[Editorial] Blood and Monsters: Coming of Age in Carrie (1976) and IT (1990)

Trigger warning for physical and sexual abuse.

This article contains discussion and spoilers for Carrie (1976) and IT (1990).

Coming-of-age stories are something that Stephen King deals with in a lot of his work, as many of his novels feature younger protagonists facing off against evil forces of both the supernatural and human variety.

The Body (1982), which later became Stand By Me (1986), The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999), Christine (1983), and Doctor Sleep (2013) all look at growing up, dealing with bad guys, and realising the world is not always what it seems.

However, two of my favourite characters and coming-of-age stories from the King Universe are Carrie White from Carrie (1976) and Beverly Marsh from IT (1990). Even though these women are fighting very different battles in very different stories, their characters have a lot in common as they struggle through puberty, growing up, and the horrors around them.

Period Pains

The first and most obvious connection between Carrie and Beverly is the sheer amount of blood they have to deal with. When we first meet Carrie, she is showering after gym class at her high school when she gets her first period. Carrie’s mother, Margaret, is extremely religious and believes any sign of puberty or sexuality is a mark of sin, so she has never filled Carrie in on the way your body can change or what a period is. 

Carrie freaks out because she thinks she’s dying, and her classmates are so excited that they have yet another reason to make fun of her that they begin pelting her with tampons rather than explaining to her what is going on. 

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Eventually, it’s down to her gym teacher, Miss Collins, to fill in the gaps in Carrie’s knowledge, which leads her to understand why her mother hasn’t spoken to her about this before. Growing up, getting breasts, and raging hormones are all things that Margaret is terrified of, so there’s no chance she would have filled her daughter in on periods. She thinks that by ignoring any signs that her daughter is going through puberty, she can prevent her from growing up and being exposed to the horrors of the world. 

And when Carrie arrives home looking for comfort and an explanation from her mother, all she is met with is punishment, as she is forced into the closet to pray and try and repent for the sin which has caused her period in the first place. 

Carrie’s story starts with blood and ends with blood, as she is doused in a bucket of pig’s blood at prom by her bully Chris and her boyfriend Billy. Getting her period and the humiliation her peers put her through is what awakens Carrie’s telekinetic powers in the first place, and the pig’s blood pushes her over the edge as she uses her powers to kill almost everyone around her. 

And Carrie isn’t the only one who ends up bathed in blood, as Beverly finds herself in a very similar situation when she faces off against Pennywise and her greatest fear. For the other members of the Losers’ Club, their fears are more simple. Ritchie is scared of werewolves, Bill is still grieving his dead brother, and Eddie’s mother has made the world around him seem like a terrifying place. But when Beverly gets her one-on-one time with Pennywise, she is greeted with a bathroom sink full of blood. 

This may seem relatively tame compared to some of the other encounters, as the blood can’t hurt Beverly, but is an indication of a much darker fear lurking within her. Much like Carrie, Beverly has to deal with a controlling parent with her father, Al. And while it’s not touched on as much in the miniseries as it is in the 1986 novel, Al’s abuse of Beverly seems to be escalating from physical and emotional abuse to the sexual side of things. 

Al constantly reminds Beverly that she is his little girl, and as she starts to grow up, he worries about her spending more time with her male friends. And her impending puberty brings its own set of worries where her father’s intentions are involved. While most of the children in Derry are scared of fictional monsters, Beverly is terrified of the one sharing a house with her. 

The wave of blood that explodes over her bathroom is a reminder that her period and womanhood are looming on the horizon and there’s nothing Beverly can do to stop it. Beverly tries to keep herself safe from her father as much as possible, but it’s clear she’s terrified of what will happen once he views her as a grown woman. 

And while her father paints the male Losers as the thing she should be worried about, it’s them who come round and help Beverly to clean up the blood which she can’t get rid of on her own. Parents not being able to see the full extent of the evil going on is nothing new in Derry, but the fact Al cannot see the blood has a much darker reason behind it. Not only is he blind to the way he’s been treating Beverly, but he’s also completely unaware of her worries and her trauma. He can’t see what doesn’t concern him directly, and so he moves around the bathroom like it isn’t dripping in blood. 

The other Losers see the blood right away not only because they share a certain trauma with Beverly and understand her fears, but because they listen to her. They believe her, both about Pennywise and the way her father treats her. Her growing up won’t change how they feel about her, and it only further shows how terrible a person her father is for the way he treats her.

