It (novel)

It

File:It cover.jpg
Author	Stephen King
Cover artist	Bob Giusti, illustration Amy Hill, lettering
Language	English
Genre	Horror
Publisher	Viking
Publication date	1986
Publication place	USA
Pages	1142
ISBN	ISBN 0-670-81302-8

It is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1986. It is one of his longest at over a thousand pages. Considered one of King's most visceral, gory works, It deals with themes which would eventually become King staples: the power of memory, childhood trauma and the ugliness lurking behind a happy, small-town façade.

The novel is the story of seven friends from the town of Derry, Maine, and is told with the narrative alternating between two different time periods.

Plot

In 1958, when they are eleven years old, the seven self-proclaimed members of the "Losers' Club" are united in seeking refuge from a gang of bullies led by Henry Bowers. The children each individually discover the existence of a terrifying, child-murdering, shape-changing monster (which they call "'It"). Its appearance (about once every 27 years) always brings with It gruesome acts of violence that culminates in a horrific tragedy, among them a racially motivated arson attack, a homophobic murder, and the explosion of a factory killing numerous children. It is also responsible for the mutilation and killing of George Denbrough, the six-year-old brother of Bill Denbrough, the leader of the Losers.

It appears in many forms, and takes the shape of Its prey's worst fear (i.e., vampire, werewolf, or mummy), but most often appears as a sadistic, malevolent, balloon-wielding clown by the name of Bob Gray, or Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The children find Its lair and battle It, wounding the monster badly but not killing it. They make a pact to return and fight the creature again if it returns. All but one later move away from Derry and completely forget about the events, but one of the children, Mike Hanlon, who has become the town librarian, remains. He calls the other six characters in 1985, when It returns and the killings begin once more. Only five of the other Losers return to Derry to once again confront It and resurrect their harrowing and long-forgotten memories. The sixth, Stanley Uris, is dead, having committed suicide rather than face the ancient terror.

All except Mike have gone on to success and wealth. Stanley was a partner in a large Atlanta accounting firm. Ben Hanscom is a world-famous architect. Richie Tozier is a nationally syndicated disc-jockey. Beverly Marsh, the only female in the group, is a renowned fashion designer. Bill Denbrough, now a successful horror fiction writer, has married a British actress who bears a striking resemblance to Beverly. Eddie Kaspbrak (a hypochondriac whose asthma is psychosomatic) owns a limousine service catering to the wealthy and famous. The stamp of their unhappy childhoods is evident, however: none of them have children; Bev's husband is an abusive man just like her father; and Eddie married a morbidly obese, neurotic woman bearing a strong resemblance to his mother. Ben, Richie, and Mike have remained single.

Henry Bowers, the crazed bully who tormented the Loser's Club as kids, also emerges from the shadows of their pasts; he was committed to Juniper Hill, an insane asylum, nearly thirty years ago, and is goaded by It into escaping and returning to Derry to kill the remaining six. The book turns to all-out fantasy at the end as the details of Its origins and its sinister ties to Derry, Maine are revealed. An ancient magic ritual involving an enormous battle of wills is used by the Losers to fight It (during which Eddie loses both his arm and his life). It is eventually destroyed by Bill who punched his way into Its body and crushed Its heart in his hands. One unfortunate side-effect of killing It is that the losers have their memories of each other eventually fade out of existence, although the ending leaves an up-beat note with the implication that while they may not remember each other exactly, they know that they will be always be friends.

Connections

The book has many connections within it that tie it in with many other of King's books, including the famed Dark Tower series.

Primarily, 'It' connects to the other Derry, Maine novels (in publication order; The Tommyknockers, Insomnia, Bag of Bones, and Dreamcatcher), though the novel also has repercussions in the stories from King's other novels, especially those set in fictional Maine towns Castle Rock and Jerusalem's Lot. 'It' makes reference to other novels, as well.

