I just read Stephen King's "Carrie". I have a Doubt

Submitted by Varun_shiroyasha t3_zv1c3n in books

Carrie's father Ralph White died before she was born. His Father as said in the book died seven months before her birth, but later on in the book it was said that when Margaret White tried to kill Carrie before she was even a year old, Ralph stopped her. How is that possible? Did I miss an important point or misunderstood something in the book? I literally stopped reading at the point when ralph stopped Margaret from killing Carrie and started recalling everything I know about Ralph and even read few starting pages in the book (regarding Ralph's death). I didn't search the internet at that point because I thought I might encounter spoilers. I finished the book; I think this must be a Plot hole or a writing error. Someone please help me on this one

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hobbitdude13 t1_j1mj54x wrote

Sometimes a continuity error is just a continuity error

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[deleted] t1_j1mqbw7 wrote

[deleted]

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jellyrollo t1_j1nl14x wrote

Carrie was Stephen King's first published novel, written when he was living in a trailer in Hermon, Maine (aka "the armpit of Maine") with his wife Tabitha and two children, and teaching English at Hampden Academy. He was already an alcoholic when he wrote it, but he didn't get introduced to cocaine until a few years later, when he started attending Hollywood parties.

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left4ched t1_j1op7de wrote

"Steve, this is Cocaine. Cocaine, Steve."

"Nice to meet you, Cocaine. I can tell we're going to be good friends."

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the_SpiritofChaos t1_j1o3jue wrote

I always understood that as the mom lying about the father dying.

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UnexpectedEdges t1_j1olm7a wrote

Same. I came to the conclusion she lied and that he left her because she was nuts.

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mirrorspirit t1_j1onywq wrote

That was the movie, or rather the sequel of the movie to explain how Carrie ended up having a half sister.

Book isn't connected to that. At the end they show evidence of another telekinetic girl, but there's no stated familial link between her and Carrie.

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WholeBeautiful4194 t1_j1oqwsj wrote

Yes, but you can also have doubts on whether her mother was telling the truth there. There's no proof one way or the other that he is alive or dead beyond her mother's word, which isn't very good.

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GanjalfTheVirescent t1_j1mjqcv wrote

Good callout. Also I could tell by your use of "doubt" instead of "question" that you're a fellow Indian :)

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fbluntson t1_j1mmgtm wrote

What's up with that? Noticed this in college.

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imnotbovvered t1_j1mn15l wrote

Actually, there’s no particular reason for it. It’s just something particular to the dialect of Indian English.

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H2OZdrone t1_j1njsqd wrote

Colombian wife who works a lot with Mexicans and has me proofread; they use “doubts” rather than “questions” as well. Occasionally “Kindly” rather than the expected “please”

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[deleted] t1_j1obubz wrote

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pollenhuffer69 t1_j1ol429 wrote

My grandparents and dad used to use that phrase too. But not remotely Indian! I love it - might resurrect it. Thanks for the reminder!

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pseudocultist t1_j1ooiao wrote

I have tried using 'kindly' as I love bringing weird turns of phrase back. But people do not seem to hear it warmly, rather some people bristle. I think its usage tends to denote some sarcastic exasperation. "Kindly be quiet!" Sort of curt and bitchy. The best I can get is with "thank you kindly" which most people seem to receive well.

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pollenhuffer69 t1_j1ooqvd wrote

Kindly unhand me, sir! Good day to you, sir; I say, good day!

I use ‘thank you, kindly’ a lot.

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Alaira314 t1_j1p5kjj wrote

"Do the needful" is such a useful phrase. I don't use it because I don't want to be mistaken for mocking(which I've definitely seen happen, with that phrase specifically...there's unfortunately a lot of animosity toward Indian outsourcing in the tech industry), but it's such a concise way to communicate "do whatever thing has to be done to make this work right."

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fbluntson t1_j1no9wf wrote

I find this stuff so interesting, it's not "wrong" it's just noticeable. A lot of my Easter European professors in college would use "famous" to mean "aforementioned", which actually kinda works!

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ulyssesjack t1_j1osyw2 wrote

Stop, would you kindly? Sit, would you kindly? Stand, would you kindly? Run! Stop! Turn. A man chooses, a slave obeys. Kill! A man chooses! A slave obeys! OBEY!