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Controlling Parents

Both Carrie and Beverly are stuck in very extreme situations because they are only children living with one very controlling parent. Carrie’s father died before the film began, and while Beverly’s mother is alive in the novel, she was omitted from the miniseries version to further emphasise the horrors she has to face at the hands of Al. 

Everyone around both women seems to be aware of the toxic environment they live in, but no one is really willing to step in and do anything to change the situation. Carrie and Beverly live in low-income families in the less-desirable area of town, and no one wants to meddle in their business. Especially because parents are often seen to know best about their children’s affairs.

Of course, no one knows the full extent of the abuse that Carrie and Beverly face when they head home from school at the end of the day. Carrie is locked in a closet to pray for hours on end to try and save her soul. Beverly is forced to act as a surrogate wife for Al because he is unable to look after the house and himself without her assistance. Carrie and Beverly are forced into these very strict roles their parents have designed for them. They are both striving to have some control over their life. And even though it takes extreme circumstances to make it happen, both of them finally manage to stand up to their parents and fight for the life they deserve.

School Bullies

As is so often the case when dealing with high schoolers, Carrie and Beverly both have to deal with very extreme bullies who only add to the misery of their already terrible lives. While the whole school seems to have a problem with Carrie, it’s Chris in particular who decides to make her life a living hell. 

After the tampon-throwing stunt, and Chris refusing to take her punishment for it, she ends up getting banned from prom. Instead of reflecting on the choices which lead her to this point, Chris decides to blame Carrie and take revenge on her. 

She sees this poor, downtrodden young woman with no friends and only thinks of ways to make her life worse simply because Chris cannot deal with the consequences of her actions. And while Chris hopes to knock any fight out of Carrie with her pig’s blood attack, it’s actually the thing which gives Carrie full control of her power.

For Beverly, her bullies are Henry Bowers and his group of lackeys. While they seem intent on hurting and eventually murdering the male members of the Losers’ Club, with Beverly Henry has far more sexual intentions. Even outside of the home, Beverly cannot escape being viewed by men in this way. While she has never been a pushover, she does realise that she needs to stand up for herself as much as possible or she’s never going to be able to escape the way the men of Derry treat her. 

Both Carrie and Beverly have spent so much time being the constant butt of the joke and on the receiving end of violence, but they have never let it break them. In both cases, it inspires them to be stronger and to take back some control in their life rather than lying down and letting the bad guys win.

Super Powers

When it comes to the final battles in both Carrie and IT, it’s Carrie and Beverly who use their powers and their strength to take down the bad guys. For Carrie, her superpowers are a little more literal as she uses her telekinetic powers to destroy the gym, kill her classmates, and finally win the fight against her mother.

This is the only way Carrie can make herself heard. Her mother doesn’t listen to her logic, her teachers can barely remember her name, and most of her schoolmates probably didn’t even know who she was until she was on the school stage covered in blood. It’s got to the point where her extreme course of action is the only way Carrie can stand up to her bullies and her mother. They aren’t interested in having a normal relationship with Carrie. Chris would never forgive her for being the reason she missed prom, and as she grows older, her mother is sure to make Carrie’s life more difficult. Even though Carrie dies in the process, she wins her fight against all those who wronged her before she goes. She ensures that she will always be remembered, and highlights the wrongs of those who abused her in the process.

For Beverly, her power is more related to her skills with a slingshot. With only knowledge of horror movies to help them defeat Pennywise, the Losers decide to use a pair of silver earrings in the place of silver bullets as part of their plan. Everyone has a shot of the slingshot to make sure they pick the person with the best aim before they head into the sewers, and Beverly is the only person to hit every target with ease. 

And when they finally face Pennywise, and Stan’s life hangs in the balance, Beverly manages to focus, hit her mark, and knock a chunk out of the clown’s head. And while Pennywise doesn’t die after this encounter, he’s severely weakened, and finally views the Losers as a real threat, causing him to go into hiding for 27 years. 

When they are adults, it’s again up to Beverly to save the day when Ben, Bill, and Ritchie end up mesmerised by the deadlights. Beverly once again uses her amazing aim to fire an earring into the spider creature’s deadlights. Not only does she save her friends, but she also finishes the business she started all those years ago. “It was like it was supposed to be, Bev”, Ben comments, and it’s true. Beverly was the one to take the last shot at Pennywise during both fights, and it’s thanks to her that its cycle ended once and then forever.

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