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It is a 1986
horror novel by
American author Stephen King. The story follows the exploits of seven children as they are terrorized by an eponymous inter-dimensional predatory life-form that exploits the fears and phobias of its victims in order to disguise itself whilst hunting its prey. "It" primarily appears in the form of "Bob Gray" a.k.a. "Pennywise the Dancing Clown," described by characters who see It as resembling a combination of
Bozo,
Clarabell and
Ronald McDonald, in order to attract its preferred prey of young children, though it occasionally feeds on adults. The novel is told through
narratives alternating between two time periods, which is largely told in a
third-person omniscient view.
It deals with themes which would eventually become King staples: the power of memory, childhood trauma, and the ugliness lurking beneath a façade of traditional small-town values. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1987, and received nominations for the Locus and World Fantasy Awards that same year.
[1] Publishers Weekly listed
It as the best-selling book in America in 1986.
The book is dedicated to King's family: "This book is gratefully dedicated to my children. My mother and my wife taught me how to be a man. My children taught me how to be free."
[edit] 1957–58
In October 1957, the town of
Derry, Maine, has been flooded by autumn storms, awakening an evil entity, known only as "It", a shape-shifting monster that targets children, and lives in the sewers. As the storm abates, six-year old George "Georgie" Denbrough chases a paper boat, made with the help of his brother William (also known as Big Bill, Stuttering Bill, or simply Bill), along a gutter current until the boat is swept into a storm drain. Georgie attempts to retrieve the boat and encounters Pennywise, a seemingly friendly
clown standing in the sewer. The clown entices George with sensations of a circus carried into the sewer by the floods, and offers to return the lost boat. When George attempts to retrieve the boat, Pennywise rips his arm off, killing him instantly. When the neighbors hear George's scream, they run outside to see what the matter is, but only find a one-armed George, with Pennywise nowhere to be found.
Eight months later in June 1958, on the last day of school, Ben Hanscom flees from local bullies Henry Bowers, Belch Huggins, and Victor Criss. Ben escapes into
the Barrens, a weedy jungle through which runs the Kenduskeag Stream, where he meets and befriends Bill Denbrough (George's brother) and Eddie Kaspbrak. As a summer project, Bill and Eddie were attempting unsuccessfully to
dam the Kenduskeag. Ben has a natural inclination toward architecture, and helps the other boys complete the dam. Through Bill and Eddie, Ben also befriends Richie Tozier, a wisecracking boy known for his dubious
"Voices", and Stan Uris, a straight-laced Jewish boyscout. In early July, the five of them, along with their new friend Beverly Marsh, save Mike Hanlon, the only black child in Derry, from being beaten by Henry Bowers and his gang. A few days after fending off the bullies, Mike officially joins their group. The children establish themselves as the "Losers Club." All are outcasts, emphasized by their unhappy home lives and the torments they have endured from bullies like the Bowers gang: Ben because of his weight, Bill because of his stutter, Eddie because of his physical frailty, Richie because of his smart mouth and thick glasses, Stan because of his Jewish ancestry, Mike because he is black, and Beverly because of her poverty and gender. As their friendships mature, they realize that they also share common encounters with It.
Bill describes to the group how, while lamenting his dead brother George in his room, he had opened the boy's photo album to see a picture of George come alive. Ben reveals that he had encountered a
Mummy the previous January, while walking home from school. Richie eluded Henry and his friends in town and, when he sat down beside a statue of
Paul Bunyan it became possessed and attacked him, almost killing him. Richie is unique amongst the group because he doesn't tell his account to the others and firmly believes it to have been a dream. Eddie recounts being attacked by a
diseased creature which he calls a
leper, at an
abandoned house. Beverly tells of hearing voices of dead children coming from her bathroom sink drain, followed by a gruesome gout of blood bursting from the pipes; her father and mother see nothing. In an early depiction of the Losers' strength when united, Beverly is unable to clean the blood herself until she enlists the help of Ben, Eddie, and Stan. After cleaning up the blood, Stan describes his encounter with the water-logged corpses of children when he became trapped in the town's Standpipe while birdwatching, which he somehow fends off by shouting out the names of birds. Richie initially scoffs at the stories, and Bill encourages him to view the photo album back in George's room. After both boys discover in the album pictures of Pennywise, one of which comes to life, Richie recalls his own encounter with a
Werewolf. Determined to avenge his brother, Bill steals his father's
Walther handgun and goes with Richie to the abandoned house, 29 Neibolt Street. At the house the boys are attacked by It, each perceiving a different form of the creature: Bill sees It as Pennywise and Richie sees It as a Werewolf. Both barely escape with their lives on Bill’s enormous and talismanic
Schwinn bicycle,
Silver. Mike then retells his encounter with an enormous bird, which he had fended off by throwing a chunk of tile in its eye.
The Losers are not the only persons to encounter It; various children vanish to be found dead and mutilated days, weeks, or months later, if they turn up at all. The Losers determine to destroy the supernatural being and seek out means to that end. After some research in the town library, Bill discovers an ancient spell known as the Ritual of Chüd, in which a shapeshifting monster called a "talus" and a human
shaman lock tongues and tell jokes; the first to laugh is devoured by the other. Bill believes this ritual will allow them to defeat and kill It. While the seven are building an underground clubhouse in the Barrens in mid-July, Mike Hanlon brought his father's photo album and shows it to them all. The group discovers that Pennywise has existed for at least centuries in the Derry area. In one photograph, Pennywise again appears and threatens to kill them all, appearing to them all as their worst fears. The Losers are demoralized and uncertain how to proceed. Ben gives them the idea to perform an
Indian "smoke-hole" ritual to receive spiritual guidance from whatever forces stand against "It". They use their now completed underground club house and green wood to cause a blinding smoke, forcing most of the Losers into fresh air. Richie and Mike are the only two to withstand the smoke, and witness a vision of It arriving on Earth in
prehistoric times. When the visions end, the Losers express still further doubt over their ability to battle the monster.