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Robobvious t1_j1mprdp wrote

I think just the most direct translation, fainting in French would be falling into apples. Where some cultures have a specific word for something others might have a phrase so direct translations don’t work out quite the way people think they will.

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FartyMcGee__ t1_j1oibd7 wrote

Are you pulling my leg?

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Robobvious t1_j1ozoh8 wrote

I read it on reddit yesterday so it may not be true but I have no real reason to believe they were lying at that instant.

…wait, is that a joke? Because pulling my leg wouldn’t translate well to other languages? If so that’s clever.

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cokakatta t1_j1ofpyt wrote

I'm an American programmer and my heart would sink whenever a 'doubt' came up. Eventually I learned that it wasn't anything to worry about.

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GanjalfTheVirescent t1_j1okcej wrote

I'm a programmer too, that's where the difference was first pointed out to me :)

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Varun_shiroyasha OP t1_j1mn4dh wrote

Well it wasn't question really since I was doubtful whether I missed some important in the story. But yes, Indians do use the word doubt more often as we have done the same in our schools.

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c_b0t t1_j1om3b3 wrote

I've primarily encountered it with people from Brazil.

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[deleted] t1_j1nf05t wrote

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7ootles t1_j1ntn6o wrote

Do we? Not something I've ever sat down and counted up.

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tsunami141 t1_j1olrcw wrote

Guys stop downvoting, it’s obvious that this person is from England, so it follows that they’re obviously also Indian.

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wauve1 t1_j1mhgs4 wrote

Afaik this is either a plot hole or a hallucination on Margaret’s part. I don’t remember there being any good reason for this

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croninsiglos t1_j1mhkva wrote

It could be the thought of Ralph that stopped her.

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Varun_shiroyasha OP t1_j1mifmx wrote

I thought of that possibility but since it did not explicitly say it was the reason that confused me so much.

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croninsiglos t1_j1miypv wrote

One of the next lines is that she shouldn't have left him stop her. So you'd have to question whether she'd be physically capable of preventing him from stopping her or if she was referring to she shouldn't have let the thought of him stop her.

If it's the thought of Ralph then both sentences would make more sense.

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Varun_shiroyasha OP t1_j1mmiav wrote

I feel since it has already been laid down that Ralph died, it is better to assume that this must have been her inner thoughts.

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RickMacd1913 t1_j1mmh3p wrote

I’ve read mountains of King and continuity errors are not at all uncommon. Sometimes I can fit them nicely in to head cannon, and some times you just have to ignore. Looks like you’re already working this out!

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Varun_shiroyasha OP t1_j1mnhw9 wrote

Yes, that's the only way when you can't find a incontrovertible answer.

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MarcoPolocompi t1_j1mp0sw wrote

Haven't been reading any Stephen King lately but seem to remember a few of his books being confusing/ having plot holes as well.

Not exactly sure why but I am going to assume it's cause the 80's ( and other decades possibly )were a pretty wild ride for him 😬

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crazyike t1_j1ovpnb wrote

Yeah they do pop up from time to time. I remember two from It I always wanted to ask him about. At one spot it is suggested that Vic will come and talk to Bill alone. The context makes it certain it was supposed to happen very late (maybe post rock fight), but in the finished version it never happened. The other was a suggestion there would be more about Peter Gordon, but he completely disappears from the story after the aforementioned rock fight.

It's pretty easy to have happen. These sort of inconsistencies are only ever noticed on rereads.

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RickMacd1913 t1_j1p0g1v wrote

There is also a passage in IT during the Eddie Corchran interlude where he refers to Bev’s step father, who is later confirmed to be her biological father.

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Available-Page-2738 t1_j1obhay wrote

I suspect it can be "excused" as an indicator of how absolutely crazy Margaret White is. Probably King made a mistake in writing, but, frankly, it should have been caught by the editors.

Always blame the editors. For everything.

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O00OOOOO00O0 t1_j1mpi1e wrote

Prenatal is still less than year old. While a continuity error seems reasonable, I guess in those 2 months (9 month term-7 month before she was born Ralph death), Ralph could’ve stopped Margaret from “killing” her in utero. This would bot be out of line given she threw herself down some stairs with a similar goal.