--'References in other King novels to It'--

(in chronological order by publication date)

The Tommyknockers

• Tommy Jacklin runs an errand in Derry, and while suffering adverse effects from being away from the air in Haven, sees Pennywise in a manhole 3 years after the events of It took place. "...as he drove up Wentworth Street, he thought he saw a clown grinning up at him from an open sewer manhole -- a clown with shiny silver dollars for eyes and a clenched white glove filled with balloons." It is never clear if this is a hallucination or an actual sighting, but Tommy was 15, so an actual sighting is possible. In the same novel, Ev Hillman hears "chuckling noises" coming from a drain in Derry, but he is under severe distress at the time so this may have been a hallucination.

Insomnia

One of the Derry novels; mentions are made to the 'big flood' that happens in the novel.

• At the end of Insomnia the Crimson King has deadlights and makes a comment that 'shapeshifting is a tradition in Derry'. This both connects Insomnia more closely to 'It' and ties both novels to The Dark Tower series.

• Ed's wedding ring falls into a sewer grate and an implication is made that its story is not through, because "In Derry, things that disappear into the sewer system have a way--an often unpleasant one--of turning up."

• Michael Hanlon is the local librarian. It makes reference to Hanlon hoping to eventually leave Derry, but apparently he never did so.

Bag of Bones

Also one of the Derry novels, though only peripherally. The novel's protagonist, Mike Noonan, lived in Derry with his wife Joanna until her death. While mourning her loss, Mike moves to their near-by summer home, Sara Laughs.

• Bill Denbrough is one of Joanna Noonan's favorite authors.

Dreamcatcher

The final (so far) of the Derry novels. While primarily set some 40 miles North of Derry, in a portion of woods called Jefferson Tract, the characters of Dreamcatcher grew up in Derry and many scenes feature both the city, complete with landmarks central to 'It', and references to the characters and plot of 'It'.

• In King's famous inner thought process, a young Jonesy considers going behind Tracker Brothers (see below), and is sightly hesitant--at first he considers that the ballfield behind Tracker Brothers is often the hang-out place of older bullies, but goes on to think, "No, the big deal is that kids sometimes disappear in Derry, Derry is funny that way, and when they do disappear, they are often last seen in out-of-the-way places like the deserted Tracker Brothers depot. No one talks about this unpleasant fact, but everyone knows about it." An obvious reference to the high child disappearance caused by the creature of 'It'.

Later, a teen-age Henry has the same thought, this time delving a bit deeper with "It's as if the occasional missing kid is the price of living in such a nice, quiet place".

• Jonesy, The Beav, Henry, and Pete first meet Duddits when, on their way home from school, they decide to look in the window of the now-deserted Tracker Brothers Shipping in hopes of seeing a photo of a local girl without panties. They then find three boys threatening to make Duddits eat dog feces.

In 'It', Tracker Brothers is home of two major events. In the 1950's segment of the story, Henry Bowers' friend Belch Huggins hits a homerun in the baseball field that the Tracker Brothers maintain behind their building. In the 80's, while remembering this homerun, Eddie runs into Pennywise for the second time while on that field (the first time being when he encountered Pennywise as a leper).

Interestingly, the meeting between Duddits and the boys happens in between the two events in 'It' (some seven or so years before The Losers return to Derry), meaning that the creature still lives beneath the city.

• Later, as Jonesy is trapped in his own mind, he uses the memory of Tracker Brothers as his hideout, and remembers that the place was destroyed in the storm of '85--the storm which was brought about by the destruction of It.

• Mr. Gray, in possession of Jonesy's body, finds a memorial standing where The Standpipe did before the storm in 1985. It features a cast-bronze statue of two children, a boy and a girl, and a plaque reading:

"TO THOSE LOST IN THE STORM

MAY 31, 1985

AND TO THE CHILDREN

ALL THE CHILDREN

LOVE FROM BILL, BEN, BEV, EDDIE, RICHIE, STAN, MIKE

THE LOSERS' CLUB"

and, further, spraypainted below:

"PENNYWISE LIVES".

• While saving Josie Rinkenhauer, the boys must climb into a drainage pipe: ". . . they crawl into the sewage-smelling dark (there's the stench of something else, too, something old and nasty beyond belief). . . ". The aroma the Losers came to know well as the smell of It.

