Carrie Part 1, Section 6 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Part 1, Section 6

On Monday morning, Principal Gayle is in his office with Mr. Morton, who is shocked that Tommy asked Carrie to prom. Principal Grayle suspects that Sue put Tommy up to it. He expresses concern about what Chris might be planning now that her father is no longer threatening to sue. An excerpt from The Shadow Exploded notes that like the bleeding disorder hemophilia, an affliction affecting royal families, the gene for TK is recessive. Hemophilia primarily presents in males, while TK presents primarily in females. If Carrie had been born male she would be a carrier of the gene without TK abilities. The paper goes on to compare a female with the TK gene to Typhoid Mary, capable of mass destruction.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sue and the other students on the prom’s decoration committee work on a mural. Helen Shyre asks Sue about Tommy and Carrie, and when Sue confirms that this is her attempt to redeem herself, Helen wonders where that leaves the rest of the group. Sue worries that the others think she is stuck up, and Helen confirms dispassionately that Chris and her “scuzzy” boyfriend Billy hate Sue. Sue ponders that she will never again be the “golden girl” among her peers because she has let them see her true self.

In Sue’s autobiography, she notes that Billy’s friends Kenny Garson, Steve Deighan, and Jackie Talbot were mostly petty criminals of very limited intelligence. She understands why Billy went along with Chris but is at a loss for words about Chris herself. She concludes that Chris’ only motive for aligning herself with this criminal band and moving forward with her plan was to completely destroy Carrie.

In another area of the gym, Chris cajoles Tina Black into walking away so that she can sneak a look at the seating plan for prom; she is outraged to see Tommy and Carrie listed together. She also finds ballots for prom King and Queen and laughs involuntarily when she sees the pair listed there as well. Tina returns and warns Chris that Norma Watson is headed their way. Chris grins as she strolls out, then goes to call Billy.

Billy speeds toward Henty’s farm in his rusted out, pumped up old car. Jackie Talbot, Henry Blake, Steve Deighan, and Kenny and Lou Garson are with him, and they are smoking the marijuana Billy gave them. The others believe that they are going to the farm to play a prank to avenge a friend whom old man Henty filled with birdshot after catching him stealing, but Billy thinks to himself that this is for Chris, for whom he’d commit murder. At the farm, they unpack an ice chest, two galvanized steel buckets, a sledgehammer, and a butcher knife. They head to the hog pen and Billy uses the sledgehammer to kill a sow. Lou slits the sow’s throat and its blood fills up all of the first bucket and half of the second. Billy kills the second sow and smiles, thinking to himself that Chris was right: pig blood for a pig.

Analysis: Part 1, Section 6

Unlike Sue’s heated encounter with Chris in Section 4, her conversation with Helen is uncomfortable but more of an honest exchange than an argument. When Helen asks Sue where her actions leave the rest of the group, she does so without anger, and the question highlights the fact that Sue has indeed separated herself from them. Given the clear perspective that Sue has of Chris, it is surprising that she is unaware of Chris’ hatred for her, and even though Helen is not confrontational with Sue, her words send Sue into another tailspin about her own self-image and the way that others perceive her. Meanwhile, Chris doesn’t care if Tina Black suspects that she’s up to something as long as she doesn’t get caught.

When two couples, Tommy and Sue, and Billy and Chris, attempt to settle scores with Carrie, their actions indicate their very different interpretations of what it means to make things right and highlight major differences in their moral codes. Billy lets the others believe a facetious excuse about settling a different score as the reason for their prank, so he must have some notion of how awful the errand is. Unlike Sue, his concern is not how his peers perceive him, as he is clearly the group leader. In addition, Billy is enough of seasoned criminal to know to cover his steps. Despite the danger that could befall him if old man Henty catches him on the farm literally red-handed, Billy takes the added and unnecessary step of killing the second sow. One conclusion to draw from this is that he does so because he enjoys the act of violence. Another explanation is his attraction to Chris and desire to please her. In her autobiography, Sue concludes that Chris also appears to be motivated by an attraction to violence. As the first person to stop herself in the midst of tormenting Carrie, Sue cannot imagine any other reason for Chris’ behavior.

In Section 6, King uses the excerpt from The Shadow Exploded to compare historical figures and their own diseases. The article’s comparison between a female with TK and Typhoid Mary is apt with regard to the potential for destruction, but it fails to note that Typhoid Mary was not aware of the fact that she was a carrier of the disease. Hemophilia and TK share no commonalities save for their genetic-recessive nature, but perhaps the paper’s authors cannot resist highlighting it because of the parallels between a rare blood disorder and the rare abilities that Carrie taps once her blood begins to flow. Unlike the hemophiliacs of yore, Carrie is not a member of the royal family, but her name is on the ballot to become Prom Queen, highlighting the similarities between Carrie and others with diseases.