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ablackcloudupahead t1_j1mpqbf wrote

Not related to your question but, as someone who hasn't read coked-out Stephen King since I was a kid (love a lot of his post coke books), how does it hold up?

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BreathingCorpse252 t1_j1mqzb5 wrote

Carrie was his debut novel. I don’t think he was coked up during that time

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ablackcloudupahead t1_j1mr86b wrote

Really? I thought The Gunslinger was his first novel

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BreathingCorpse252 t1_j1mrelq wrote

Oh no the dark tower series started later in the early 80s

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mirrorspirit t1_j1ooez2 wrote

Really good. Carrie's rampage was a lot wider than the school. The Chloe Moretz movie was supposed to show that too, but they limited it one road and a gas station.

The book tells about the rampage unfolding much like you would read about a disaster happening.

Although SK almost threw it out because he didn't think he could relate to telling the story through a teenage girl's eyes, but his wife persuaded him to keep going with it.

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smushy_face t1_j1ns3p3 wrote

I found this error, too. Cue me flipping back through the whole book to double check I remembered when he died correctly. It's just an error. Carrie was King's first novel and those were his wilder days, so it's just a mistake.

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Dana07620 t1_j1ok1b4 wrote

King's not always great on continuity. He's also bad at scientific explanations.

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Blue_Shark_13 t1_j1nmdqu wrote

Most likely it's a continuity error. It's possible she was imagining it, but there's nothing in the text to suggest that.

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HunterRoze t1_j1om39a wrote

It is his first novel - given that it is remarkable how good it is overall. So an error or 2 is to be expected.

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InevitableHost597 t1_j1od5hn wrote

I try not to worry much about those errors. Fiction, after all, requires you to suspend belief.

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animejunkie84 t1_j1omq1g wrote

It’s possible that Margaret was hallucinating when she said that,since she remembered trying to murder Carrie soon after she was born and first used her powers.Then she claimed Ralph prevented her from doing so,but that wouldn’t be possible since Ralph died in a construction accident

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NefariousnessOne1859 t1_j1pfnji wrote

I always assumed that Carrie’s mam was either abused or a bit of a slut and didn’t know who the dad was ….and this is why she was a religious nut when Carrie was growing up because she was trying to wash her own sins away

Was years ago when I read Carrie (actually first King book I read) but I probably took everything about Carrie’s dad with a pinch of salt.

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7ootles t1_j1ntbu8 wrote

It's Stephen King - just adopt a headcanon that King missed out the words "a vision of" when he wrote that Ralph stopped her.

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That-Requirement-285 t1_j1pfcrc wrote

Possible that Margaret, who is a religious fanatic who abuses her daughter, is an unreliable narrator who lied about Carrie’s father dying. Also possible that, since this is Stephen King’s first book, he was still getting used to both writing and writing on cocaine.

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HugoNebula t1_j1pl2sk wrote

King didn't use cocaine until the writing of The Stand, and had been writing short fiction for fourteen years by the time Carrie was published, seven or eight of them professionally published.

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ExodusRex t1_j1o6ykl wrote

Simple, he came back as a ghost or zombie or some bullshit. We are talking about a King novel after all.

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abatkin1 t1_j1oswd8 wrote

Blame the editor.

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j0m1n1n t1_j1pjhvu wrote

Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

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DoomDroid79 t1_j1pvnx1 wrote

I think in The Shining the Torrance family drives to the Outlook Hotel in a Beetle and then SK mentions somewhere in the book they drive in a Honda or something, I could be wrong.

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gonzagylot00 t1_j1olegp wrote

Good catch OP. I had the immediate suspicion that other’s have voiced that this was King’s drunk/coked up years.

But who knows, he writes about the supernatural, and it would be like something from the Dark Tower for the ghost of her father to come back and protect Carrie. Or, maybe Carrie was kind of crazy and misremembered something?

Finally, didn’t Carrie have a lot of different perspectives on the incident? It could be that someone perceived something incorrectly, but it was forever ago that I read Carrie and am not confident in that.

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Traditional-Ice-3100 t1_j1pfbxi wrote

The honest answer could be that it simply doesn’t make sense. Stephen King wrote most of his books on, and I could be wrong about the specifics, cocain. So it might just be an error. But I’m not saying it’s the answer or anything, just a possibility

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