Carrie

I recently watched the remake of the movie Carrie. The casting was terrible and the script even worse, so I thought I would go back and watch the original of a great horror movie. Interestingly as I watched the film I was struck with the Jehovah’s Witness overtones and metaphors that saturated the movie. The mother was an evangelical that isolated her daughter from the “world” at large thinking they were basically bad influence or bad association. This is a constant to any JW child as from birth they are taught an “us against them” mentality. That everyone not of their faith will surely be killed by God. In the movie the mother calls at the home of one of Carries school mates and leaves literature to put them on the path to serving the Lord. Sound familiar? Even the donation that was accepted came across as so much a familiar part of door to door work of the JWs. The mother was a brutal disciplinarian and often locked Carrie in a closet for punishment. JWs are taught the familiar scripture, “In case you beat him with the rod he will not die”. So beatings and many other forms of brutality are employed to keep kids obedient.

A deeper aspect was the bullying from school mates. As a JW child you are forbidden to participate in holidays, sports, school clubs or events, salute the flag or any patriotic event. This makes you an outsider and not able to fit in. Most youth are very cruel and when they discover that you are not allowed to fightback as part of your religious belief then every classmate becomes a potential bully. You survive by being a loner and staying out of everyone’s way as the only way to get along with the least amount of trouble. 

On occasion a teacher or popular student takes pity on your screwed up life and tries to help. In the film a girl felt bad for the way she treated Carrie so she had her boyfriend invite her to the prom. I never went to the prom and always wondered what it would have been like. If the most popular girl in school had asked me to attend I cannot even comprehend the rush of emotions as the thought of possibly feeling some type of acceptance and yet the terror that it might be some type of cruel joke or betrayal. In the movie this all played out for Carrie as she tried to back out and even at the last moment was so fearful of going inside. I could feel her emotions at the thought of ever experiencing something like that as a JW teen. There was a moment when dancing and finally being elected the Queen of the prom you could see her guard go down and she finally believing that she could be just accepted as a normal person by the group of her peers.

Of course Carrie’s mom told her they would all betray her and laugh at her before she left. This is a common theme to all JW youth as they are constantly told that all young people outside the organization are of Satan’s world and must be feared as bad association and never to be trusted.

Then the moment happened one of the youth did betray her. A bucket of blood was dumped on her in front of everyone. I think of times when a young JW girl was given attention by a non member boy. As in the movie the girl is totally unprepared for how things work outside the religion. JW girls are taught that men are authority figures and to be obeyed. You never say no to a male. Can you see how this plays out? JW girls are often seduced as they are not given the skills to know how to say no to a man. This often is a problem when women leave the organization as they often get taken advantage of by worldly men who are just being men. When this happens as in the movie, Carrie felt everyone was making fun of her and were in on the betrayal. In fact it was just a few misguided people but to Carrie it was confirmation of her mother’s prophecy that they would trick her. Many times for JW youth they feel much the same way and feel Satan’s world tricked them into bad conduct and that everyone was in on it as part of the bad old world. Like Carrie they run back to Mother for comfort and safety. 

Yet in the world of JWs, as in the movie, there is no redemption when you break the rules. For Carrie’s mother she felt Carrie was a witch and thus needed to be executed for exercising her freedom and rebellion against her wishes. The JWs use a scripture n the old law that says if a child is rebellious they are to be stoned to death with the parent casting the first stone. In the move Carrie’s mother with a smile on her face attempted to kill her with a butcher knife. Much similar when a youth has been taken advantage of and beaten up by those outside the religion the solution is “Disfellowshipping”, a complete cutting off and being disowned by all members including family. With smiles on their faces they shun and pretend you never existed saying it is their measure of love to treat you in this way. Carrie reacted by executing her mother with the knives intended for her,and yet how often are those shunned forced to execute their love and association for all member family and friends in order to find some type of sanity. You fight for this sanity and try to move on with your life but at certain moments you cannot help but be overwhelmed at the enormity of being executed and cast out by those that brought you into this life. There was a line in the movie when Carrie was at the prom and her date asked her how she felt. Her comment was, “I feels like I am on Mars.” How many ex JWs have made the same comment in describing how they feel when they are on their own and outside the organization. The programming runs so deep you never feel like you socially fit in when in situations where you have to interact with groups of people. Interestingly you have the ability to walk up on the stage and give an amazing presentation but when you walk off the stage you are back on Mars. 

When Carrie discovered she had killed her mother her only contact with familiarity that she had known in her life, then she lost her reason to live. She pulled her mother in the closet and brought the house down on them ending her life. So too with many ex JWs that fail to break the programming, they take all these amazing stands of strength and power of will to try and find a normal life but the loss overwhelms them and in a moment of despair they commit suicide ending the emotional pain wrought by the religion.

I think the movie Carrie would be a good metaphorical film to be viewed by all ex JWs and have open discussions on the points made in the movie. The writer of this film had to have some knowledge of Jehovah’s Witnesses and wrote a powerful piece on isolation, alienation, betrayal, and despair of living in a one dimensional world. 

Carrie did not survive for her the only solution was ending her life rather than face isolation and the feeling of having no one to truly trust. She became the Frankenstein created by her situation. Ex JWs have to come to grips with the reality that it is not an “us against them” world. True there are bad people out there that hurt others as a matter of recourse and yet there are many good individuals that can help with healing and developing real trust that truly give unconditional love. We all know of special friends that ended up like Carrie and all we can do is hope that better assistance can be given to give those outside, help them know they are not isolated, that we understand and can point them in a direction so that they can move forward with hope. While it is true, you may never feel completely normal due to your experience, you can find real friends that will never turn their backs on you and use religion as a basis to betray your love.