Violin And Carrie Comparrison Essay, Research Paper

Good Copy: Carrie and Violin

The two horror novels studied Carrie written by Stephen King, and Violin written by Anne Rice are similar in some ways but different in others. Carrie was written in 1974 while Violin was written in 1997. They have similar characters and the roles they play and similar plots and story lines. They have different forms as well as roles of narration. These two novels are both very good horror writings with many similarities as well as many differences.

The two horror novels Carrie and Violin have similar characters and the roles they play. In the novel Carrie, Carrie White the main character is similar to the main character of Violin Triana in personality and roles that they play. Carries status in the book is a lonely teenage girl who has no friends and is lonely while Triana is old but also does not have a lot of friends and lives alone and is very lonely. Carrie and Triana both get tormented during the course of the book. Carrie White, not a typical teenager is menaced by bullies at school and her religious nut of a mother at home. She is very lonely and the only thing that interests her are the telekinetic powers that she posseses. Using graffiti Christine Hargensen wrote, Carrie white eats [poop on the wall] (P.4, Carrie). Triana who is also very lonely is tormented by her family and friends including her sister Katrinka. After Katrinka finds out that Triana kept her husbands corpse inside the house for three days she says, [Triana] has gone insane! (P.34, Violin). Stefan the Russian ghost also bullies Triana as Billy Loman bullies Carrie. Triana as well as Carrie feels Shame, blame, maim, pain, vain! (P.234, Violin). Katrinka picks on Triana all the time but Rosalind, Triana s second oldest sister is very supportive to her and stands up for her. Katrinka states that Triana could not live in her house alone anymore and is planning to get the house to herself but Rosalind says, Give it up Katrinka you won t get the house (Violin, p.48). Miss. Dejardin also plays that supportive role to Carrie, she is there for her when someone hurts her and also talks to her in a very friendly way. When Carrie menstrates and all the girls laugh at her Miss. Dejardin justifies everything by punishing the girls. Thus the characters in each book are similar, the only difference is that in Violin all the characters get along at the end and in Carrie most of them die from the havoc caused by Carrie at the end of the book.

Carrie and Violin have similar plots and story lines. Violin is the story of a ghost who learned to play the violin under the guidance of Beethoven and Pagnini. With his death from his human life, he took his violin into the world of the undead and it brought with it a magical ability. The story telling is too abstract, but the certainly autobiographical emotions could not be more visceral. The story begins with Triana who just lost her wealthy second husband to AIDS. Her behavior reveals the depth of her grief but it turns out she has a long romance with death. The novel has barely any movement when it concentrates on the boring interior monologue about Triana s ghoulish desire to lie down in a mass grave with her dead loved ones. This cheapens the very emotions it seeks to express. Stefan chooses an easy target to drive Triana mad since she is very weak emotionally. The story gets on the way Stefan whisks Triana away to the spectacle of the 19th century Vienna, where he lived as a young aristocrat and virtuoso. From then till the end there is a welcome whirlwind of exotic locations and dramatic clashes of will between Triana and her ghost. Carrie on the other hand is a story of a girl who did not fit in and was bullied by her friends at school who were not really her friends at all and her crazy religious mother drove her insane at home. She holds and practices a power called telekinesis throughout the book and when the final mockery is made of her at the prom she takes revenge by destroying Chamberlain with her devilish powers. Carrie is made a fool for the last time not only because she kills most of her foes but she herself also dies. In both novels there is not a lot of movement and it does not look like a climax will soon be reached. In Violin suspense is added when Stefan breaks into Triana s home and torments her with ugly memories of the past. In Carrie this type of pressure occurs when Carrie has her period and is tormented by the other teenage girls. As both stories go on a climax is reached, in Violin Stefan whisks Triana away to the spectacle of the 19th century Vienna, where he lived as a young aristocrat and virtuoso and torments her with the past and her inability to play his Stradivarius. Carrie reaches its climax when Carrie is made a fool at the prom and starts using her telekinetic energy to take revenge on her peers by killing them. Thus both stories are alike; they have similar plots and events that could be compared.

Although Carrie and Violin have many similarities the two novels differ in their form and role of narration. Carrie is written in different forms and narration while Violin is in first person and it switches to 3rd. This develops the story from different sides of views in Carrie. It is in the views of reporters, by standers, enemies, and those that stand up for Carrie. Sue Snell says, I will show my thanks to Carrie because I feel sorry for what I have done (p.137, Carrie). King has a way of getting under the skin of his readers by creating an utterly believable world and providing a lot of different views from both sides of the story as well as the outside. He pieces together extracts from newspaper reports, journals, and scientific papers, as well as more traditional first- and third-person narrative in order to reveal what lurks beneath the surface of Chamberlain, Maine. The narration is a very effective way in this book to communicate the story to the reader. Violin overlooks some overwrought narration and stilted dialogue and in exchange provides a lush atmosphere, striking characters and thrilling plot. The main character is the narrator and she falls into an annoying habit of repeating events, characterizations and dialogue like a child will repeat a joke not knowing what that causes. The reader can feel she tries to wrap the reader in a dense darkly erotic atmosphere with her narration that can be harder to emerge from as the story goes on. Anne Rice concentrates only what evolves around Triana and how she views it, such as Stefan. This form of narration is not the best for this novel because if it was written in many different views like Carrie then the reader would understand how other characters feel besides Triana. Thus the form and style of the narration in each of these novels is very different and in some cases is not most suitable.

The two horror books read, Carrie written by Stephen King, and Violin written by Anne Rice are alike in some ways but they do have many differences as well. Carrie the older work was written in 1974 while Violin, the modern work was written in 1997. These books have similar characters and the roles they play such as Triana and Carrie, Rosalind and Miss. Dejardin, Bill Loman and Stefan, Katrinka and Chris and so on. Plots and story lines are also a similarity in these novels because basically each event in each book is in relation. The main difference found in these two books are the forms as well as roles of narration. These two novels are both a very good contribution to the horror genre but they have many similarities as well as differences.

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