Carrie Part 1, Section 4 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Part 1, Section 4

“The girls dressed quietly for their Monday morning Period One gym class …”

Carrie is absent from gym class on Monday, and Miss Desjardin chides the girls. She asks Chris if she plans to give a bloody napkin to her date to the Spring Ball. Miss Desjardin slams Chris into a locker when Chris tries to storm past her and uses an obscenity to describe what the group of girls did to Carrie. She asks if any of the girls had stopped to think about how Carrie felt and tells them they are all ugly. Their punishment is one week’s detention in the gym, and skipping a day will result in suspension and forfeiture of their prom tickets.

On Friday, Chris’ father, prominent attorney John Hargensen, visits the school principal, Henry Grayle. Mr. Hargensen tells Principal Grayle that Chris is at home completing her suspension and that he will sue the school unless Principal Grayle reinstates her prom tickets and fires Miss Desjardin at the end of the year. Principal Grayle details what Chris did to Carrie, lists her many disciplinary infractions, and points out a pattern of Chris tormenting people with physical afflictions; he threatens to file charges against Chris for abuse if Mr. Hargensen goes to court.

On Monday afternoon, Sue waits for Tommy at the soda fountain at Kelly Fruit Company. She sees Chris there with Billy Nolan and wonders why a popular girl like her would be involved with a greaser. Chris tells Sue that she’s been banned from prom but might crash it anyway. She is angry at Sue for not walking out on Miss Desjardin’s lecture and blames Carrie for her punishment. Sue calls Chris out for not letting up on Carrie sooner but feels like a hypocrite for going to detention so that she can attend prom. Sue walks back to school and imagines herself as a phony nice girl who only has sex with the boy she hopes to marry, and she cries.

On May 17, Carrie sits in the rocker in her room and imagines sweeping away those who tormented her as if she were sweeping them under a rug. She practices flexing, first with a hairbrush and then with her bed. The effort with heavy objects physically drains her. Before she goes to sleep, she thinks about witches, and later dreams of huge stones seeking out everyone who has tormented her, including her momma.

In an excerpt from her 1986 autobiography, My Name is Susan Snell, Sue establishes the “fundamental fact” that in 1979, she, Carrie, and their classmates were all kids. She points out that older kids react in ways that are more “socially acceptable” than younger kids but still make bad decisions. She notes that this is easy to forget in the wake of two hundred deaths and the destruction of an entire town and points out that the White Commission did not believe her story.

Analysis: Part 1, Section 4

Margaret relishes punishing Carrie because she believes that punishment is a necessary step toward atonement, and while the other adults in the book do not take blatant satisfaction in meting out discipline, they certainly embrace the joys of revenge. Miss Desjardin did not allow herself to acknowledge the pleasure that she derived from slapping Carrie on Friday, but on Monday she embraces with gusto the pleasure she gets from rebuking Carrie’s attackers. Her remarks are pointed and personal, and as a young woman, she is close enough to her teenage years to know how to make them sting. When Chris attempts to dodge her verbal arrows, Miss Desjardin resorts to physical force. Just as the girls ensnared Carrie with their gaze on Friday, Miss Desjardin follows her animal instincts and does whatever she deems necessary to tame the herd. The repercussions from her actions, which go far beyond the realm of normal behavior for a teacher, are swift.

Chris and Sue’s reactions to their punishments are the first clue to how different they are, despite being in the same peer group. Getting kicked out of prom does not sit well with Chris, and just as her father attempts to seek retribution from Miss Desjardin rather than taking a long, hard look at his daughter’s character, Chris blames everyone except herself. Sue, on the other hand, has begun to martyr herself for her role in this group activity, and her overabundance of self-awareness leads her to label herself as a hypocrite for doing so. Just as she fears that Tommy will think less of her for her unkind actions, she fears that Chris judges her for trying to make amends. Unlike the emotional connection in Section 3 that led to deeper intimacy with Tommy, her honest words with Chris highlight the growing schism between the two.

In her autobiography—the mention of which lets the reader know that Sue will survive—an adult Sue is a bit easier on herself and the other girls. By establishing the “fundamental fact” of their youth, she hints at the judgment that follows in the aftermath of events to come, judgment that will come in part from a previously unmentioned White Commission. Just as the article excerpt involving Ruth Gogan in Section 1 lets readers know that there will be a catastrophic incident, this excerpt divulges the scope but not the specifics of the death and destruction.

Previous section Part 1, Section 3 Next section Part 1, Section 5