A few days after the smoke-hole ritual, Eddie goes to a pharmacy to pick up his
asthma medicine. The pharmacist reveals that the medicine is actually a
placebo, and Eddie is not actually sick; his "asthma" is an
invention of Eddie's mother Sonya Kaspbrak. Eddie leaves disbelieving, and, on the way home, is attacked by Henry, Victor, Belch, and a
psychopathic boy named Patrick Hockstetter. The bullies break Eddie's arm and spit in his face in retaliation for the rock fight. Eddie convalesces in the hospital, and though the other Losers attempt to visit him, they are sent away by Eddie's overprotective mother. Mrs. Kaspbrak is cast as an unwitting agent of It, the creature attempting to use her maternal concern to split the Losers. Eddie stands up to his mother for the first time, and earns a small amount of autonomy from her ministrations.
As Eddie recovers, Beverly stumbles across the Bowers gang (including Patrick) in the landfill, literally with their pants down,
lighting farts for fun. She hides behind a junked car, afraid they will see and attack her, and waits for the gang to depart. After Belch and Victor leave, Patrick (who, in a
back-story, is revealed to have
murdered his baby brother)
masturbates Henry, and offers him
oral sex. In response, Henry threatens to reveal Patrick's secret: besides killing his brother (of which Henry knows nothing), Patrick has been
trapping animals in an abandoned refrigerator and leaving them to suffocate. After Henry leaves, Patrick decides to dispose of the animal corpses, but when he opens the refrigerator, he is attacked by It in the form of dozens of winged leeches, his worst fear. Before he loses consciousness, It appears in the form of a man with a melting face and drags him to It's lair. Patrick wakes up as It begins to feed on him. After Beverly's escape, the Losers (sans Eddie) return to the refrigerator and discover a message from It written in Patrick's
blood, warning them to stop before It kills them, which sends Bill into a fit of maniacal rage. At Bill's pleading, the others agree to help him.
After Eddie is released from the hospital, Ben makes two slugs out of silver, believing the cinematic convention that silver will kill monsters. The group test fires slingshots and determine Beverly to be the best shot, and so the slugs are put into her care. The Losers return to 29 Neibolt Street and enter the house, its interior made magically huge and vertiginous by It. In a run-down bathroom It attacks the Losers in its Werewolf form, primarily focusing its efforts on Bill, hoping to destroy the head of the Losers. After It injures Ben, Beverly injures It with one slug, but loses the other; however, the Losers chase It away by convincing It that a final slug is ready to be released upon it. The Losers realize that their united belief is the strongest weapon against It.
In August, It turns to Henry Bowers, whose sanity had been eroding throughout the summer, as It's minion. It provides Henry with a
switchblade, with which the boy promptly murders his crazy, abusive father. Henry recruits the unsuspecting Victor and Belch and takes them into the Barrens, where they drive the Losers into the sewers. Under Derry, It attacks the Bowers gang in the form of
Frankenstein's monster,
decapitating Victor and ripping half of Belch's face off, though Henry escapes. Wandering aimlessly for hours in the sewers, Henry ultimately falls into the Canal and drifts back into the Kenduskeag, where he falls unconscious for several hours. When he comes to, Henry returns home to find the police there waiting for him; as it turns out, It has framed Henry for most of the people that It killed both before and during the summer of 1958 (including Patrick, Victor, and Belch).
The Losers press deeper into the sewers and confront It in the form of a
giant Eye, which Eddie defeats using his asthma inhaler, believing it to be battery acid. Finally the Losers enter Its lair, a chamber deep below the heart of Derry. The creature appears as a giant
Spider. Bill enters Its mind through the Ritual of Chüd and comes to a darkness beyond the
universe, where Its true form resides. With the help of a galaxy-spawning entity called the Turtle, Bill defeats It and the monster retreats, grievously wounded. The Losers decide that It has been destroyed and attempt to leave the sewers, but find themselves lost. As the Losers panic in the dark, their mystical bond begins to fray. In order to restore the bond so that they may return to the surface, Beverly has
sexual intercourse with each of the boys.
The Losers finally escape from the sewers, emerging at sunset. Stan cuts their palms with a shard of a Coke bottle and the seven make a
blood oath to return to Derry if It ever resurfaces.
[edit] 1984–85
In July 1984, two
homosexual youths named Adrian Mellon and Don Hagarty are assaulted and Adrian is thrown off a bridge by three homophobic bullies. They are arrested for murder when Adrian's mutilated corpse is found, though one of the murderers (as well as Mellon’s own boyfriend) claims that he saw a clown kill Adrian underneath the bridge. When a string of violent child-killings hits Derry following Adrian's death, Mike, now the town’s librarian and the only one of the Losers’ Club to remain in Derry, calls up his six friends on the night of May 28, 1985 and reminds them of their childhood promise to return. Bill is now a well-known writer of horror novels (after King's own self), living in
England and married to an actress called Audra; Beverly is in the fashion industry and very successful but married to an abusive man called Tom Rogan; Eddie runs a
limousine rental company and is married to a woman exactly like his mother named Myra; Richie is a professional comedian with a radio show and talk show; Ben is now thin and a successful architect; Stan is an accountant married to a woman called Patty. Five of them return to Derry with only the dimmest awareness of why they are doing so, having almost completely
blocked out virtually every aspect of their childhood (most notably their encounter with It). Stan, who it is implied still remembers the entire thing (or at least does when Mike contacts him) commits suicide in fear and dread of another encounter with It by slitting his wrists while in the bathtub, and writing
IT on the wall with his dying strength.
