Genre
Horror
Setting and Context
The fictional town of Chamberlain, Maine, in 1979
Narrator and Point of View
There are three main narrators and no specific point of view giving a very well-rounded picture of events.
Tone and Mood
The tone is foreboding and vengeful. The mood is violent and terrifying.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Carrie White is the protagonist, while her bullies the antagonists.
Major Conflict
There is constant conflict between Carrie and her mother who frequently locks her in the closet for her perceived sins.
Climax
Carrie is killed at the end of the novel by her mother who stabs her in the shoulder, causing her to gradually bleed to death.
Foreshadowing
Carrie's discovery that she has telekinetic powers foreshadows the way in which she takes her revenge on the people who bullied her.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The narrative alludes to suspicions at the time of writing of military installations and the experimental work that was going on behind closed doors.
Imagery
The imagery is disturbing and violent There is a great deal of injury caused to the characters but the over-riding image created for the reader is that of blood, so much so that it is almost impossible to visualize the unfolding events without visualizing dark red blood as a backdrop.
Paradox
Carrie is the character who causes the most harm in the book; however, she is also the victim in that she would not have used her telekinetic powers to kill people had she not been bullied quite so brutally.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between Carrie's use of her telekinesis and the extreme degree to which she was bullied. The worse the bullying the more brutal the revenge.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The Prom is the way in which all of the prom attendees are described.
Personification
The high school is said to have bullied Carrie but this is not actually possible. The school is personified but it is actually the students within it who have done all the bullying.
