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CARRIE BY STEPHEN KING Adolescence is a time of emotional turmoil, mood liability, gloomy introspection, great drama and heightened sensitivity. It is a time of rebellion and behavioral experimentation. The physician's challenge is to identify depressive behaviors which may be superimposed on the backdrop of a more transient, but expected, developmental storm. This paper explores the theme of coping mechanisms of a teenager as she undergoes traumas in high school, with the power of telekinesis as her tool for vengeance. Carrie is an adolescent full of sadness and alienated from her schoolmates. This story touches on how adolescent depression is essentially the same in symptoms as in adults.
However, some clinical shrewdness may be required to translate the teenagers's ymptoms into adult terms. Pervasive sadness may be exemplified by wearing black clothes, writing poetry with morbid themes or a preoccupation with music that has nihilistic themes. Sleep disturbance may manifest as all-night television watching, difficulty in getting up for school, or sleeping during the day. Lack of motivation and lowered energy level is reflected by missed classes. A drop in grade averages can be equated with loss of concentration and slowed thinking. Boredom may be a synonym for feeling depressed.
Loss of appetite may become anorexia or bulimia. Adolescent depression may also present primarily as a behavior or conduct disorder, substance or alcohol abuse or as family turmoil and rebellion with no obvious symptoms reminiscent of depression (Cameron, J. ). These and many more can lead to extreme trauma. It is this theme and high school woes of a young girl named Carrie that Stephen King explores to give readers a story that is frighteningly entertaining. The author mixes this theme around the issue of ESP and the paranormal powers and one gets a good formula for a scary story. The debate on the existence of extra-sensory perception has been subjected to repeated criticism by mainstream scientists.
In television and radio, sensational reporting, together with blown up print articles are confusing the public. Today, discussing ESP and other paranormal phenomena are all over the search engines, with a huge percentage of them selling and promoting brands that have something or little to do with the subject matter. This is a story about Carrie and how she distanced herself from the social world of her high school days because of the verbal abuse she often gets from her unkind classmates. She is unable to develop attachments to other people or feel empathy for them. She is driven to be concerned about her immediate comfort because of the cruelty of her classmates. She actually becomes unable to establish the kind of trusting relationship that is required for effective functioning.
This is aggravated by an uncaring mother. Looking at the story from Carries point of view, readers actually commiserate with her plight as we see the students plotting to put her in an embarrassing situation. When depressed teenagers are asked about their childhood experiences, they are more likely to report neglect, abuse rejection and parental conflict. Depression-feeling sad, frustrated, and hopeless about life- is the most common psychological problem of adolescence. About 15 - 20 % of teenagers have had major depressive episodes, a rate comparable to adults. Depression occurs twice as often in girls as boys.
Adolescent depression is associated with drug abuse, lawbreaking, and car accidents, and it predicts future problems in school performance, employment, and marriage. Because of the stereotype of adolescence as a period of storm and stress, many adults misinterpret adolescents' depressive symptoms. Depression is hard to recognize in adolescents because they manifest it in a variety of ways. In males, the depression can also be expressed as rage.
Depressed teens usually display a learned-helpless attribution style in which they view positive outcomes in school performance and peer relations as beyond their control. Certain scenes in the story make the readers jaws drop in disbelief as one reads how the author treats a highly natural biological situation such as the onset of menstruation seem so unnatural and embarrassing. If the author wanted to depict the blood as a gory tool for surprise, it not only succeeded in doing so, but it also created a strange kind of mystery since her classmates responded by screaming at her to clean yourself up and plug it up. This horror of having ones period is further aggravated by Carries mother, Margaret White, who has certain dark beliefs about the onset of menstruation. One cannot help but think about Stephen Kings own views about women and their concerns The challenges of adolescence in coping styles contribute to making girls more prone to depression. Coping with new experiences and responsibilities of adolescence is hard.
Suddenly, young people need to cope in a variety of settings, including school, home, peer group. Frydenberg addresses the relationships between coping and age, gender, and ethnicity, and between family functioning and coping. She also states that there is a correlation between the measurement of coping, how we learn to cope, and such areas as social support and depression (Frydenberg, E. 1997). Stephen Kings plot at that time is something that was one-of-a-kind. The use of a simple story such as bullying of classmates is quite normal for young people. A bullied person would normally just seek the help of other friends.