The remaining Losers’ Club meets at a Chinese restaurant for lunch on May 30, where, after a long meal and stories from the intervening years, Mike enlightens them to the apparent nature of It, gleaned from a large amount of research he has done himself: It awakens once roughly every twenty-seven years for twelve to sixteen months at a time to feed on children before going into slumber again. He suggests that, due directly to their intervention in the summer of 1958, they injured It so badly that the cycle, which usually came to an end in the winter months of the year, stopped abruptly and prematurely in August. The group holds a vote in which they decide to kill It once and for all. Mike suggests that before deciding what exactly to do, each Loser takes a walk around Derry to become re-acquainted with their childhood home and meet up at the library later, and also decides not to tell them anymore and allow them to remember what occurred on their own, fearing that they may commit suicide as Stan had done if they discover what happened before they are ready to remember it all. As they finish the meal, their
fortune cookies are revealed to have a multitude of disgusting things inside of them, such as a huge cricket and a human eye, courtesy of It.
While walking around Derry, many of the Losers witness manifestations of It. Ben goes to the
library, his favorite place in Derry as a child, and sees It, both as Pennywise and as
Count Dracula, who warns him to leave the city by nightfall. Eddie goes to an old baseball field and is attacked by It in the form of the leper that attacked him on Neibolt Street and as
zombies of several of It's 1958 victims. Beverly goes back to her father's house and is greeted warmly by a kindly old woman named Mrs. Kersh who turns out to be the daughter of IT, who first appears in her true form of a witch of the sort from the tale of
Hansel and Gretel, and then IT attacks first in the form of her father, who It claims died five years before, and then as Pennywise. Richie goes to a statue of
Paul Bunyan and It appears to him there after Richie recalls that It tried to kill him in the form of the statue. The four all escape danger. Bill, while not seeing It, meets a kid who challenges him to ride his skateboard. Bill goes to an abandoned second-hand shop, and also finds his old childhood bike there, remembering how it saved his and Richie’s lives. He purchases it and takes it to Mike’s home to fix it up.
Unknown to the Losers, three other people are also converging on Derry: Bill's worried wife, Audra Phillips; Beverly's abusive husband, Tom Rogan; and Henry Bowers, who is driven by It to escape the mental institution where he resides and get revenge on the Losers.
The Losers meet at Mike’s library after closing time and reminisce about the summer of 1958. Afterwards, the Losers leave for their hotel rooms. Mike stays at the Library a little longer and is confronted by Henry. After Mike informs Henry that It will most likely kill him after he kills the Losers, they fight and Henry stabs him in the leg, hitting his
femoral artery. Mike badly injures Henry with a
letter opener, but Henry is able to escape, and Mike, using his
belt as a
tourniquet, calls the hospital and successfully gets help, despite Pennywise's attempts to block him. Henry, with the guidance of It (in the form of Belch’s reanimated corpse), and transported by the
cursed car Christine, goes to the hotel and attacks Eddie. Henry successfully breaks in to Eddie’s room, but Eddie manages to disarm Henry, gouge out his right eye with a broken bottle, then stab him in the hand. Henry knocks Eddie back and Eddie breaks his arm in the same place that Henry had broken it before. Henry then falls on him and is impaled on the bottle, finally dying.
Meanwhile, It appears to Tom and orders him to capture Audra. Tom brings Audra to It's lair under the city. Upon perceiving It in true form, "the deadlights" (bright orange lights that can hypnotize, and even kill people, if exposed to them long enough) Audra becomes
catatonic and Tom drops dead in shock. Bill, Ben, Beverly, Richie, and Eddie, after calling the library and finding out that Mike may be near death and understanding that the town, which is essentially under the control of It, will not help them, realize that they are being forced into another confrontation with It. They descend into the sewers.
While in the sewers, the remaining Losers use their strength as a group to "send energy" to a hospitalized Mike, who fights off a nurse that is under the control of It. Later, deep within the sewers, It appears as George but Bill overcomes the illusion. They reach It’s lair again. Bill and Richie engage It in the Ritual of Chüd again, but Bill realizes that "the Turtle cannot help them" due to It killing the Turtle by
feeding the Turtle galaxies and letting it choke to death. Richie rescues Bill from the deadlights and manages to severely injure It. Eddie helps them and saves their lives, but he is killed in the process. Beverly stays with Eddie and the traumatized Audra, who has been woven into a giant spider web by It’s Spider form. Ben starts destroying the eggs that It had lain. Bill and Richie follow It deeper into the cavern and attack It. Bill crushes Its heart between his hands, finally killing It. At the same time a storm sweeps through Derry and the downtown area collapses. Later, Michael, writing in a journal, concludes that Derry is finally dying.
The novel ends with the various Losers returning home and forgetting about It, Derry and each other all over again. As a sign that It really is dead and a watchman is no longer needed, Mike’s memory of the events of the book also begin to fade, much to his relief. Bill is the last to leave Derry. Before he goes, he takes Audra, who is still catatonic, for a ride on Silver, hoping that they can beat her catatonia the same way he and Richie beat It in 1958. They succeed, and the story concludes with Bill musing over his forgotten childhood.
"It" apparently originated in a void containing and surrounding the
universe, a place referred to in the novel as the "Macroverse" (a concept similar
[original research?] to the later established Todash Darkness of
The Dark Tower series). Its most commonly-used name is Bob Gray or Pennywise (at several points in the novel, It claims its true name to be Robert Gray) and is christened "It" by the group of children who later confront It. Likewise, It's true form is never truly comprehended. Its favorite form is that of a clown (with fangs and large claws when it stalks a child) known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and its final form in the physical realm is that of an enormous female spider, but even this is only the closest the human mind can get to approximating It's actual physical form. Its natural form exists in a realm beyond the physical, which It calls the "deadlights." Bill comes dangerously close to seeing the deadlights, but successfully defeats It before this happens, though during their first confrontation with It, Ben believes that he nearly sees It's true form, and nearly panics as a result. As such, the deadlights are never seen and It's true form outside the physical realm is never revealed, only described as writhing, destructive orange lights. Coming face to face with the deadlights drives any living being instantly
insane (a common
H. P. Lovecraft device). The only known person to face the deadlights and survive is Bill's wife, Audra Phillips, whose encounter with the deadlights nevertheless renders her temporarily
catatonic.