--'References to Non-Derry titles in It'--

(in chronological order by publication date)

The Shining

• Will Hanlon (Mike Hanlon's father) is saved by Dick Hallorann (the cook from the Overlook Hotel who both teaches Danny about the shining and returns to the hotel to help him) during the fire at the black spot; Hallorann stops Hanlon from trying to escape a certain direction (where he would surely perish in the fire), and points him in the right direction. Hanlon asks him how he knows this, to which Hallorann replies "I just know!" (presumably because of Hallorann's 'shining'). They then escape together.

The Stand

• Ben Hanscom grows up to live in Hemingford Home, Nebraska, the same place that Mother Abigail lives before the characters set up base in Boulder, Colorado.

The Dead Zone

• When Mike Hanlon is giving the Losers the details about the most recent epidemic of murders, Beverly is appalled by the thought that nine children could have died without it making the national news. She says, "When that crazy cop killed all those women in Castle Rock, Maine...." This is a reference to The Dead Zone, in which Johnny Smith solves a series of murders in Castle Rock by fingering sheriff's deputy Frank Dodd.

"The End of the Whole Mess"

• In the same Chinese restaurant-debriefing scene, Mike says, "There's a medium-sized city in Texas where the violent crime rate is far below what you'd expect for a city of its size and mixed racial make-up. The extraordinary placidity of the people who live there has been traced to something in the water...a natural trank of some kind." The reference is to a fictitious phenomenon surrounding Waco, Texas explored further in "The End of the Whole Mess" from Nightmares and Dreamscapes. In the short story, the "natural trank" is traced to its most concentrated point in La Plata, a small town not far from Waco.

The Dark Tower

• Although not directly, there is a vague similarity to a character in The Dark Tower's 7th book. Near the end, the character known as Dandelo may be seen as a relative to, or a member of the same species as It. Both are empathetic vampires who hide their hideous true selves in favour of a welcoming one to lure in victims. It (the word, not the creature) could also be said that It (the creature) and Dandelo are twins of each other as they both feed off emotions. Before Dandelo (Spoiler) dies he turns into a clown. There is also a connection in the 7th book to the maintenance robot, "Stuttering Bill." There also seems to be a connection of Maturin the turtle on which the world is.

It

It apparently originated in a void containing and surrounding the Universe, a place referred to in the novel as the Macroverse. Its real name (if indeed It has one) is unknown -- although 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. Its natural enemy is "the Turtle," another ancient Macroverse dweller who, eons ago, vomited up our Universe and possibly others while having a bout of indigestion. The Turtle shows up again in King's own 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".

In its natural habitat, It is a creature made of a mass of light and chaos known as "the deadlights"; coming face to face with the deadlights drives any living being instantly insane (a common H.P. Lovecraft device). When It enters our universe, though, human minds see Its true form is that of a massive spider; although this is merely the closest a human mind can come to perceiving what It really is, and not the full truth of It. It arrived in our world in a massive, cataclysmic event similar to an asteroid impact; Richie and Mike, two of the Losers, see in a smoke-induced vision (if vision it was) of the remote past Its thunderous, earth-shaking entry into our space-time. It landed in the place that would, in time, become Derry, Maine.

For millions of years It dwelt under Derry, awaiting the arrival of humans, which It somehow knew would happen. Once people settled over Its resting place, It adopted a cycle of hibernating for long periods and waking approximately every twenty-seven years. Its awakening is always marked by a great act of violence, and another great act of violence ends Its spree and sends It back into hibernation:

• 1905-1906: It awoke when a lumberjack named Claude Heroux murdered a number of men in a bar with an axe. Heroux was promptly pursued by a mob of townsfolk and hanged. It returned to hibernation when the Kitchener Ironworks exploded, killing 108 people, 88 of them children engaged in an Easter egg hunt.
• 1930-1931: 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.
• 1957-1958: It awoke when several people were murdered in Derry, most well known being George Denbrough, but a number of others, such as Patrick Hockstetter, Belch Huggins, Victor Criss, Jimmy Cullum, Betty Ripsom, and many other. 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.
• 1985: It awoke when three young homophobic bullies beat up a young gay couple, Adrian Mellon and Don Hagerty, throwing Mellon off a bridge. It was finally destroyed in the second Ritual of Chüd by the adult Bill Denbrough.

