It, by Stephen King, stands as one of his finest works and has become a worldwide phenomenon for two generations. Once, when it first came out in 1986, receiving a silver screen adaptation in 1990. Now, after a blockbuster movie by the same name came out in 2017, It has received a revamp to the story for the new generation to enjoy.
It, the novel, stands as one of my favorite of Stephen King’s works. I love books that have a deep lore and whose stories are beautifully woven. It, in this case, does not disappoint, at over one thousand pages the novel provides the deep plot and character development that I always crave when reading novels. I could honestly go on forever for how much I love this novel.
The story begins with the death of a young child named Georgie in 1957. Pennywise, otherwise known as “It” shows himself as a clown and lures him into the sewers, where he is devoured. Georgie’s brother, Bill is one of the main characters in this novel. He becomes the leader of his group of friends and he takes up the challenge of avenging his brother’s death.
The reader goes on to meet the other children; Beverly, Michael, Eddie, Richie, Ben, and Stanley. These children are all part of a club known as the “Loser’s Club.” Before all of this, of course, they were just friends who sometimes played together like normal eleven-year-old children. However, their childhood comes to an end with the introduction of It into their lives.
Unfortunately for these children, the fight against Pennywise does not come easy. Pennywise is a cosmic being that can take the form of what you fear most. He preys on children exclusively because their fears are easiest to embody.
For example, to each child, he shows himself as different creatures. For Beverly, he shows up as blood shooting up out of the drain, covering her whole bathroom and her body. Her parents cannot see this and this scares her even more. Her fear symbolizes her fear of becoming a woman, obviously, one of the signs of womanhood is the first menstruation, which to an eleven-year-old seems like a scary and unfamiliar thing. He also takes the form of her father, who the novel hints that he is sexually abusive to his daughter.
For Bill, Pennywise shows himself as Georgie. The death of Georgie was a lot for a child to wrap his head around so clearly, he fears his deceased brother. Pennywise psychologically tortures him by showing him these images in order to make Billy so afraid that he will be tastier to eat.
For Stanley, he shows himself as two dead people at the Standpipe in Derry. He sees them and is able to escape by reciting bird names at the monsters. (Yes, it seems weird, but if the children were able to escape from It by focusing on things that they cared about or their imagination.) He is most affected by It and continues to be traumatized even as an adult. He is one of the last of the children to accept that this problem would not go away on its own and he would have to be one of the seven to stop It.
Then, for Eddie, the nervous child of the group, It shows himself as a leper. It chose this form because he was extremely afraid of germs and any sickness because his father had died due to cancer.
As for Michael, his fear is a large bird that resembles a crow because one attacked him as a child. This could also be representative of the fact that racism was very big in Derry, Maine during the years of 1956-1958 and as people know, Jim Crow laws were in effect so this maybe had something to do with his fear.
Richie is one of the last people to see It and his encounter happens a little later in the novel than with the other children. His fear is a very tall and looming Paul Bunyan statue in the town square which comes to life and attacks him one day. He manages to escape and vows to help the others defeat the creature.
Ben is one of the first children to see It, as he was usually alone due to the fact that he was overweight and did not have many friends. He sees the monster as the Mummy from a popular movie from 1932 by Boris Karloff.
Since this blog post is going on much longer than I intended and I have not even touched the surface of what all this wonderful novel entails, I will just use this post as an introduction that will continue on to the next week where I really delve into the plot and explain how the Loser’s club is able to finally defeat It with their combination of teamwork, bravery, and imagination.