Its natural enemy is "The Turtle," another ancient Macroverse dweller resembling a
God-like deity, who, eons ago, created our universe, and possibly others. The Turtle shows up again in King's series
The Dark Tower. The book suggests that It, along with the Turtle, are themselves creations of a separate, omnipotent
creator referred to as
"the Other". The Turtle and It are eternal enemies (creation vs. consumption). It arrived in our world in a massive, cataclysmic event similar to an
asteroid impact, in the place that would, in time, become Derry, Maine, where it waited for humanity to appear.
Its power is apparently quite vast; during the second Ritual of Chüd, It offers the Losers money, power, and
supernatural lifespans if they spare It. Of course, It could merely have been bluffing in order to save itself. Nonetheless, It is able to manifest in multiple places at once (at one point, It possess Alvin Marsh, Beverly's father, and Henry Bowers at the same time) and choose to make itself and anything related to Itself visible to some while invisible to others. When It confronts Richie Tozier in 1985, It threatens to give him
prostate cancer a
brain tumor, and turn his
tongue into
pus, and Richie is convinced that it could actually perform such feats.
Through the novel, some events are described through It's point of view, through which It describes Itself as the "superior" being, with the Turtle as someone "close to his superiority" and humans as mere "toys." It describes that It prefers to kill and devour children, not by nature, but rather because the fears of children are easier to interpret in a physical form and thus children are easier to fill with terror, which It says is akin to "salt(ing) the meat". It is continuously surprised by the children's victories and near the end, It begins to wonder if It perhaps isn't as superior as It had once thought. However, It never believes that the individual children are strong enough to defeat It; though It suspects the presence of "the Other" working through them as a group, It dismisses the possibility — an error which proves fatal.
[edit] The forms of It
Below are a list of forms taken by the shape-shifting creature:
- Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Robert Gray, Its primary disguise. Mainly used when hunting children)
- George Denborough, when Bill examines his brother's photo album
- Dorsey Corcoran's re-animated corpse and The Creature from the Black Lagoon, when pursuing Eddie Corcoran
- The giant bird, when pursuing Mike Hanlon (oddly, it also appears as a giant bird to Will Hanlon, Mike's father, thus making him one of the few men who can see It)
- The Werewolf, when it encounters Richie (wearing a Derry High School blazer)
- The Leper, when Eddie first encounters It under the porch of the house on Neibolt Street
- The Eye, when encountering the Losers under the city
- Alvin Marsh, Beverly's father, as she is terrified of him
- A swarm of leeches, when attacking Patrick Hockstetter
- A swarm of piranhas, when Ben is frightened of crossing the stream
- The shark from "Jaws", seen by a boy named Tommy Vicananza in the Derry canal in 1985
- Dracula, seen by Ben in the Derry library in 1985. Although he does not look like any of the traditional variations of Dracula. Instead he looks like the vampire from Salem's Lot, very old and with razor blades for teeth. He asks Ben "what did Stan see before he committed suicide"? The vampire then chops down his mouth and causes his lips to split open and bleed on the floor.
- The Creature; It is perceived in this form by Henry's cronies Victor Criss and Belch Huggins
- A Dog, when IT appears to Henry Bowers in 1985 at Juniper Hills Mental Institution, IT turns into an 8-foot-tall (2.4 m) dog because the guard on duty that evening is afraid of a particular dog.
- Decomposing corpses of children perceived by Stan Uris, as he enters the Standpipe and remembers the tale of the kids who drowned in the water pipe
- Reggie "Belch" Huggins - Henry Bowers sees It in this way when he is given a taxi ride by It and sees It as the corpse of his deceased friend
- The Deadlights, when Henry Bowers and the Losers encounter It. This is It's true form in the Macroverse.
- The Spider, which is It's physical form on Earth
For millions of years, It dwelt under Derry, awaiting the arrival of humans, which It somehow knew would occur. Once people settled over Its dwelling place, It adopted a cycle of hibernating for long periods and waking approximately every twenty-five to thirty years. Its waking spells are marked by extraordinary violence, which is inexplicably overlooked or outright forgotten by those who witness It. Its awakening and return to hibernation mark the greatest instances of violence during Its time awake.
- 1715–1716: It awoke.
- 1740–1743: It awoke and started a three-year reign of terror that culminated with the disappearance of over three hundred settlers from Derry Township, much like the Roanoke Island mystery.
- 1769–1770: It awoke.
- 1851: It awoke when a man named John Markson poisoned his family, then committed suicide by eating a white-nightshade mushroom, causing an excruciating death.
- 1876–1879: It awoke, then went back into hibernation after a group of lumberjacks were found murdered near the Kenduskeag.
- 1904–1906: It awoke when It rampaged through the woods near Derry, incinerating them. Then It came upon a lumberjack named Claude Heroux, who was hiding in the woods at the time, and, sensing his aggressive nature, possessed him. It, in the body of Claude, murdered a number of men in a bar with an axe. In a possible self-insertion, one of the victims is Eddie King, a possible reference to Stephen King himself, whose middle name is Edwin. In the novel, the unfortunate King is hacked into a number of pieces, an even more gruesome death than his fellow victims of Heroux. Heroux was promptly pursued by a mob of townsfolk and hanged. It returned to hibernation when the Kitchener Ironworks exploded, killing one hundred and eight people, eighty-eight of them being children who were engaged in an Easter egg hunt.
- 1929–1930: It awoke when a group of Derry citizens gunned down a group of gangsters known as the Bradley Gang. It returned to hibernation when the Maine Legion of White Decency, a Northern counterpart to the Ku Klux Klan, burned down an African-American army nightclub which was called "The Black Spot." One of the survivors, Dick Halloran, appeared in King's earlier novel, The Shining.
