1/25/2019 3 Comments Stephen King 1Stephen King September 21st, 1947 Bangor, Maine
Major Works:
Major Themes:
Novel Choice Plot Summary: In Stephen King’s novel, IT, there is a series of mysterious murders in the town of Derry. People of the town are taken in and tried for murder and in each of the cases, proven guilty. The suspects know that they are certainly not guilty and when they bring up the fact that they saw some figure kill the victims, police call them insane and disregard it. This is all taking place when the six main characters of the story are kids and have never encountered this before. They all come together in school due to their vast differences from everyone else in the town. They call themselves the Losers Club and will go on to stick together through adulthood. As children, the antagonist in the form of a clown named Pennywise, attacks each one of them personally with their greatest fears based on their personalities and backgrounds. They go on to fend off Pennywise and believe that they have scared him away forever but that is only half of the story. Twenty-seven years later, the issues pop up again which drags the Losers Club back together as they have to once and for all kill this clown. The clown has odd abilities and remembers that when the six characters were together as kids, they took a blood oath to stick together then hints to them that he is back as adults by making all of their hands bleed. This kicks up the plot again and begins their run to kill Pennywise the evil clown. Analysis of Main Characters:
Theme: The main themes of IT are friendship, good vs evil, strength in numbers, and overcoming fears with age. Friendship is shown with the main characters as part of the Losers Club joining together to eventually defeat the Derry town threat, Pennywise Good vs evil is evident throughout King’s writing with a probing antagonist vs a group of manipulated protagonists Strength in numbers is shown because all bad things that happen to the main characters of the book occur when they are alone but successfully fight when they are together Overcoming the fears with age shows how they were finally able to kill Pennywise 27 years after he first attached Derry How did the author’s life influence his writing in this novel? (2-3 paragraphs) Stephen King is always into writing things that creep people out. He said that he does not want to scare people but that he brings out common fears in people and exploits them as books. Stephen King had and still has a sheer love for writing and that is is only drive to write what he does. He was seen as a weak writer when he first started and was disregarded by many people who ignored his immersive books. Critics wrote badly about him so his books never caught on until years later. This may not tie directly into his horror books but is important when looking at how his legacy has turned out. Stephen King sees books as a magical portal to open up the mind to new, crazy ideas which could be why he chose such unordinary topics as is writing, he wants people to surround themselves in inspiring fears and show just what people are scared of. Another big reason as to why King May write about common fears is the fact that he grew up in the 40’s and 50’s during the time of WWII which was an extremely stressful time for the US. This may have helped him to express his own fears of the war and the country’s decision-making into his writing. Although this book was written in the 80’s this was a large part of American’s lives and could have a show a deeper importance to King. Works Cited: King, Stephen. IT. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1986. [Novel] King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York, NY: Scribner, 2000. [Nonfiction] By: Terrell W.
3 Comments
Chelsea
1/31/2019 10:12:22 am
What were each kid's fears that Pennywise used to manipulate them?
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Sasha
2/1/2019 08:44:32 am
Do you think the major themes from this book (overcoming fears & strength in numbers) could have been influenced by Stephen King's experience growing up during the times of WWII?
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Terrell Williams
2/4/2019 07:51:05 am
Well during this time King noticed that a lot of the actions being taken in WWII were solely to benefit the individual financially and not to help those around them and ultimately the country. So he saw that if we all came together to take down one common evil, the efficiency behind these actions would be much greater.
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