Questions About It

by Stephen King (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (182)

What to do? What to do? Started to read this book more than a year ago and I was fascinated about first 50 pages. But more I was reading, less interesting it got and now I stuck on the page 341 (seems forever as I have read some other books in between). OK, the question - should I get over myself and try to finish it and how to do that?

Lindsey Albright While I love the book, it's easily one of my favorites, if you aren't enjoying it, don't beat yourself up about not finishing it. Someone far more int…moreWhile I love the book, it's easily one of my favorites, if you aren't enjoying it, don't beat yourself up about not finishing it. Someone far more intelligent than I once told me that he didn't bother with a book if it didn't capture his interest by the first 50 pages. Life's too short to suffer through books you don't enjoy. If it's not for you, there's no shame in that.(less)

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Julie

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B Villarreal (Sorry in advance for this long response)

I did find this scene a little unsettling and out of place, but after reading the book again, I think there a…more(Sorry in advance for this long response)

I did find this scene a little unsettling and out of place, but after reading the book again, I think there are some reasons that lead to this particular act.

Like the blood oath that bonded them together, this was also a sort of pact. A much more intimate pact, a pact that solidified their equal and eternal love for each other. Their love for each other is mentioned so many times throughout the book, its something that is just a fact, something that will(can) never change, and something that they will always remember, even when everything else is forgotten. When they have their first reunion as adults, no one (except for Mike, who never left Derry) can remember anything that happened in those dark times. Their memories start coming back, but from the very beginning there are two things they remember for certain: they made a blood oath that could not be broken, and they loved each other and always would. The reasons why Beverly decides on this particular pact and slightly forces the others into it, I think have a lot to do with facing fear, and growing up.

A constant theme throughout the book is the Losers facing their fears, as IT transforms into each of their personal nightmares. The mummy, werewolf, leper, the giant bird, and so on. In this certain scene, I think Bev is facing her most secret fear.
For all of the other Losers, they have their first encounters with IT and see it as some kind of monster. Ben sees a mummy. Stan sees those dead boys in the standpipe, and so on for all of them. Bev is the only one who doesn’t see IT as some kind of monster.
I don’t think her first encounter with IT in her bathroom is a coincidence at all. Children’s voices and giggling(innocence) and then a red balloon creeping out of the drain and popping, splattering her and the whole bathroom with blood. Yes, symbolic of loss of innocence, and “popping the cherry”.

Her relationship with her father is anything but healthy. He physically and emotionally abuses her and there are hints that he might sexually abuse her too (When her mother asks if he ever touches her and she finds the question so unsettling, she replays it in her head all day (Almost as if she is just realizing that the way he touches her is wrong)). At the very least, he thinks about her in a sexual way and she can feel it, and it makes her ashamed of her sexuality and changing body. It makes her afraid of sex altogether. When she finds her self in the junkyard and sees all of the bully boys with their pants down, the thought of one of them finding her and raping her is unbearable. She’s not afraid to take a beating or hunt down a creature that might be Evil itself, but she thinks she would rather die than have him put his “thing” inside of her.

Throughout the book, the Losers not only have to face their fear of monsters and “make-believe things”, but they have to face their real-life fears as well in order to grow. Eddie finally stands up to his mom when he is in the hospital, Stan faces his religious or moral convictions about involving himself with IT, Bill is able to to face Georgie when he sees the georgie-thing, those are just a few examples. They each have a fear, or fears, they have to face in order to get where they need to be.

When IT (possesses?) (influences?) her father, he tells her to take off her pants so he can “check” to see if she’s still intact. He says, “he knows just the way”. Beverly finally stands up to him and runs away and faces her most obvious fear: her father. But she knows that she has to face her fear of sex too before all of this can truly end. IT is clearly holding that fear over her.

After they all come face-to-face with IT, which of course is the most terrifying thing of all, she almost seems to feel guilty that she is still afraid of anything else. She knows for her sake that she needs to do “the sex thing” now. Its time for her to face her fear. And the boys all seem to know, in a way, that she needs this. They don’t protest too much, and in the end they all comply. They all grow up.

Although they are still very young, they are wise beyond their years after IT. They understand things, they have seen things, and they know that they can’t really be children anymore. They can never get that innocence back. I think in a symbolic way, this act is all of them growing up. This act is them facing their fears.
They know its something that grownups do, and for all of them, their childhood has ended.

This book is about growing up (among many, many other things). Sex, blood, and love are mentioned constantly throughout the book, and those are, in a way, essential steps on the ladder to adulthood. And those three things all expressly come out in this scene.
The scene did seem very out of place and uncalled for, but I think it actually plays a bigger, more symbolic part in the story than I realized my first time reading it. (less)

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Dreea I signed in to Goodreads today specifically to find an answer to that question. I found it somewhere else, supposedly from an interview with Stephen K…moreI signed in to Goodreads today specifically to find an answer to that question. I found it somewhere else, supposedly from an interview with Stephen King:

"I wasn't really thinking of the sexual aspect of it. The book dealt with childhood and adulthood --1958 and Grown Ups. The grown ups don't remember their childhood. None of us remember what we did as children--we think we do, but we don't remember it as it really happened. Intuitively, the Losers knew they had to be together again. The sexual act connected childhood and adulthood. It's another version of the glass tunnel that connects the children's library and the adult library. Times have changed since I wrote that scene and there is now more sensitivity to those issues."(less)

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I am quite interested in this book but since it is very long I was wondering if I should directly watch the movie instead of reading the book. Will watching the movie be more enjoyable or reading the book ?