It is speculated in the novel that these events are actually caused by It, which somehow influences or gains control of the people involved. Mike Hanlon, one of the Losers, and a character who does a great deal of research on It, learns by interviewing eyewitnesses that a clown (Its favorite form) or some unlikely creature, like the giant bird seen by Mike's father Will in 1931, and later by Mike himself at the remains of the Kitchener Ironworks in 1958, was always present at each event.

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, don't get reported if they happen in a small town.

An important factor is that the things It does or is responsible for are never noticed or, if they are, acted on by bystanders. Bill Denbrough, another major character, is sure that this is either because It is a part of Derry, or because Derry is part of It. This possibility is reinforced at the end of the novel, when the town is practically destroyed by a massive flood as It is finally vanquished.

It finally meets its match in 1958 when, as murders begin happening afresh, a group of children, calling themselves the Losers and led by Bill Denbrough, manage to deduce Its existence. This is mainly because Bill's younger brother, George, was Its first victim of the latest killing cycle, in 1957. They learn that It can take many forms, but it usually assumes the form of whatever the person confronting it fears the most. The kids go after It and wound It severely with silver slingshot slugs in an old abandoned house It frequents.

It attempts to kill them by driving insane a highly unstable schoolyard bully named Henry Bowers. Pursuing the Losers into the sewers, Bowers' two friends are killed by It and Bowers himself flees in terror. He is later committed to a mental hospital after Henry confesses to the child murders. The hospital, Juniper Hill, is also mentioned in the short story "Suffer the Little Children" in the collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and in the novels The Tommyknockers, Insomnia and Needful Things.

Mr. Gray (in Dreamcatcher), furious at finding the Standpipe missing, confronts Jonesy's consciousness--demanding an answer to several questions, one of which is "Who or what is Pennywise?".

Jonesy answers with a somewhat misinformed version of the story in It, beginning with the murder of Adrian Mellon at the hands of Christopher Unwin, Steve Dubay, and John "Webby" Garton and ending with the storm in 1985 which, we learn, was national news.

The fact that it was national news is a fairly interesting aspect, since the killings in Derry barely made the local newspaper. This, perhaps, is because of the loss of It, who seemed to have kept such things from being discussed.

Even more interesting is the "Pennywise lives" message painted on the memorial--of the people who even knew who (and what) Pennywise was, surely only one still resided in Derry at the time--Mike Hanlon, certainly one who wouldn't be spreading the idea. On top of that, Dreamcatcher occurs in the early 2000's (it was published in 2001); if Pennywise had survived, it wouldn't awaken for another 11 years (if its patterns were remaining stable as they had for the past several hundred years), in 2012; 27 years after the end of It.

This message brings into question whether or not It is actually gone--while Bill Denbrough may have done It in, we're still left unsure whether Ben successfully destroyed Its eggs. The further speculation in Dreamcatcher is a chilling consideration.

The Losers

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 the eponymous 'It'. They are clearly characters in the King tradition of sympathetic, plausible heroes who find themselves caught up in an evil they cannot quite comprehend but which they must battle.

Bill Denbrough: Also known as "Stuttering Bill" because of his bad stutter. His brother George was killed by It in 1957. 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 with other King characters Jack Torrance, Paul Sheldon and Mike Noonan, in 1985, Bill is a successful writer.

Ben Hanscom: Known as "Haystack" after the professional wrestler Haystacks Calhoun. Because of his weight, he has become a frequent victim of Henry Bowers. He also develops an intense crush on Beverly Marsh. In later life, becomes a successful architect.

Beverly Rogan (née Marsh): The only female in the group, in 1958, Beverly is from the poorest part of Derry and 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. As an adult, she becomes a successful fashion designer but is married to an abusive husband.

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. In later life, he is a successful DJ.

Eddie Kaspbrak: Eddie is a frail hypochondriac whose asthma is psychosomatic. He has a worrying, domineering mother and is easily the most physically fragile member of the group. He eventually runs a successful limousine business, but is married to a woman very similar to his mother. He is eventually fatally wounded and killed by It, making him the only direct adult victim of IT (all others were killed indirectly).

