The Need for Love

Carrie is ultimately a story of a young girl that is in desperate need of acceptance and love. Carrie doesn't seek out people to hurt, but she looks for a way to protect herself. She didn't get any protection, or love, from her mother or from any of her teachers at school. Everyone seemed to look at Carrie and see the fact that she was pathetic and disgusting. It isn't until Tom Ross that someone sees her as beautiful. It is possible that Tom's death signified the death of the only person that had had a positive feeling about Carrie.

The reader will find at the end of the book that Carrie cared for her mother even though her mother had tried to kill her more than once. Carrie had been alone and frightened. The gym teacher, Miss Desjardin, explains in her letter to the...