It (monster)

It is a creature invented by Stephen King for his horror novel by the same name. It is better known under the guise of the evil clown Pennywise. It may be inspired by urban legends and modern folk tales of the Grinning man, an ethereal giant wearing an absurd unigarment and a perverse smile. As with It, the Grinning man's apperance is marked by a surge in violence in surronding areas, or possibly it is attracted to violence. Like the traditional Boogy man, the grinning man haunts the dreams of those who see it, and like It, it may attack children.

Related Topics:
Stephen King - Horror - Novel by the same name - Evil clown - The Grinning man

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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, and it is christened "It" by the group of children who later confront it. Its natural enemy is "the Turtle" another macroverse dweller who, eons ago, vomited up our Universe and possibly others. The Turtle is based on other World Turtle stories, such as the Discworld's Great A'Tuin. (The Turtle also is mentioned in King's own series, The Dark Tower. In that story, the world is basically held together by twelve beams, each of which has an animal guardian. The Turtle is the most important of these). The book suggests that It, along with the Turtle, are the creations of a separate, unknowable Creator (almost certainly referring to King himself, as the "author" of all that exists within the universe of the book).

Related Topics:
Universe - Turtle - World Turtle - Discworld - Great A'Tuin - The Dark Tower - Creator

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In its natural habitat, It is a creature made of orange "deadlight"; coming face to face with this light drives any living being instantly insane. When It enters our universe, though, its natural form is that of a massive spider, fifteen feet high. It arrived in our world in a massive, cataclysmic event similar to an asteroid impact, although the entry seems to have been into our space-time rather than merely into the atmosphere of Earth. It landed in the place that would, in time, become Derry, Maine.

Related Topics:
Insane - Spider - Asteroid - Derry, Maine

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

Related Topics:
Violence - Hibernation

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• 1905-1906: It awoke when a lumberjack named Claude Heroux murdered a number of men in a bar with a huge axe. It returned to hibernation when the Kitchener Ironworks exploded, killing many 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.

It is speculated in the novel that these events are actually caused by It, who somehow gains control of the people involved. The librarian Michael Hanlon, the character who does a great deal of research on It, learns by interviewing eyewitnesses that a clown named Pennywise (Its favorite form) or some unlikely creature, like the giant bird seen by Mike's father Will in 1931, was always present at each event. In the intervening periods between each pair of events, a series of child murders occurs, which are never solved. These murders are never reported on the national news, most likely because location matters to a news story - a series of murders, no matter how gruesome, don't really get reported if they happen in a small town.

Related Topics:
Librarian - Clown - Murders

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An important thing about It 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 because It is a part of Derry, or Derry is part of It.

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It finally meets its match in 1958 when, in light of a new rash of murders, a group of children, calling themselves the Losers' Club and led by Bill Denbrough, manage to deduce Its existence. This is mainly because Bill's younger brother, George, was Its first victim 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 after luring them to It, in the form of Pennywise the Clown. The kids go after It and hurt it gravely with silver slingshot slugs in an old abandoned house, which It frequents. It attempts to kill them through a highly unstable schoolyard bully named Henry Bowers, but they track It to its lair in the sewers under Derry. Pursuing them, Bowers's two friends are killed by It and Bowers himself flees in terror. He is later committed to a mental hospital.

Related Topics:
1958 - 1957 - Fears - Silver - Slingshot - Bully - Sewers - Mental hospital

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The kids discover Its true form and Bill, looking into Its eyes, is transported out of his body and into the void of the universe - It intends to bring him face to face with the deadlights. On the way, Bill meets the Turtle. Before being brought out of the universe to the deadlights, Bill uses all his mental powers to escape back into his body. He seriously wounds It, but It manages to flee before the kids can kill it totally. They make a pact to return to Derry should the murders begin again.

Related Topics:
Out of his body - Pact

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They do, in 1985, and Mike Hanlon (the only one to stay behind in Derry) calls them to come back again. One, Stanley Uris, commits suicide by slitting his wrists in the bathtub, but the rest return, even though they remember very little of what they did in 1958. They eventually return to the sewers and discover what Stan Uris had been the only one to realize before - It is female and, what's more, pregnant. The same thing as before happens to Bill, but this time, he is aided by his friend Richie Tozier, who joins him in the void and whose skill at voice imitation wounds It greatly. Another, Eddie Kaspbrak, dies of blood loss fighting It after his arm is torn off. Bill and Richie return to Earth, and It flees, leaving a trail of eggs behind. Ben Hanscom, another of the Losers, tries to destroy all the eggs while Bill and Richie confront It. Bill, given power by the creator of It and the Turtle, smashes into Its internal cavity and crushes Its heart, killing It.

Related Topics:
1985 - Suicide - Female - Pregnant - Blood loss - Eggs - Heart

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But even this seemingly final destruction may not have been enough to completely eradicate It. Later, one of the residents of Haven, ME, who along with the entire town was being transformed into the reincarnation of a long dead extraterrestrial race, while driving through Derry thought he saw the form of a clown watching him from a sewer. Years later, Gary Jones, who was a child living in Derry when the Losers' Club returned as adults, revisited his hometown while possessed by an alien entity (different from the ones who invaded Haven) and found a statue dedicated to all the child victims of It, erected by the Losers. On the base of this statue, written in the clown's signature red paint, were the words "PENNYWISE LIVES".

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