- 1957–1958: It awoke during a great storm which flooded part of the city, and murdered George Denbrough. It then met its match when the Losers forced It to return to an early hibernation when wounded by the young Bill Denbrough in the first Ritual of Chüd.
- 1984–1985: It awoke when three young homophobic bullies beat up a young gay couple, Adrian Mellon and Don Hagarty, throwing Mellon off a bridge resulting in It killing Mellon, (which echoed real life events in Maine). It was finally "destroyed" in the second Ritual of Chüd by the adult Bill Denbrough, Richie Tozier, Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak and Ben Hanscom.
In the intervening periods between each pair of events, a series of child murders occur, which are never solved. The book's surface explanation as to why these murders are never reported on the national news is that location matters to a news story — a series of murders, no matter how gruesome, doesn't get reported if they happen in a small town. However, the book's implied reason for why the atrocities go unnoticed is far more sinister: It won't allow them to be. In fact, It's power over the town is so absolute that It's death in the second Ritual of Chüd causes an enormous storm that damages the downtown part of Derry.
Although It is seemingly defeated by the novel's end, there are hints in King's later works that It is still alive. Furthermore, It is revealed to be female close to the end of the novel and had laid eggs shortly before its defeat. Whether or not every egg has been destroyed is never completely resolved.
[edit] Characters
[edit] The Losers Club
The seven Losers are the children who are united by their unhappy lives, their misery at being the victims of bullying by Henry Bowers and their eventual struggle to overcome It.
- William "Stuttering Bill" Denbrough: Also known as "Big Bill", he gets his nickname from his bad stuttering problem, which became much more severe after his brother's death; although his mother attributes it to a car accident that occurred when Bill was three, it's implied to be more of a psychological problem than a physical one. His brother George was killed by It in 1957. Bill feels slightly guilty about the murder, because he'd been the one who sent George outside to play. Ever since George died, Bill has been partially ignored by his parents who also blamed him for his brother's death. Beverly Marsh develops an intense crush on him during their time in the Losers Club. When the group returned to Derry in 1985 they sleep together but do not carry their relationship any further. He is the most determined and resourceful of the Losers and is the one who, both in 1958 and 1985, confronts It in the Ritual of Chüd and eventually destroys It. As an adult he marries Audra Phillips, a successful actress bearing a strong resemblance to Bev. As with other King characters Jack Torrance, Paul Sheldon, Ben Mears, Bobbi Anderson, Thaddeus Beaumont, Mike Noonan, Sue Snell, Mort Rainey and numerous others, in 1985, Bill is a famous writer.
- Benjamin "Ben" Hanscom: He was deemed "Haystack" by Richie, after the professional wrestler Haystacks Calhoun. Because of his obesity, he has become a frequent victim of Henry Bowers, who once used a buck knife to try to carve his name into his stomach (he managed an unfinished 'H' before Ben escaped). His father died in a plane crash in the army. He also develops an intense crush on Beverly Marsh and the two leave Derry together after the 1985 defeat of It. In later life, he becomes a successful architect and sheds his excess weight. His mechanical skills become useful to the Losers, from making two silver slugs to building an underground clubhouse where Mike and Richie have a vision of It's cosmic crash into the site which would later become Derry, Maine.
- Beverly "Bev" Rogan: The only female in the group, Beverly is an attractive, chain smoking, redheaded girl from the poorest part of Derry. She has an abusive father who beats her regularly. She develops a crush on Bill Denbrough and her skill with a slingshot is a key factor in battling It. All the boys are described as being fond of Beverly; at some point each has romantic or sexual feelings for her. As a child, her father abused her while using his constant catch phrase, "I worry about you sometimes Bev, I worry a lot." As an adult, she becomes a successful fashion designer, but endures several abusive relationships, culminating in her marriage to Tom Rogan, who sees her as a sex object and disapproves of her chain smoking, using it as an excuse to beat her up. After a brief liaison with Bill, she subsequently departs Derry with Ben following the death of her husband (who was used by It to nearly kill the Losers).
- Richard "Richie" Tozier: Known as "Trashmouth", Richie is the Losers' most lighthearted member, always cracking jokes and doing impersonations, which prove very powerful weapons against It. He is "too intelligent for his own good" and channels his boredom in hyper-active wisecracking, to the point of being self-destructive—his flippant remark to Henry Bowers leads to almost getting beaten up by Henry and his friends. His childhood trauma stemmed from his rapid-fire insults being compulsive and almost subconsciously triggered. He is the most devoted to keeping the group together as he sees 7 as a magical number and believes the group should have no more, no less. In later life he is a successful disc jockey. As the DJ he uses his once-annoying and unrealistic voices as one of his main attractions. These voices became a weapon of the Losers against It, when they find out It could be hurt by Richie's voices. Like Ben, he has a crush on Beverly though it is not crucial to the plot. He has bad eyesight and wears thick glasses as a child, but changes to contact lenses as an adult.
- Eddie "Eds" Kaspbrak: Eddie is a frail hypochondriac whose asthma is psychosomatic. At one point in the story the man who runs the pharmacy told him that he had a placebo and that his medicine is nothing but water. He has a worrying, domineering mother who, ever since his father died, has used Munchausen syndrome by proxy to bully him into caring for her. Eddie is easily the most physically fragile member of the group. Richie calls him "Eds", which he hates (as is demonstrated when It bites off Eddie's arm and his dying words are to Richie, who calls him "Eds": "Richie, don't call me Eds. You know I...I... [without finishing his sentence, "I hate it when you call me that"]"). He is a Methodist, though his family were strict Polish Catholic two generations before Eddie. When Henry and his friends break his arm and his mother tries to prevent the Losers from visiting Eddie in the hospital, he finally stands up to his mother and tells her that he is no longer the helpless kid she thinks he is. He eventually runs a successful limousine business but is married to a woman very similar to his mother. He is eventually killed by It in the final struggle after using his inhaler to wound It, making him the only direct adult victim of It. He also finds the strength to defend himself from Henry Bowers, eventually deforming and killing him in self defense with a broken bottle, even though in the fight his arm is re-broken in the same spot Henry broke it in a scuffle when they were kids. He bleeds to death in the sewers after his arm is bitten off, ultimately dying in the gang's arms.