Yet King puts all the aggravating circumstances to make it appear that Carrie had nothing outside herself to seek help except herself. He mother is of no help. Her friends put a trick on her. Her own physical body, from her viewpoint, goes against her when suddenly she finds herself having menstruation for the very first time. What a way to have all the traumas pile one on top of another.
So what else is left for Carrie to lean on? She is left with the power of her mind. People may see her as puny, vulnerable and easy to bully. But they do not know that she has harnessed the power of her mind to fight all her so-called enemies. The flashback scenes and images are vivid and lend more fright to the readers. Carrie is power personified when she uses her powers to the maximum.
That is what makes her powerful even if she is alone. She is able to fight in her own way. These themes are what spell the suspense in his book. In another light, one is reminded of the violence that happens to children, especially teenagers who are teased in school.
The violence that seethes inside young people who are derided and bullied can erupt anytime in a most negative form. In the case of Carrie, she is able to command things to move, much to the fright of the students. Even if this is far from happening in the real world, the fact that the author is able to depict it in such realistic ways is highly laudable. In summation, effective parenting of the adolescent is more vital to their emotional well-being than do the other factors such as heredity. The family is first of the social institutions in which the adolescent can find himself, be secure, and the one with the most profound influence on his emotional well-being. In the presence of a more cohesive and supportive family, depressed adolescents will decrease necessarily.
Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the effects of stress as this stage is in itself a complex developmental stage. The family environment can mean a lot between a happy or a depressed adolescent. In the case of Carrie, her mother was not a help at all. Carrie lacked the resilience to cope with the stresses of high school life. It was only her telekinetic powers that provided her strength to fight back in vengeance. WORKS CITED Cameron, J. , 2005.
Adolescent Brain Development. Session III: Hormone, behavior, and inter-relationships during adolescence University of Pittsburgh. Accessed 20 April 2006 at: web Erikson, E. H... (1963). Childhood and society, 2 nd ed. New York: Norton.
Frydenberg, E. (1997). Adolescent Coping: Theoretical and Research Perspectives. Adolescence, New York: Routledge, p. 233. Accessed 20 April 2006 at: web How to Build a Better Monster. Accessed 20 April 2006 at: web FIRST SOURCE: web
Session III: Hormone, behavior, and inter-relationships during adolescence Are the behaviors we see in adolescents simply a result of "raging hormones"?
Certainly that's not the complete answer, but changes in reproductive and stress hormones can influence behavior. Hormonal changes during adolescence can also trigger depression during this time. Judy L. Cameron, PhD University of Pittsburgh Session Integrator and Chair slides Reproductive, adrenal, and growth hormones all change during puberty, Judy Cameron noted. Stress can cause hormone changes, too, by increasing cortisol levels. Moreover, hormone levels can fluctuate by the hour and differ among individuals.
Cameron's own studies of female monkeys show that reproductive hormonal changes, especially during the menstrual cycle, can influence behavior finding supported by the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome observed in humans. She asserted that we need more research on which hormonal changes during adolescence affect behavior, and which do not. Puberty, Ovarian Steroids, and Stress Elizabeth A. Young, MD University of Michigan see abstract | slides Depression has been tied to stress. Some 75 % of those with depression report having experienced a precipitating life event, and one in five who " ve experienced a major life event become depressed. The response to stress is mediated by hormones A woman's response to the stress hormone cortisol differs depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle.
Depressed premenopausal women have a higher baseline level of cortisol than postmenopausal depressed women and than depressed men. Estradiol has not been shown to be responsible for an increased vulnerability to stress in women, but progesterone may exaggerate the response to stress. During puberty, changes in reproductive hormones can make girls more sensitive to the effects of stress and can trigger adolescent depression. Brain Plasticity, Hormones and the Malleability of Behavioral Systems: Allostasis and Allo static Load over the Life course Bruce S. McEwen, PhD The Rockefeller University see abstract | slides Experiences and behaviors encountered early in life can have a remarkable effect on how the brain changes to adapt to its environment.
These changes are mediated by hormones. Repeated stress increases anxiety and aggression. Stress can cause physical changes...
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Research essay sample on Adolescent Depression Menstrual Cycle
