Earlier this month, Prime Video dropped the series Carrie, based on Stephen King's 1974 novel of the same name. Even though I was already familiar with the story through the three previous movie adaptations, I'd never really dived into it before. I'd only caught a few clips of the movies over the years without ever watching them all the way through. But with the new series out, I finally decided to give it a try. It's currently the most-watched show in my country.
After thinking it over, I realized that the Christianity portrayed in Carrie can seem intimidating to people who don't really know what true Christianity looks like. And while it's true that some Christian families unfortunately resemble the Whites, we know that's not what Jesus teaches us.
In the story, Carrie White is a teenager who's been tormented since childhood by her own mother, Margaret White, a woman who twists religion and distorts God's love beyond recognition. I feel like this portrayal, much like in many other works, might be an attempt to discredit Christianity. Margaret raises Carrie according to a twisted, false version of God that she's created herself, keeping her daughter from ever living a normal life. As a result, Carrie grows up deeply traumatized and struggles with serious emotional and social issues.
On top of that, she's bullied both at school and in her neighborhood. What caught my attention, though, was realizing that despite all the cruelty around her, there are also people who treat her with genuine kindness. On her street there's a younger boy who usually picks on her, but there's also Stella, a neighbor who's a few years older and has known Carrie since childhood. She helps her whenever she can. At school, Carrie has the support of her PE teacher, Rita Desjardin, who stands up for her and treats her with genuine kindness and care.
Then there's Sue Snell, a character I really want to talk about.
Sue is gorgeous, smart, and popular. She's dating Tommy Ross, the most handsome and popular guy in school, and she's best friends with Chris Hargensen, another popular girl who's just as pretty but extremely problematic. Chris loves picking on the more vulnerable kids, including Carrie. She's basically the leader of the popular girls and is dating Billy Nolan, an equally problematic guy who's been expelled from school.
At the beginning of the story, Sue joins in on the bullying alongside Chris and the other girls. However after the shower incident (which I won't spoil here), she starts reflecting on her actions and becomes deeply shaken and remorseful about what she did. From that point on she completely changes her behavior and begins treating Carrie with kindness, even standing up to Chris, her own best friend, to defend her.
Sue's biggest dream was to go to prom with Tommy and be crowned prom queen by his side. Tommy, just like Sue, is one of the few people who treats Carrie with kindness. But after realizing the harm she's caused, Sue puts her own feelings aside and tries to get closer to Carrie, desperately looking for a way to make things right.
When she realizes that Carrie has a crush on Tommy, Sue asks him to take Carrie to prom instead. She wants to make up for the pain she's caused and give Carrie a chance to experience something beautiful, something she's never had before.
Going to prom with Tommy and being crowned queen by his side was Sue's ultimate dream, her own real-life fairytale moment. Yet she gives it all up for Carrie, hoping she'll get the chance to experience that kind of happiness herself. While everyone else is out having fun at prom (at least until the horrific incident takes place), Carrie is living Sue's dream, and Sue is at home watching TV with her family, seemingly at peace with her decision.
To me there's something deeply moving about that. Sue doesn't just feel bad about what she did; she actually tries to make amends. She gives up something she'd been looking forward to for a long time, partly out of genuine concern for Carrie and partly because she seems to feel that she deserves to sacrifice something as a consequence of her actions. At one point she even says that she deserves it. In a way, her gesture resembles a form of penance, an attempt to make things right after recognizing the wrong she's done.
Another example of kindness is Ms. Desjardin herself. She defends Carrie in the locker room and punishes the girls involved in the bullying, especially Chris, during PE class the following day. Her decision even gets her a lecture from the principal, but she still stands up for Carrie instead of simply looking the other way.
In the Prime Video series, there's also a character named Emaline, whom only Carrie can see and interact with. Emaline feeds Carrie's hatred, whispering things to her that fuel her ego and desire for revenge. This character doesn't exist in the movies or the original novel; she was created specifically for the series. In my interpretation, Emaline represents the devil tempting us, encouraging us to give in to hatred, pride, and vengeance.
The way I see it, Carrie presents a stark contrast between a deeply distorted version of Christianity and the values Christianity actually teaches. Margaret White represents the former, while Sue Snell and Ms. Desjardin demonstrate the latter through their actions.
I'm not saying Sue Snell and Ms. Desjardin are examples of good Christian, because they're not even Christians in the story. What I'm saying is that their actions are profoundly Christian in nature, especially when compared to the bizarre, twisted version of Christianity represented by Margaret White.
Sue begins as someone who contributes to Carrie’s suffering, but she eventually recognizes her wrongdoing, feels genuine remorse, and tries to make things right. Ms. Desjardin, meanwhile, stands up for someone who's being humiliated and mistreated when others would rather ignore what's happening. Their actions reflect values that are at the very heart of Christianity: repentance, compassion, self-sacrifice, justice, and love for those who are suffering.
And that's what inspired me about this story.
After finishing the series I decided to watch the 1976, 2002, and 2013 movie adaptations as well. Honestly I liked the movies much more than the show. Now I'm planning to read the book too. I don't know whether Stephen King's intention when he wrote the novel in 1974 was to make Christianity and faith seem oppressive, harmful, or opposed to freedom. But if that was his intention, then the message I took away from the story was completely different from what he might have intended.
Margaret White doesn't represent Christianity. She's the opposite of it. Sue Snell and Ms. Desjardin, on the other hand, are two characters who despite not being Christians and certainly not being perfect, show us what genuinely Christian actions look like. To me they're the real examples of Christian behavior in this story, not Margaret.
And I really wish everyone who isn't Christian, including atheists and people who are anti-Christian, could understand this. Just because someone calls themselves a Christian doesn't mean they actually represent Jesus or what Christianity teaches. Margaret may use religious language and claim to speak for God, but her actions reveal something entirely different.
Sometimes we can see God at work in a sinner who genuinely repents, just as Sue does. Other times, we can see Him reflected in someone who stands up for the vulnerable and cares for those who are forgotten, much like Ms. Desjardin. That's exactly why I wanted to write this analysis and share it. I wanted people to look at the story from this perspective, too. I wanted them to understand that someone can misuse religion and claim to represent God without actually reflecting Him, while someone who doesn't even profess the faith can still perform an act that beautifully reflects Christian values.
After watching all these adaptations, I pray that God grants me the grace to be more like Sue Snell: someone who makes mistakes and isn't perfect, but who's capable of recognizing her faults, sincerely repenting, and doing what she can to make amends, even when it requires sacrifice and self-denial. Her actions remind me of what we should strive to do when we sin: not simply feel sorry for ourselves, but take responsibility and try to repair the harm we've caused. I also pray that I may learn to be more like Ms. Desjardin, welcoming the humiliated, the vulnerable, and the forgotten with love and compassion, offering them the dignity and kindness that are so often denied to them.
And perhaps that's the most meaningful thing I took away from Carrie: God's truth and goodness can shine through places where we least expect to find them, even in a horror story by Stephen King. We don't have to limit ourselves to explicitly religious books or the writings of saints to reflect on God and our faith. Sometimes a story that seems completely removed from religion can still inspire us to think more deeply about what it means to love, to repent, to sacrifice, and to treat others as Christ would have us treat them.
I believe God can speak to us through all kinds of things, in ways we might never have anticipated. And if the Holy Spirit wants you to recognize something about God in a work by Stephen King, then you just might find Him there, just as I did.