- Michael "Mike" Hanlon: Mike is the last to join the Losers. He is the only African American child in the group. When he is racially persecuted by Henry Bowers, the Losers fight back against Bowers in a massive rock fight. Mike is the only one of the Losers to stay behind in Derry (and thus the only one to retain his memory of the events of 1958) and becomes the town librarian. He is the one who beckons the others back when the killings begin again in 1985. His father kept an album filled with photos that were important to Derry's history, including several of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Through the knowledge he acquires of Derry and It, he becomes an amateur historian of the town. He is seriously wounded by Henry Bowers and nearly dies. He later recovers from his wounds but like the others starts to lose his memory of the experience, and of the other Losers. It was later revealed in Insomnia that Mike continued as a librarian and was the boss of one of that book's primary protagonists in 1993.
- Stanley "Stan" Uris: Also known as "Stan the Man", Stan is a skeptical, bookish Jewish member of the group. He admits that his family takes a relaxed approach to their faith, rather than practicing it devoutly. Logic, order, and cleanliness are deeply ingrained in his psyche. He is the least willing to accept that It actually exists and relies on logic more than anything else. Stan, much like Mike, is racially persecuted by Henry. As a child his main hobby was birdwatching. He later becomes a partner in a large Atlanta-based accounting firm. However, upon receiving Mike's phone call, he commits suicide by slitting his wrists in the bathtub and writing 'IT' in his blood on the wall. He chose death over returning to Derry to face the ancient terror despite being the one to slice the Losers' palms in a blood oath. It is also implied in the book that Stan remembers more about the children's encounters with It than the others do, sometimes commenting about the Turtle and other events from his time in Derry, though he claims that he doesn't remember what those phrases mean. Bill also blames It for Stan's death, saying in one part of the novel that It "killed Stan the Man."
[edit] Other characters
- Henry Bowers: Henry Bowers is a sadistic, crazed bully who torments the Losers and other kids, both male and female, to no end throughout the summer of 1958. Henry's sanity slowly deteriorates throughout the summer due to the influence of It and abuse from his equally crazy father, Butch Bowers. He is also shown to be a racist as well as his father, and shares in his father's intense hatred for the Hanlon family, the only black family in Derry, in addition to being a misogynist, sexist, homophobe, and anti-semite. He inflicts many acts of violence and humiliation upon the Losers during and before the summer of '58, such as partially carving his name into Ben Hanscom's belly, killing Mike Hanlon's dog and bathing him in mud in order to make him a "tar baby", breaking Eddie Kaspbrak's arm, breaking Richie Tozier's glasses numerous times, and white-washing Stan Uris' face in snow until it bleeds. His eroding sanity becomes apparent during his attacks on Eddie and Beverly: with the former, he pushed a man to the ground and threatened him into going back inside, and kicked out an old lady's taillight when she tried to stand up for Beverly. After a violent rockfight in early July, Henry becomes more and more sadistic until he eventually murders his father in mid-August with a switchblade provided by It and tries to kill the Losers. He follows them into the town sewers with his friends Victor Criss and Reginald "Belch" Huggins, only to be encountered by It in the form of Frankenstein, who decapitates Victor and mutilates Belch's face, but Henry escapes. He fails to kill any of the Losers, but he eventually finds his way out of the sewers and his hair turns white from the shock of witnessing his friends being slaughtered and also seeing It in its true form, which drives him completely insane. He is convicted for the murder of his father and is framed for most of It's murders throughout the summer. He is placed in an insane asylum and remains there until May 29, 1985, when he escapes with It's assistance, and heads back to Derry to attempt to murder the Losers once more. After critically wounding Mike in the town library and being injured himself in the process, Henry then goes to the hotel where most of the Losers are staying, and finds Eddie's room first, only to be killed in the confrontation with Eddie.
- Victor "Vic" Criss: Victor "Vic" Criss is a bully, and one of Henry's sidekicks. Among Henry's gang, Vic is the only one who truly realizes Henry's eroding sanity, and becomes more and more reluctant to hang around Henry. In early August, Vic almost approaches the Losers to join them, but decides against it. By doing this, he seals his fate and joins Henry and Belch in following the Losers into the sewers, where the three encounter It in the form of Frankenstein, who decapitates Vic and mutilates Belch's face, although Henry escapes the monster, only to be framed for most of It's murders, including those of Vic and Belch.
- Reginald "Belch" Huggins: Reginald "Belch" Huggins is another sidekick of Henry's, and earned his nickname due to his ability to belch on command. He is very big for his age, being six feet tall at twelve years old. Belch is considered stupid by most people, which he makes up for in physical strength and his fierce loyalty to his friends, especially Henry. Belch and Vic unwittingly follow Henry into the sewers to murder the Losers, only to be brutally killed by It in the form of Frankenstein's monster.
- Patrick Hockstetter: Patrick Hockstetter is a psychopathic bully who sometimes hangs out with Henry's gang. Patrick keeps a pencil box full of dead flies, which he kills with his ruler, and shows it to other students. He also takes small, usually injured animals and locks them in a broken refrigerator in a junkyard, and leaves them there to die. Along with killing animals, Patrick has also murdered his infant brother, Avery, by suffocation when he was five years old. When alone with Henry after lighting farts with him and his gang one July afternoon in 1958, Patrick gives Henry a handjob and offers to give him oral sex, which snaps Henry out of his daze and prompts him to punch Patrick in the mouth. Henry threatens to tell about Patrick's refrigerator full of dead animals if he tells about the handjob, and quickly leaves. As Patrick opens the refrigerator to dispose of the animal corpses, he finds a swarm of flying leeches, his greatest fear. The swarm attacks Patrick, sucking his blood and leaving large holes all over his body, which causes him to slowly lose consciousness as he is dragged away by It. When he awakens, It begins to feed on him.
