Carrie vs. Stir of Echoes, a comparison of both novels

Essay by b_salvador17High School, 12th gradeA, April 2004

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In various works of fiction, many similarities and differences can be found within novels of the same genre. In Carrie by Stephen King, Carrie White is a mysterious young girl, who is an outsider at school. She possesses telekinetic powers which she eventually uses to attain revenge on her classmates. In Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson, Tom Wallace lives an ordinary life until a chance event awakens psychic powers he never knew he possessed. He begins being able to see into people's minds and in the end, he ends up discovering the true murderer of a lady named Helen Driscoll, whose ghost keeps visiting him during the hours of darkness. Both characters have supernatural abilities; however they contrast each other in the way that Tom uses his powers for the sake of good while Carrie uses hers for the sake of evil, furthermore, the novels are similar in the way that both contain characters which appear innocent but in reality hold dark secrets which deeply affect others, and lastly both works contain numerous allusions to a variety of Shakespearean works.

The contrast of good versus evil is evident throughout both pieces of literature. In Carrie, Carrie uses her paranormal abilities to get vengeance on her classmates who taunt her and eventually push her over the edge on prom night "It was time to teach them a lesson. Time to show them a thing or two" (King 193). Carrie can no longer stand the

Salvador 2 abuse and finally loses her sanity. This is significant because it is the teasing and the anguish that Carrie's classmates put her through which cause her to go on a destructive

rampage throughout the town. This is her attempt at putting everybody through the torment which she was put through. In Stir of...