It door Stephen King

Point of view

The angle from which the novelist tells his story is from the story-teller namely the reader.

Characterization

The seven main characters are:
Stanley Uris: Also known as Stan the Man. He is part of the group too, but he is the one that’s got “shitty” to a couple of grownups’ rules. He and Beverly smoke very much, but for the rest his personality is not discussed that much.
Richard Tozier Usualy called Richie. He did voices of famous people and hometown people too. He was a little cheeky to grownups too. Also about him I don’t know much more.
Mike Hanlon: He’s the only one that stayes in Derry for his whole life and that is why he knows everything all the time. His personality is strong and full of self convidence. Also he was a “nigger” and that is why a couple of kids wanted to bust him up.
Ben Hanscom: He is in love with Beverly and tries to protect her as good as he can. He is a big (fat) boy with a little fear but he never lets his friends down.
Eddie Kaspbrak: He is a person which is spoilt by his too-concerned mother. According to the story he had ashtma in a heavy way and got sick every now and then when there was a special disease in town. He himself is convinced by his loving and caring mother not to spend his time with these other kids, but that was the first thing ever he refused to do. Besides that he is a mothers-baby, he is weak and has a great lack of self convidence.
Beverly Rogan: She is the only woman in this group of seven and allthough she acts and feels like one of the guys, when they finally end up in the sewers to defeat It, her womanhood saves them all by making love to each one of the guys to give them new courage and faith. She is described as a very pretty girl that has got enough courage and strength to get them all through alive in their rough childhood
Bill Denbrough: Also known as stuttering Bill. He is the one that always makes the decisions and therefore he is the leader of the group of these seven main-characters. He is strong, full of convidence and loves Beverly very much. Especially in difficult situations the others ask him what they should do and he always has an answer.

Some other Characters are:

Henry Bowers, Belch and Moose Sadler: This is the group that is chasing and terrorizing Mike Hanlon because he is black.
Georgie; This is Bill’s brother who is killed by Pennywise the clown.

There are also all the parents and a lot of inhabitants of Derry, which I won’t discuss.

Plot, structure and technique

I will try to tell how the story begins and then develops to the end.
The story begins in 1957 when a small boy was found dead nearby the sewer in Derry and as far as the writer knows that is the point where and when everything began. A clown named Pennywise killed Georgie, Bill’s brother. In this time there had been a flood.

Then the story is going on in 1984 just after a murder, where a clown had been seen also in Derry. The men who threw somebody over the bridge saw a clown dragging the body out of the water, but they both give a different story to the police and none of them is lying!

Then the story is in other places, where six the grownups live that created the Losers in their youth. The seventh member named Mike Hanlon still lives in Derry and he calls the other six people of the Losers . Before he called them none of them even remembered their childhood, but from the time he called the memories and scars are coming back. Then they all meet again in Derry and they all get back a part of their memories during the time that they spend in Derry.

Again the story goes back to their childhood in 1958 when a lot of strange events take place like the bloody bathroom in the house of Beverly and her parents, which their parent don’t see and when Bill is looking in a photobook the picture comes alive and he sees his brother an Pennywise the clown in it. A lot of strange things happen also in the Barrens where the kids have their underground clubhouse. One of the important events is that the group of Henry, Belch and Moose are trying to kill or hurt Mike Hanlon every time they see him, but when Mike is a part of the Losers all the Losers are protecting him and they “almost” killed Henry once trying to protect theirselves.
Once they went up to Neibolt street in a house that was supposed to be haunted or something, but when they got their they heard the clown again and they went back there to kill him with silver bullets, they failed. At a time they don’t know what to do anymore so they did the ritual of Chud, what meant that they were sitting in a hole in the ground with a lot of smoke and they hoped they’d get a vision of what to do.

Some jumps of the time are also there in the last part.

At the end they find out that they went in the sewers when they were young, because It was there and they had to defeat It. They got lost and Beverly made love to all of them to keep the spirits up. The didn’t defeat It only hurt It badly. This meant they had to go there again but now as grownups. When they arrived at It they all remembered everything again except the part of how they had defeated It the last time. Eventually It is killed by working together and the clear thinking of Bill.

The climax in the story is when the time jumps from the past to the present for the last time almost at the end of the book when all the memories are back and they are going to defeat It for the second time.

During the whole story the most important is: how the children/grownups handle their childhood fears. Because of the constant fear in the story, the people are conquering these challenges as if their lives depend on it. It does!!!

The novel is divided in chapters, which all have their main events and important happenings.
The auther used a lot of other sources like songs and poems, there is a complete list in the book. The title “IT” has a special meaning, because there is no good describing word for the “creature” that they have to defeat.

Style and tone

The language in the book is sometimes hard to read and long during (slepend).
The tone is constant making you aware of the fear and serious meaning of the event for the story. There is a lot of description and dialogue between the seven children/adults. (About 1:1)

Theme

The theme of the book is according to me childhood fears, but in this way that parents cannot help to defeat them. They’re on their own!!!

Personal reaction

I liked all seven main-characters in the book because of their commitment to eachother and their loyalty. I disliked Eddie’s mom, because she tried to keep her son for herself and did not give him some freedom. She even lied about his sickness.
There was also some humour in the book, namely the jokes that Richie made sometimesit was a little dull, but usually funny.
I was very impressed about how the theme was displayed, because the events are not really science fiction with all nonsense, there was a lot of no nonsense too.
I really don’t have a favourite part except maybe for the end, but that was where the book was all about so I think that doesn’t count.

At page 1105 there isa quote from Stephen King I like a lot:
“You can’t be careful on a skateboard man”
Some kid.
The reason why I like this is because I think that it is completely true. Parents want their children to have fun, but they don’t want them to hurt themselves. Sometimes this combination is not possible for instant when a kid enjoys riding a skateboard or defeating the devil, they cannot expect to never fall or be hurt.

I’d like to tell Stephen King that he is a really good writer with a lot of deep-thinking in his books and I’d like to ask him where was he afraid of when he was a kid?

I learned from this book that it is allright to have fears as long as you try to defeat them in any way you can. You must never ever give up.

A song came into my mind while I read the book: “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Nobody knows my sorrow”.
I guess this came into my mind because the children in the book are also all alone and on their own to defeat It. Their parents can’t see It or It’s result and don’t want to listen to them. So they see a lot of scary and disatrous things and they are the only ones, who can make It stop.

Book award guide

creating characters 8
developing a plot 10
telling interesting story 9
writing humour 6,5
causing emotions 8

Total degree: 8,5