an opportunity to break free of the shackles put on her by her mother, she's mocked in the most fundamental way by her peers, turning her gift into a tool of destruction.

Much of what King writes as "horror" deals with failures of human beings, or of human failings. Callahan's faith fails and he's cast out. Arnie is consumed by Christine. Bobby Garfield fails Ted Brautigan and fights for redemption. Roland. Harold Lauder. Mort Rainey. Donna Trenton. Andy McGee (who fails to protect his wife and dies trying to protect Charlie). Storm of the Century. Paul Edgecomb succeeds and fails. Craig Toomy. Todd Bowden. Lou Creed.

[GNTLGNT]

I always felt it was a tragedy masquerading as a horror novel...(but that was probably more a publishing "pigeonhole" than anything Uncle Stevie desired in the lean old days-he just wanted cigarettes and to make the rent...)

[aliphil]

one of my fav books of sk...some of the things carrie went through kind of was similiar to my childhood..and some of the stuff she was feeling was the same as i was at the time.

[Nabila]

Hi,

Aye, I agree, so it's not just you.

And actually I find much of Sai King's canon not really 'horror'.

Long days and pleasant nights

Yay verily. I think Mr Stephen King is the secret champion of the outsiders ( the freakishly gifted, the " different" etc... ) and the helpless. He is just pretending to be a horror writer, but because his motives are pure he has become the King of Horror. Mind blowing that. And that is also why the King will never be irrelevant. Ever.

And yes, Carrie is a sad story. The horror in this story is her mother. For me, Mrs. White is the villain in this story. The girls in the shower were just idiots who would not have dared do that to another girl who had a normal, pushy mother who would defend her child and who would have instilled a sense of self-worth in her child. Mrs White is responsible for Carrie's miserable and tragic existence. Wow, I really hate the Mrs Whites of this world.

[A Plymouth's Fury]

Yes sam peebles it can be, and I think it is, both a horror and a sad story. I didn't mean to say that it wasn't. What I meant was that when most people think of "Carrie" they think of Sissy Spacek covered in blood killing everybody in sight. Yet I think the film was very sad too. Particularly one of the final scenes when Carrie comes home from the prom and her powers have caused her to kill so many people and all she wants is to hug her mom and Mrs. White tries to kill her. Carrie in turn lets her mind go again and kills her mother. Then she cries for her and dies in her arms. Could that be any scarier/sadder? [LOL] So, yes it is both.

[Pucker]

I find Carrie a sad story in its social commentary. Take away her telekinetic powers and who among us hasn't known someone exactly like Carrie White. Man's inhumanity to man -- particualarly among the very young -- is fertile soil for the creative process and for all the imaginary "horrors" that drive many of Mr. King's stories, what he's usually talking about is human weakness and how it might (or might not) be overcome. Carrie's adventure is the realisation of the revenge fantasy of every nerdy kid or new kid in town or fat kid or ethnically different kid or . . . what have you . . . brought to life. She has the power to pay back all the people who think that she is a plaything, place in their midst for nothing more than their amusement, and if a few kids (or a great many) had to be killed in the process of disproving that particular social construct . . . well . . . all that tells us is that there isn't any good, and there isn't any evil. We're all simply flawed in our own ways, and no one here gets out alive.