Mike Hanlon: Mike is the last to join the Losers, 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 he is the town librarian who beckons the others back when the killings begin again in 1985.

Stan Uris: Stan is a skeptical, bookish Jewish member of the group. In 1958, he is the first to encounter It in its natural form. He later becomes a partner in a large Atlanta-based accounting firm. However, he commits suicide upon receiving Mike's phonecall, rather than return to Derry to face the ancient terror.

Reaction

Publisher's Weekly listed It as the best-selling book in America in 1986. The novel has become a favorite among Kings fans and has risen in stature with critics over the years.

The book is perhaps one of King's most immediately unsettling, since the titular character is a child-killing, shape-changing monster (King apparently wanted to create a character that was like "all the old monsters from the movies rolled into one.") While unmistakably one of his more overtly horrific books, the end of the story sees it veer into fantasy territory, which King would revisit with his novel The Eyes of the Dragon, as well as his Dark Tower series. However, many readers consider It to be one of King's most fully realized and moving novels.

Additionally, in the closing chapters of the novel, the under-age Beverly initiates sex with each of the other Losers (also under-age) in turn, in order to calm them all down enough to figure out how to escape the maze-like sewers after defeating It. She has realised that if she does not, they will all die, panicking, in the tunnels: ". . . this was not the place or time for worry: here there was love, desire, and the dark. If they didn't try for the first two they would surely be left with the last". King however is very careful not to make this into a lewd scene. Although all six boys do perform penetrative sex with Beverly, she only shares a climax with two, Ben and Bill. King portrays no lust, but an innocent scene of children not really knowing what they are doing, but showing their love and commitment to each other. King points out that only Bev, Ben and Bill are aware of the full significance of what they do.

This scene was predictably ignored by the television miniseries, along with several references in the beginning of the book to It capitalizing on homophobia in Derry to frame someone for murder.

It was filmed as a TV movie in 1990, featuring Tim Curry as Pennywise.

According to an announcement made by the Sci Fi Channel, It is being remade as a 4 hour TV movie.

The American punk band Pennywise took its name and icon from the repulsive, gleefully sadistic clown which is the creature's primary form and also wrote a song regarding him; metal band The Deadlights took its name from Its true form.

Pop Culture References

In the novel

Films

• The movie Back to the Future is playing at the town's movie theater; however, the events in the story take place in May 1985, whereas that movie came out in July of that year. (However, avid readers of "The Dark Tower" novels will know that this is indeed an intentional error.)

To the novel

Books

• The book makes an appearance in the first of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics; one of the men set to guard the imprisoned Sandman can be seen reading it before the Sandman makes his escape. Several issues later, when Rose Walker returns to the cavern where the Sandman was kept, the book is visible on the floor in the background.

Films

• In the beginning of the movie Donnie Darko, Donnie's mother Rose (played by Mary McDonnell) is seen reading the novel.

Music

• The music video of Blind Guardian's cover of "Mr. Sandman" features the band dressed as Pennywise's clown form as depicted in the film. Also, one of Blind Guardian's songs, called "Guardian of the Blind," is based on the novel 'It.'

• 'It' is referenced numerous times by the singer/songwriter Simon Mastrantone in the track "Midnight Walks".

• Vocalist Chad Gray of the band Mudvayne went by the pseudonym "Chüd" for a number of years.

Trivia

• King claimed that this would be his last book in which children would be the victims of horrendous violence. However, children did indeed become the victims of violence once again in Stephen King and Peter Straub's Black House.

• In King's Novel The Running Man, Ben Richards goes to Derry forty years after It is killed.

• In It, there may be a tiny link to the Dark Tower series through the wallpaper in the abandoned house the kids enter. The wallpaper has a design of capering elves, which is the same design as the mansion in The Waste Lands through which Jake finds his way back into Roland's world.

• While retelling the story of The Bradley Gang and recounting those who saw the events, Norbert Keene mentions a man named "Pickman" referring to him as "...that old geezer who paints those funny pictures..." which may be a sly reference to Richard Upton Pickman, the main character from H.P. Lovecraft's short story Pickman's Model.