- Eddie Corcoran: Eddie Corcoran is a classmate of the Losers Club and Henry's gang. Like Beverly Marsh, Eddie and his younger brother Dorsey are victims of child abuse by their stepfather, Richard Macklin. However, unlike Beverly's father, who proved to be a loving and caring father at times, Eddie's stepfather would often beat them brutally and without warning, at one point throwing Eddie into a coat rack with enough force to make him urinate blood for two weeks simply for accidentally slamming the door. In May 1957, Richard hit Dorsey in the back of the head with a hammer, accidentally killing him, which he covered up to look like an accident. Two days before summer vacation in June 1958, Eddie runs away from home and decides to rest in the park. While sitting on a bench, Eddie's dead brother, Dorsey, approaches him, grabbing his ankle. Eddie breaks free and runs, with Dorsey quickly pursuing him. After a short while, It changes into the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Eddie's greatest fear. It catches up to him and begins choking him, bursting his carotid artery before tearing off his head.
- Adrian Mellon: Adrian Mellon is a young homosexual man in Derry. He grows increasingly tired of the homophobic mindset of the town, and only stays to be with his boyfriend, Don Hagarty. Eventually Don decides to leave as well. Before leaving, however, the two attend a town fair in July 1984, and on the way home are harassed by three homophobic youths. The three attack them, Adrian especially because of a hat he won at the fair, and throw him over a canal. When he hits the bottom, Pennywise finds Adrian, bites into his armpit, and drags him away and kills him, which Don and one of the bullies, Chris Unwin, witness. At the trial, nobody mentions a clown.
- Will Hanlon: Will Hanlon is the father of Mike Hanlon. While dying of cancer in 1963, he tells Mike about his experiences in the U.S. Air Force in the 1920s and about establishing the Black Spot, a club started by Will and his black Air Force buddies and originally meant exclusively for black members, but gradually began accepting members of other races as well. He recounts how, in the fall of 1930, the club was burned down by a group of Maine Legion of Decency members, causing numerous deaths. He also tells Mike that he witnessed a giant bird—the same bird that nearly killed Mike in 1958—carry off a Legion of Decency member and fly away with him in its talons.
- Mr. Keene: Mr. Norbert Keene was the owner and operator of the Center Street Drug Store for fifty years from 1925 to 1975. Mike interviews him and tells him the story of the Bradley Gang, a group of outlaws who came through Derry frequently and caused trouble. He tells Mike that, in 1929, a year before the fire at the Black Spot, the entire gang was murdered by Derry residents when stopping through town to buy guns. Mr. Keene says that rather than covering up the event, the whole town instead pretended that it never occurred, including police Chief Jim Sullivan, who even took part in the slayings. Finally, Mr. Keene mentions seeing a clown participating in the shooting, but that it was wearing farmer's attire rather than a traditional clown suit. He also points out that even though the Sun was out, the clown cast no shadow.
- Tom Rogan: The abusive, violent and sadistic husband of Beverly Marsh. Tom has a very predatory view of women, and he thrives on the control he has over his vulnerable wife. When Beverly tries to leave for Derry, he refuses to let her, whipping her. Tom is surprised when the normally docile Beverly fights back, and almost kills him, before leaving for Derry. Tom, desperate to find his wife, beats one of her friends until he finds out that Beverly is in Derry. Tom goes to Derry with the intent to kill Beverly, and possibly her "writer friend" Bill Denbrough, whom Tom (correctly) assumes she is sleeping with. When he gets there, It uses Tom to capture Audra Phillips and bring her to Its lair under the city. Upon seeing It in Its true form, Tom drops dead in shock.
- Audra Phillips: Bill Denbrough's wife in 1985, Audra is a famous actress. She and Bill have an occasional working relationship: she is set to star in an adaptation of a novel he wrote. When Bill leaves for Derry, he strongly urges Audra to remain in England, and although she agrees, she leaves the next day to follow him. When she makes it to Derry, It uses Tom Rogan to capture her, and uses her as bait to lure Bill Denbrough. When the Losers defeat It once and for all they rescue Audra, but she is catatonic. The book ends with Bill using the last of his childhood to bring her out of the coma. Audra has a strong physical resemblance to the adult Beverly Rogan.
- George Denbrough: The first character introduced in the book, George is Bill's younger brother. He is a stereotypical child, innocent and curious. He is killed when It, appearing as Pennywise, rips off his arm. George's death is the first in the fall of 1957 and it is what drives Bill to defeat It. Although in 1958, It threatens to appear to Bill as George, It never does so until 1985 (excluding Its appearance before Richie and Bill in Georgie's room, when it causes George's school photo to leer and wink at the boys). When Bill sees It as George, he works through his grief and overcomes Its ruse.
- Peter Gordon: A friend of Henry's, who thinks of chasing Mike Hanlon as a game, though Henry's crazed and increasingly violent behavior (such as attempting to outright kill Mike with cherry bombs and M-80s) begins to alienate him. He is never seen again after the rock fight. Eddie assumes that Henry kicked him out of his gang because he was the first to run away from the fight. He also lives in the upper-class West Broadway area of Derry.
- Richard "Dick" Halloran: A chef in Derry Army E Company. Although Dick Halloran plays a minor role in this novel, by saving Mike Hanlon's father at the fire at the Black Spot, he plays a more significant role in the novel The Shining
[edit] Adaptations
Main article:
It (1990 film)In 1990, the novel was loosely adapted into a
television movie featuring
John Ritter as Ben Hanscom,
Harry Anderson as Richie Tozier,
Tim Reid as Mike Hanlon,
Annette O'Toole as Beverly Marsh,
Richard Thomas as Bill Denbrough,
Olivia Hussey as Audra Denbrough,
Dennis Christopher as Eddie Kaspbrak and
Tim Curry as the titular It.
