Carrie Part 1, Section 2 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Part 1, Section 2

“When the girls were gone to their Period Two classes and the bell had been silenced …”

Miss Desjardin enters the locker room as the girls race out to class. In an attempt to calm Carrie down, she slaps Carrie across the face and s part of her enjoys doing so. Carrie screams that she is bleeding to death and clutches at Miss Desjardin, leaving a bloody handprint on her teacher’s crisp white shorts. Miss Desjardin shoves Carrie toward the sanitary-napkin dispenser and tells Carrie that she is acting like she never had a period before. As she does so, it becomes clear to Miss Desjardin, who is a first-year teacher, that not only is this Carrie’s first period, but she also doesn’t even know what a period is. Ashamed of her actions, Miss Desjardin shows Carrie how to use a napkin. A light bulb pops overhead.

The Shadow Exploded details Carrie’s birth in September of 1963. Her father, Ralph, died in a construction accident seven months prior, and the couple’s extreme religious practices prevented Margaret from making friends. On the day of Carrie’s birth, neighbors heard screams coming from Margaret’s home at 1:30 p.m. but did not call the police until 6:00 p.m. When the police arrived, they found Margaret and Carrie in bed covered in blood with a butcher knife that Margaret had used to cut the umbilical cord.

Carrie continues to cry as Miss Desjardin takes her to the office of Mr. Morton, the assistant principal, and tells him that Carrie should go home. After Mr. Morton refers to Carrie by the wrong name for the second time, she screams at him and his ashtray falls on the floor. Carrie tells them both that everyone has always laughed at her. Once she has gone, Miss Desjardin and Mr. Morton discuss the other girls and note that Chris is the ringleader of her peers. They express surprise at Sue’s involvement, and Miss Desjardin admits that she wishes that she had handled things differently.

As Carrie walks home, she thinks about how the others never tire of hating her and recalls her mother’s diatribes about the Day of Judgment and an angel with a sword. Carrie recalls attending Christian Youth Camp against her mother’s wishes and returning home early because of the others’ relentless teasing. Her mother told her to treasure the memory of her “scourging” and sent her to pray in the closet for six hours. A young boy rides by on his bike and sticks his tongue out at Carrie, and his bike falls over. She thinks to herself that she made it happen; she is aware now that she can “flex” her mind. She remembers the light in the gym and the ashtray in Mr. Morton’s office. As she approaches her home, she recalls a memory of the stones raining down on the house and a girl in a white bathing suit. Her mother has never talked about the stones.

A magazine article in 1980 contains an interview with Estelle Horan, who lived next door to the Whites when she was a teenager. Margaret frequently screamed at Estelle’s mother regarding the “show” Estelle put on while sunbathing. One day Estelle wakes up from a nap to find Carrie, then age three and very pretty, staring at her body. Carrie asks Estelle what “those” are, referring to Estelle’s breasts. Carrie says she wishes she had them, but her mother told her good girls don’t get them. Her mother has them because she was bad when she made Carrie, and she refers to her breasts as “dirtypillows.” Margaret comes out of the house and makes a noise that Estelle compares to a bull alligator. Then, Margaret begins to claw at her own flesh, and Carrie runs to her. Margaret is drooling and grinning, and Estelle hears them praying as they go inside. Later that day, stones rain down on their house.

Analysis: Part 1, Section 2

Because it is Miss Desjardin’s first year teaching, she doesn’t know anything about her students beyond what she has observed in gym class, so the group dynamics on display in the locker room must be nearly as shocking to her as they are to Carrie. Her roughness and impatience with Carrie suggest that she holds the girl in the same contempt that Carrie’s peers do, but as a young adult, she is able to pivot away from these feelings more quickly than her students. Just as Sue is the first person to intuit that this is Carrie’s first period, Miss Desjardin is the first to realize that Carrie is totally unfamiliar with the concept of menstruation.

In the next few scenes, Carrie begins to realize that she has the ability to claim control over her life. Her peers have often taunted her with cruel nicknames, so when Mr. Morton twice calls her by an incorrect name, it is the last straw for Carrie. At this point, she hasn’t yet made the connection between her scream of frustration and the movement of the ashtray, but she does express her raw and vulnerable feelings about always being victimized. This admission sets off a domino effect and as Carrie walks home, she ponders the indignities of her life. These day-to-day banalities stand in sharp contrast to the Day of Judgment, which she also contemplates. As Carrie reflects on the day, she begins to realize that she may have affected the gym light and the ashtray involuntarily, but when she knocks the boy off his bike on purpose, she gets her first sense of the scope of her TK abilities.

The story of Estelle sheds light on Carrie’s sheltered upbringing and Margaret’s extreme peculiarities. This is the first time we learn that Margaret thinks that women’s bodies are dirty, and clearly she hides her own body from her young daughter and seeks to instill these same beliefs in Carrie. The act of clawing her own face is not only a show of self-flagellation in front of an angry god, but her scourging is also an attempt to destroy her own body. Margaret is in a heightened state and has seemingly lost control of her physical composure, but she also knows that she can manipulate Carrie by harming herself. The reader can only guess what happens inside the house before the stones rain down, but what Estelle does see hints at how shocking the events could be and foreshadows events to come.

Previous section Part 1, Section 1 Next section Part 1, Section 3