Sue Snell is one of the main characters of Carrie. Described as an intelligent and popular student at Ewen High School, she engages in an humiliating act against Carrie White, an outcast and the object of bullying among her classmates, and secretly gifted with telekinesis. Ashamed of her behavior, Sue convinces her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, to invite Carrie to the prom in her place, to catastrophic consequences.
Biography
Sue is described as an intelligent and popular girl. She had been dating Tommy Ross for six months. And she had a sexual relationship with him for two months. She bullied Carrie White, but far less than Chris Hargensen and her other friends had. She also participated in the shower incident. There however, finding out that she didn't know about a period feels very guilty about her behaviour and also feels disgusted about Chris's behaviour after that regarding the incident. She therefore breaks with Chris and proposes to Tommy to take Carrie to the prom instead of her in a way to make it right. Although he was against it first, he mellowed to it later. She also wanted him to do it, because she was worried, that Tommy may have gotten her pregnant and didn't want to raise the issue yet.
While the Prom was happening, Sue decided to stay at home, yet she had a feeling something was going to happen. Several hours later, the town began to whistle and Sue had to look from the window. She saw Ewen High School on fire. She rushed to her mother's car and drove to the scene. When she arrived, the school exploded and had therefore an accident with the car. When she exited it, she saw a nearby gas station explode. She then went to the town sherif nearby and tried to tell him about what was happening, something she knew because of the telepathic broadcast of Carrie, but he interrogated her instead of listening to her, which forces her to look for her alone. Sue knew that Carrie did all of this in revenge for the prank pulled on her and Tommy and that the prank also killed Tommy in the process.
A while later, she finds the dying Carrie in a lot with a burning car. She was able to find her because of her "telepathic broadcast" and invited the girl to enter her mind to prove to her that she wasn't involved in the prank and that she never really hated Carrie. Carrie explored her mind and realizes that she is speaking the truth. Carrie dies but not before transmitting to her everything about her life to her forcing her on the way to see for herself how ugly she has been to her before this. She also experiences, for a short time what happens in the mind of someone when that person dies. After that, she finally has her period. She suspects it was Carrie's doing, but doesn't know if that was an act of retribution or an act of gratitude. She later identifies Carrie's body when the authorities come to take it.
After these events, the White Commission tried to make her a scapegoat for what has happened, but fails to do so. Years later, she wrote the book My name is Sue Snell to tell the events from her perspective, where she defends her and Tommy’s actions and where she warns that something like this might happen again. It is implied that all the events surrounding The Black Prom have broken Sue's heart to the core. She only longes for peace and has begun embracing death driven by the experience she had when she witnessed Carrie die in such a close manner. For her, it is as though she is condemned to follow her after her death because of it.
Notes and trivia
- Sue's first cinematic adaptation, famously portrayed by actress Amy Irving, differs considerably from the original counterpart, in both character and plot:
- In the novel, Sue is able to overcome Carrie's massacre due to their psychic link, which clears things up to both of them (even though Carrie dies). In the 1976 movie, she manages to sneak in the Bates High Senior Prom and fails to prevent the prank. She witness the massacre and is left with a severe mental breakdown and sent to an asylum, similar to Vic Mooney's fate from the novel.
- The pregnancy subplot and her sexual relationship with Tommy are completely omitted.
- In her testimony, Sue mentions seeing a movie adaptation of the events surrounding Carrie and the Black Prom, which ironically came to fruition.
- The 2013 cinematic version of the story is the first to include Sue and Tommy's sexual relationship and her consequent pregnancy.