[2]
On 12 March 2009,
Warner Bros. announced that the production of a new adaptation of Stephen King's novel had started. Dan Lin,
Roy Lee and Doug Davison are set to produce.
[3] The screenplay is currently re-written by Dave Kajganich.
[4]
[edit] Links to other King works
[edit] Links to short stories and novellas
- Children of the Corn: In Ben Hanscom's part of "Six Phone Calls", It tells us that he is in a town past Gatlin, Nebraska. Gatlin is the setting for King's short story "Children of the Corn".
- The End of the Whole Mess: Mike Hanlon refers to the lack of crime in a small town in Texas due to the water, a reference to King's short story "The End of the Whole Mess".
- Gray Matter: In King's short story "Gray Matter", an elderly character explains that there are dark corners of the world beyond human comprehension. As an example, he mentions a friend of his, who was once a sewer worker, but unexpectedly quit his job. The man's reason for quitting, he claimed, was that he had seen a giant spider in the sewer tunnels.
- Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: Steven Bishoff Dubay, one of the boys who beat up Adrian Mellon, is sent to Shawshank State Prison. Shawshank also figures in King's novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption".
- N.: In N. The Macroverse, home of It, is also mentioned and is said to contain a creature name "Cthun".
- The Library Policeman: The creature known as Ardelia Lortz, like It, also has a cycle of awakening and sleep, both preceded by periods of extreme violence. Ardelia, while only able to take on the skin of other people (and thus shift shapes) uses that ability to seduce (such as in the case of Dave Duncan), and frighten (when Ardelia appeared to Sam Peebles in the form of the blind pervert who raped him as a child). Like It, Ardelia feeds on fear and only reveals its true form when feeding.
- Suffer The Little Children Eddie visits the Witcham church, on its door in 2-foot-high (0.61 m) letters says, SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME
- The Tommyknockers The town of Haven, and its "Big Injun Woods" is briefly referenced as being North of Derry.
[edit] Links to novels
- Christine: The car that picks up Henry to take him to the Derry Town House is a '58 Plymouth Fury, red and white, and driven by a corpse, in reference to Christine. Another reference to Christine can be found in Henry's psychotic break where It talks to him as the moon through the window of his cell. Henry remembers his father would talk about saving up to buy an old Plymouth he'd seen, usually when he was quite drunk.
- The Dark Tower:
-
- The image of the Turtle as a god-like being in opposition to evil is identical in the Dark Tower series. Both works also speak of "the voice of the Turtle" as telepathic messages from this being aiding the protagonists in their attempt to destroy evil. Similarly, both works share the concept of deadlights.
- In the final Dark Tower novel, there is a robot named Stuttering Bill, a nickname shared by Bill Denbrough.
-
- Dreamcatcher also has a scene set in Derry and also features a gang who do a very brave thing in their childhoods, but tells the story from their adult perspectives, with flashback scenes to their childhoods, much like in It. When Gary Jones, under the influence of Mr. Gray (who is looking for Derry's Standpipe) arrives, they come across a statue made in commemoration of "The Losers" and underneath is spray painted "Pennywise Lives!"
- Gary "Jonesy" Jones in "Dreamcatcher" is taken over by an invading alien calling itself "Mr. Gray". Bob Gray is one of Pennywise's aliases. Mike Hanlon and Richie Tozier also witness Pennywise coming to Earth in what they believe to be a spaceship in the Losers Club smoke ceremony.
- Duma Key: In the novel Duma Key, on the copyright permission's page, it states "Permission to use lyrics from 'Dig' by Shark Puppy (R. Tozier, W. Denbrough)"
- Firestarter: The character of Patrick Hockstetter, who is killed by It in the junkyard, shares a name with a doctor in Firestarter.
- Insomnia: Derry, Maine is the setting for King's Insomnia. The death of Adrian Mellon is also mentioned in that novel, and Mike Hanlon makes an appearance there as the head librarian in the Derry Public Library. Also, Ben Hanscom is mentioned briefly as the architect of the Derry Civics Center. When The Crimson King is defeated by Ralph Roberts, it is forced into a blinding white light, which Ralph thinks of as the Deadlights. Also, Ralph at one point sees a large evil-feeling "aura" erupting out of a sewer manhole.
- Misery: Paul Sheldon remembers having been neighbors with Eddie Kasprack.
- The Shining: When telling him the story of the Black Spot, Mike Hanlon's father talks about an old army friend, Dick Hallorann, who was an army cook. Dick Hallorann is the psychic cook at the Overlook Hotel in King's The Shining.
- The Stand: Ben Hanscom stops in at the Red Wheel Bar in the town of Hemingford Home, Nebraska; this was Mother Abagail's home in The Stand, as well as that of siblings Larry and Katrina in The Last Rung on the Ladder.
- The Talisman: The massive storm at the end of the book is somewhat similar in circumstances to the series of events which happen once Jack grasps the Talisman near the end of the book The Talisman-but on a much more destructive scale.
- The Tommyknockers: Haven, a small village near Derry, is mentioned; this was later the setting for The Tommyknockers. In The Tommyknockers, a character hears chuckling noises coming from the drains in his house; later, another character driving through Derry glimpses "a clown, with silver dollars for eyes, holding a bunch of balloons" waving at him from a storm drain.
- Under the Dome: The symbol seen on the box powering the Dome is the same symbol found on the door to It's lair.
- The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: The last acknowledgment on the first page references "Lyrics from 'Gotta Get Next To Next You (Jus' Slip Me A Taste)' by Richie 'Records' Tozier, copyright 1998 Soul Fine Music. Used by permission", referring to the character Richie Tozier.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
