Carrie

Carrie is title protagonist of Stephen King’s first published novel, Carrie, in 1974, which was made into a memorable movie in 1976, starring Sissy Spacek, with many adaptations since. Carrie is a shy and innocent teenager who has been raised by her over-the-top religious fanatic of a mother. Outcast at school, she discovers that she has powers of telekinesis with the onset of her menses. Oh, you bad boys and girls of Bates High School (that name can’t be a coincidence!) – watch out! Carrie is the subject of a benevolent plot by Sue, who sets her up with her own boyfriend to go to the prom and be named Prom Queen, and a malicious plot by Chris, who conspires to ruin the prom experience for Carrie with the help of a little pig’s blood. No good or bad deed goes unpunished by Carrie, who turns her considerable powers upon the high school, her mother, and indeed, the entire town, making just about everyone sorry they got out of bed that morning. Carrie is a formidable young woman, and though she comes to her own sorry end, we can be sure that is not the end of her. And here’s the thing about Carrie – we are rooting for her every step of the way.

Caroline “Carrie” Meeber is the title character of Theodore Dreiser’s great novel of realism, "Sister Carrie," published in 1900. Young “Sister Carrie” is a humble but aspiring Midwest girl who comes to the big city, Chicago, to seek a better life. At first, living with her sister and her sister’s husband in a dreary flat and toiling at a shoe factory, she sticks to the straight and narrow path she has been raised to respect, but it doesn’t take much to turn her eye to the larger, luxurious world afforded her by the first of her illicit lovers, Drouet. Although she struggles with the implications of her new life, fur muffs and sirloin steaks ease her pain considerably. It is not long before she “graduates” to another lover, the hapless George Hurstwood, who leaves his wife and family, embezzles money, loses his job and ultimately becomes a virtual derelict in the service of Carrie. Our heroine, in the meantime, appalled by his spiraling fortunes, turns to the New York theater, gradually making a name for herself. She leaves Hurstwood and in her farewell note she gives him twenty dollars. A shocking character for her time, Sister Carrie is a woman who defies all social conventions in the name of personal comfort and then makes it on her own when the men in her life fail her. She does not suffer a damning downfall as a result of her perdition, but she is perhaps somewhat morally empty at the end of the day.

Julia Hurstwod figures in Theodore Dreiser’s famous 1900 novel, Sister Carrie. She is the wronged wife of the second married man with whom Carrie takes up. The first, the real, Mrs. Hurstwood, a savvy and cool social climber, is not one to take such things lying down. He leaves her and his children, but the financial consequences of doing so drive him to embezzlement and eventual ruin.

Caroline Meeber is the title character of Theodore Dreiser’s great novel of realism, "Sister Carrie," published in 1900. Young “Sister Carrie” is a humble but aspiring Midwest girl who comes to the big city, Chicago, to seek a better life. At first, living with her sister and her sister’s husband in a dreary flat and toiling at a shoe factory, she sticks to the straight and narrow path she has been raised to respect, but it doesn’t take much to turn her eye to the larger, luxurious world afforded her by the first of her illicit lovers, Drouet. Although she struggles with the implications of her new life, fur muffs and sirloin steaks ease her pain considerably. It is not long before she “graduates” to another lover, the hapless George Hurstwood, who leaves his wife and family, embezzles money, loses his job and ultimately becomes a virtual derelict in the service of Carrie. Our heroine, in the meantime, appalled by his spiraling fortunes, turns to the New York theater, gradually making a name for herself. She leaves Hurstwood and in her farewell note she gives him twenty dollars. A shocking character for her time, Sister Carrie is a woman who defies social convention in the name of personal comfort and then makes it on her own when the men in her life fail her. She does not suffer a damning downfall as a result of her perdition, but she is perhaps somewhat morally empty at the end of the day.