thymeoperator
March 30th, 2009, 10:54 AM
Hi, I’m new on here – I just finished reading ‘IT’ the other day. I’d put it off a long time because I hated the film so much, but everyone here was raving about it so I gave it a go, and I think it’s one of my favourite books ever written now. I was looking around here for interpretations of the whole story but I couldn’t find any, so I thought I’d start a thread for it. I haven’t read the Dark Tower books yet, so I don’t know what it says in explanation of things in ‘IT’, but I had my own interpretation of the book:
I thought the whole thing was about having to grow up. All the kids are 11/12 years old, so they’re on the cusp of puberty. Near the end, when they all make love to Beverly, it says sex is something kids don’t know much about and parents don’t talk about much and it just gets referred to as ‘IT’ – so I understood that to mean that ‘IT’ is just anything unknown that frightens and remains mysterious and elusive, and it can take whatever form dependent on who you are, but it’s a lot to do with the mysteries of having to grow up. Also it says IT is a clown because it’s the unknown but you have to laugh at it too, just like you have to laugh at the things you fear, in order to cope.
Then they grow up and forget everything, and have to return 27 years later – by that point they’re sort of middle-aged, and I think that’s what people tend to do around that age, or at least that’s the cliché, isn’t it? So it’s like just the natural revisiting of your childhood, fitting the pieces together before you can sort yourself out and move on with the rest of your life. Also, the way they all were childless…I thought it felt like they all had their own personal traumas they needed to face, in order to grow up, before they were able to move on and have children themselves – and Stan couldn’t cope with facing up to his own past, he’d rather die, it was too much for him. Eddie was weaker in this regard too, maybe, because his life really was a continuation of childhood, since he married his ‘mother’.
In that way, I thought the sewers were like a metaphor for the dark scary unknown in your own mind, venturing into the murk and trying to find your way out. When they all sleep with Beverley, it’s like…instead of fearing it, they embrace IT, and that’s what suddenly makes them know which way to go, how to navigate out of the dark.
I also thought maybe it’s all metaphoric, that the kids didn’t even die, that it’s more like children have to ‘die’ in order to become adults, and that’s why all the parents seem to just ‘let it happen’ as it says, and the kids are described as ‘already ghosts’ and adults seem to treat it like its inevitable, no one will do anything about it – and the parents are all described as being afraid of the children because they’re changing, maybe that’s IT for the parents? And perhaps the turtle, in that sense, is like the parents? And that’s why in the end when they go back to it, IT says the turtle can’t save them now, it’s dead – and interestingly all their parents seem to be dead and gone too. They’re adults now, they have to face the mystery alone, they can’t turn to their parents for guidance anymore. Also I thought the imagery of a turtle conveyed ignorance, like just sinking into your shell and refusing to see.
And in that way I thought Tom died seeing IT because he was so screwed up he couldn’t face his own traumas, but Audra was stronger and only went into shock – and Bill at the end being able to save her, I think it was like he had to defeat his own inner demons before he could truly love, and once he’d done that, that was what allowed him to open up fully to Audra and go on with his life.
Sorry this got so long! Any thoughts on it?
I thought the whole thing was about having to grow up. All the kids are 11/12 years old, so they’re on the cusp of puberty. Near the end, when they all make love to Beverly, it says sex is something kids don’t know much about and parents don’t talk about much and it just gets referred to as ‘IT’ – so I understood that to mean that ‘IT’ is just anything unknown that frightens and remains mysterious and elusive, and it can take whatever form dependent on who you are, but it’s a lot to do with the mysteries of having to grow up. Also it says IT is a clown because it’s the unknown but you have to laugh at it too, just like you have to laugh at the things you fear, in order to cope.
Then they grow up and forget everything, and have to return 27 years later – by that point they’re sort of middle-aged, and I think that’s what people tend to do around that age, or at least that’s the cliché, isn’t it? So it’s like just the natural revisiting of your childhood, fitting the pieces together before you can sort yourself out and move on with the rest of your life. Also, the way they all were childless…I thought it felt like they all had their own personal traumas they needed to face, in order to grow up, before they were able to move on and have children themselves – and Stan couldn’t cope with facing up to his own past, he’d rather die, it was too much for him. Eddie was weaker in this regard too, maybe, because his life really was a continuation of childhood, since he married his ‘mother’.
In that way, I thought the sewers were like a metaphor for the dark scary unknown in your own mind, venturing into the murk and trying to find your way out. When they all sleep with Beverley, it’s like…instead of fearing it, they embrace IT, and that’s what suddenly makes them know which way to go, how to navigate out of the dark.
I also thought maybe it’s all metaphoric, that the kids didn’t even die, that it’s more like children have to ‘die’ in order to become adults, and that’s why all the parents seem to just ‘let it happen’ as it says, and the kids are described as ‘already ghosts’ and adults seem to treat it like its inevitable, no one will do anything about it – and the parents are all described as being afraid of the children because they’re changing, maybe that’s IT for the parents? And perhaps the turtle, in that sense, is like the parents? And that’s why in the end when they go back to it, IT says the turtle can’t save them now, it’s dead – and interestingly all their parents seem to be dead and gone too. They’re adults now, they have to face the mystery alone, they can’t turn to their parents for guidance anymore. Also I thought the imagery of a turtle conveyed ignorance, like just sinking into your shell and refusing to see.
And in that way I thought Tom died seeing IT because he was so screwed up he couldn’t face his own traumas, but Audra was stronger and only went into shock – and Bill at the end being able to save her, I think it was like he had to defeat his own inner demons before he could truly love, and once he’d done that, that was what allowed him to open up fully to Audra and go on with his life.
Sorry this got so long! Any thoughts on it?