Themes and Analysis

“It” tells the story of a group of seven 11-year-old children, Losers Club, who face IT(Pennywise). The novel explores deep themes like coming of age and friendship in the formative years of young minds.

Themes

“It” explored themes of bravery, coming of age, fear, and sacrifice. The novel shows how a group of young and weak children came together to defeat a powerful monster that existed at the start of the universe.

The Victory of Good Over Evil

Throughout “It,” the Losers Club experienced multifaceted problems, including Henry Bowers, a bully who terrorized them, the monster IT, and social and family issues. “It” showed that though the Losers Club were inexperienced children fighting a monster as old as the universe and one determined to end their lives out of spite, their will to battle for what was good triumphed over the evil that encompassed their town, Derry. The novel uses this theme to explain that evil can be defeated when people work together.

Twenty-seven years after their first encounter, the Losers Club had to face the evils they defeated before. Even though they were grownups, they had to fight amidst the problems in their personal, professional, and love lives. The triumph of the Losers club over their issues and IT showed that good wins when people are ready to do all it takes to end terror and suffering.

Bravery

Stephen King perfectly portrayed the bravery possessed by the Losers Club. Throughout the book, the group exhibited valiance in dealing with the situations around them. The Losers Club’s bravery even contradicted their name, and the valor they dissipated led to them finally killing IT(Pennywise). “It” used the Losers Club to show that bravery is strength in the presence of fear.

Instances of bravery throughout the novel include Bill personally confronting a monster as old as the universe, Eddie giving his life to save his friends, and Ben destroying IT’s eggs, Beverly. Other members of the Losers Club also exhibited bravery as they fought IT in the form of their fears as children. The Losers Club also dealt with their social problems by defeating Henry, who had terrorized them for a long time.

Coming of Age

Coming of age is a primary of “It.” The novel showed the journey every member of the Losers Club took to mature into adulthood. The crucial point marking their transition into adulthood was Beverly having sex with the boys; this showed the Losers Club getting rid of their innocence and making the transition.

Another critical aspect of the Losers Club’s coming-of-age journey was when they reunited again twenty-seven years later due to IT’s awakening. At their reunion, each person discovered how they had grown concerning the horror they faced as children. Though they had successful careers, the elements of their haunted childhood still lingered over them; this resulted in Stan taking his life on learning IT had returned.

Fear

Fear is an even more powerful tool regarding what we dread the most. Though the Losers Club showed bravery, they were terrified throughout “It.” Stephen King portrayed the novel exquisitely by showing the horror each member of the Losers Club had to bear. The group’s family and societal problems made IT exploit them in the form of what they feared the most.

Fear coursed throughout the book as horror crept in from unexpected corners. Each grueling scene enhanced the feeling of the monster IT, watching and waiting to pounce on everyone, including the reader. Fear also resulted in the death of people like Stan, who killed himself twenty-seven years after fighting IT, and Tom Rogan dying from fear and shock of seeing the monster’s final form.

Revenge

Revenge was crucial in “It,” as it made Stephen King create a measuring bracket against other emotions like bravery. Bill was a stuttering little boy whose drive to avenge his dead brother led him to fight a powerful ancient entity. Stephen King showed that revenge knows no age as the Losers Club was a bunch of children fueled by revenge and a goal to defeat the monster that had terrorized them.

Stephen King did not limit the drive for revenge to only the Losers Club as other characters in “It“ sought revenge. Henry swore vengeance on the losers club after they won in a stone fight. His quest for revenge was the tool IT used to manipulate him into hunting down the Losers Club. Though Henry was arrested and sent to an asylum, his quest for vengeance did not stop as he returned for his pound of flesh twenty-seven years later.

Another character who sought revenge was the monster IT. Having felt defeated by children, he tried destroying the Losers Club’s lives by targeting their loved ones, including Audra, Bill’s wife, and Tom, Bev’s husband. IT won partially by killing Eddie but failed to realize Eddie’s sacrifice spelled his doom.

Key Moments

1. In October of 1957, George gets killed by a clown who called himself Pennywise after his boat had washed down the gutter. George was Bill Denbrough’s brother, and his death sparked the flames of revenge.
2. The following year, a group of bullies led by Henry Bowers tries to hurt an 11-year-old boy, Ben, but he escapes and meets six other kids named Eddie, Richie, Stan, Beverly, Mike, and Bill. They call themselves the Losers Club. They gave themselves the name because they were, by all accounts, losers.
3. The Losers Club shares their experience of encountering a being that came as their fear. They call the entity IT. The name of the monster came as a result of its multiple faces and appearances.
4. The Losers Club links murders and tragic events to IT, unraveling how long the monster terrorized Derry. They will soon learn it’s age.
5. Mike tells his friends a prehistoric bird chased him; this leads the group to figure out that IT was older than they thought.
6. The Losers Club fights Henry and his gang in a stone fight. They win, and Henry promises revenge. Henry hated every one of them because he was also suffering from abuse at home.
7. The Losers Club decides to perform a native American smoke hole ceremony to hallucinate IT’s origin. The group discovers the monster is millions of years old and hibernates for twenty-seven years, awakening after a tragic event.
8. Henry breaks Eddie’s arm in July, hospitalizing him.
9. Beverly witnesses Patrick, one of Henry’s gang members’ death. The Losers Club heads to the scene where writing from IT warned them to steer off his path. He tries taunting them to forfeit the fight.
10. IT tells a story of how he existed in a void between universes. He called the void the macro verse. The monster speaks directly to the reader in this scene.
11. The Losers Club fights a werewolf, an alternate form of IT. They successfully injure the werewolf with two silver slugs Ben made. The monster sends Henry after the club and gives him a switchblade, with which he kills his father. IT exploited Henry’s hatred of his abusive father.
12. Henry and his friends head into the sewers to kill the Losers Club but encounter Frankenstein, an alternate version of IT. Henry’s friends die, but he escapes and is sent to an asylum by the authorities. Bill discovers a ceremony called the Ritual of Chud, which enables him to enter the macro verse, where he meets Maturin, the turtle who created the universe. The story seems to enter a weird territory here.
13. Bill forces IT to sleep after winning the battle of wills with Maturin’s help. Twenty-seven years later, IT awakens, and Mike calls the group to fulfill their promise. The Losers Club made a promise to return if the monster awakened.
14. On getting a call, Stan kills himself, writing IT on the wall. The group of now six decides to kill IT once and for all. They fight alternate forms of the monster separately while exploring the town to refresh their memory.
15. Audra, Bill’s wife, Tom Rogan, Beverly’s husband, and Henry also arrive in Derry. Henry attacks Mike and is injured. After being instructed by IT, he tries to kill Eddie but dies in the process. Henry’s death happened because he was sucked into a hateful spiral involving the Losers Club and IT.
16. Tom kidnaps Audra and brings her to IT, where he dies of shock, with Audra entering a state of catatonia. The Losers Club heads to fight IT. They enter the monster’s mind with the Ritual of Chud but lose their way. The being they faced had a complex mind that felt like a maze to navigate.
17. Eddie sacrifices himself to save his friends, and Bill finally kills It.
    
    

Style, Tone, and Figurative Language

“It” is a complex story of grief, revenge, and coming of age. Stephen King employed epistolary writing, refreshing dialogues, excellent figures of speech, and a dreadful tone that increased the story’s realism.

Style

Stephen King employed writing in the third person/omniscient point of view; this perspective of writing made him the sole controller of events happening in the story. However, he broke the fourth wall when IT directly addressed the readers; this increased the thrill by making the reader see the monster for what it represents.

The novel also featured epistolary writing. Epistolary writing involves using quotes, news clippings, reports, and other literary materials to make a work more realistic. Stephen’s exquisite use of this style gave the novel an excellent aura of horror, excitement, and dread.

Tone

The tone used throughout “It” was scary, frightening, and threatening. Throughout the novel, Stephen King uses terrifying explanations to make the reader feel on edge. The book puts each character in scary situations where one wrong move blurs the line between life and death.

Also, throughout the novel, Stephen King ensures scenes explicitly inflict fear on the reader’s mind. An example of this was the monster IT bragging about how unstoppable it was. The being did this by directly addressing the reader as if it could see them.

Though each character exhibited a little bit of freedom from the author, they still conformed to the rules of the book, which allowed them to face the terror unleashed at every angle of perspective by the storyteller. Stephen King’s deliberate alternation between timelines and his epistolary writing form, which used a combination of letters, magazine articles, and news clippings from books, gave “It” true realism, which made each part of the story have a vivid effect on the reader.

Figurative Language

The last part of the story shows Stephen King’s exceptional use of figurative language. The statement:

Or so Bill sometimes thinks on those early mornings after dreaming, when he almost remembers his childhood and the friends with whom he shared it.

Stephen King Epilogue

The statement above is a metaphor that portrays a storyteller who wishes to escape the horrors that defined his career. Other figurative language used in the novel includes similes, which extensively compare and quantify the actions of the novel’s characters, personification, and hyperbole, which portrays the intensity of each character’s feelings. An example is Ben’s poem, which reads:

Your hair is winter fire,
January embers.
My heart burns there, too.

Ben Chapter 4

This was a poem written by Ben for Beverly. It was how he expressed his love for Beverly. The lines quantify how crazy Ben was over Beverly.

Key Symbols

“It’s” symbols represent multiple aspects of the human mind. It shows how fear, guilt, and corruption can seep into people and alter their hopes for the future.

Silver

Bill’s old bicycle represents something Stephen King portrays throughout the book: the innocence of childhood, something Bill and the rest of the Losers Club lost when they matured into adulthood. Silver also represents not wanting to let go of the past and the memories we keep with us even when we leave everything else.

Boat

Bill made a boat for George to play with. Instead, it led to George’s death. The paper boat represents a painful past for Bill. It was a haunting feeling that made him feel he was responsible for his brother’s death. This feeling eventually became Bill’s greatest fear, a fear IT used against him.

Derry’s Canal

Derry’s canal represents the evil and corruption beneath a society that seems okay. Because Derry was a quiet town, no one could have realized a destructive monster lurked underneath. It was all rosy at the surface, like most societies today.

The Refrigerator

The refrigerator used by Patrick represents what happens when one stores their deepest thoughts for a long time. The fridge represents a mind tormented with dark thoughts that eventually destroy a person.

IT

Though a character in the book, IT symbolizes a person’s greatest fear. The being was a monster that manifested in the form of what its prey feared, giving it an upper hand. The book showed that a person’s fear could become a severe disadvantage if they do not try to face and defeat it.