When we were little, we were always horrified of the concept of monsters that they might be under our

beds, inside our closet or in the dark places lurking, waiting for someone to come near. We were always petrified
of the thought, that if we don’t do things we are told to do, the monster will come for us. We bring these thoughts
within our subconsciouness growing up. But didn’t you stop to think and realized that we were the monsters
ourselves? Or that the monsters are really just a mere projection of our fears, anxieties and past experiences.

IT is a story about a group of outcast kids who branded themselves as the “loser club” living in a small
town called Derry Maine, it is in the hands of these kids to fight an ancient evil creature who terrorizes their town
for centuries. This predator resurfaces every 27 years and takes in the form a clown widely known as Pennywise,
the dancing clown. Though Pennywise isn’t a typical clown, in fact he is not a clown at all. Pennywise is just one
of the many forms that the evil creature also identified as “it”, shifts into. According to Foutch, who wrote an
article about the movie IT and its main antagonist Pennywise, he said in the article that Pennywise’s true form is
referred to as a massive orange destructive light or the dead light which we can see referenced thru the eyes of its
eyes glowing orange. “It” can take many forms but the appearance of the clown is said to be his favorate since it
help disguise it’s true intention which is hunting his preferred victim of children and feeding from their fears.
Thus “It” takes advantage of these fears and shifts itself into a real-life manifestation of what they fear the most.
In the movie, it was during “it’s” latest feeding cycle that the story begun. When a little boy named Georgie was
playing with his paper boat made by his older brother Bill, on a rainy day alongside the road. Unfortunately,
Georgie’s boat fell down the sewer drain where “it” resides, after fooling with Georgie, “it” then bits his arm and
dragged him in the depth of the sewer. But this is only the beginning of Pennywise’s reign of terror; “it” then goes
scaring the rest of the members of loser club by exploiting their deepest fears. But the members of the club will
not let this happen, and they will stop “it” with all their will from hurting another person in Derry.

The story basically deals with fear and Pennywise using it to manipulate the kids in the town. As we dive
more in-depth with the story, we are going to find out why is the characters created that way.

Stephen King, author to many books including the novel, IT, once experience something from his
childhood that shapes how he began writing horror novels. One instance was when he was playing with a kid near
a railroad. When he comes back home, his mother told him he is as white as a ghost. It turns out that the kid he
was playing with has been run over by a train. Stephen King himself said in an interview that “The idea of this
happening from my childhood was responsible for me channelling the darkest recesses of my soul.” This explains
that our individual fear is driven from our past experiences; an experience of fear sometimes leads to a horrifying
state of trauma, reaching the peak of our unconscious consciousness. In isolation, we keep these unacceptable
experiences, hindering the unpleasant reservoir of feeling from seeing the light of day, refusing to expose our
humaneness to the world. So we keep them locked up and look for something to inflict that emotion too.

In regards to the story, A group of kids called the ‘the losers club’ was a bunch of social misfits who
formed a pact friendship, each members of the group individually encountered “It” the mysterious petrifying
clown, on the other hand beneath the fact of them being haunted by “it” these kids were a product of their own
past traumatic experiences, their fears differ from their past experiences but they were similarly in isolation of
their own unconsciousness until “It” happened.

We first met someone named Eddie Kaspbrak who encountered Pennywise in the form of a disease
decaying leper; he then described it as a walking infectious disease. We then found out that Eddie is a
hypochondriac, who has the phobia of sickness. The reason for Eddie’s phobia was because of his mother who
overly pampered him and confined him inside his house; therefore it results to how Eddie behaves. One member
of the club also encountered “it” and that is Stan Uris, his encounter with “it” in the movie was of this woman
carrying with her a flute. We figured out then that Stan is afraid of the painting in his dad office, which is why “it”
uses the image to scare Stan. Another member from the group is Richie Tozier who is afraid of clowns and Ben
Hanscom who is afraid of mummies. Both of their fear is the product of past experiences that leads to how they
look at those certain things now. The next members of the loser club attained their fear from past experience, -
which caused them to be traumatised if they will be reminded of the events that occur from their past- we have
Mike Hanlon whose parents died from a fire accident that is why when he first encountered “it”, it personifies
itself to be in a room full of people who are trapped in a raging fire. The other member is Beverly Marsh who is
traumatised from her father because she was assaulted, sexually harassed and constantly being objectified by him.
So when “it” visits Beverly “it” manifested itself the projection of puberty, since Beverly is relentlessly asked by
her father if she is still her little girl.
 The last member and the one who bounded the entire group together is Bill Denbrough. Bill’s fear isn’t
Pennywise nor a clown. He is rather scared of the fact that he is the reason why his little brother died or in his
point of view; missing. He feels guilty and as a result Pennywise uses it as a leverage to manipulate Bill by
impersonating the image of Georgie, his little brother.

If you’ve listen and watch the movie intensively or read the book, you heard Pennywise say that “I’m
every nightmare you’ve ever had. I am your worst dream come true, I am everything you ever were afraid of!” the
quotation that was stated, further implies what the creature’s task, and it is to scare the people in Derry, by the
manner of shifting to your darkest traumas. But towards the end of the movie we saw how Beverly progressively
overcome her fear towards her father, thus, Pennywise couldn’t control or feed on her because she doesn’t fear
anything or anyone by then. Since Pennywise couldn’t kill Beverly, he held her captive. But the member of the
loser club wouldn’t let that happen, and they all went to the depths of the sewer to rescue Beverly and kill the evil
creature that is terrorizing there town once and for all. But they figured that they can only kill “it” if they are
together, because their bond is what makes them stronger, as what Richie said in the film “7, that’s the magic
number. There has to be 7 of us, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.” It entails that they can only kill “it” if they
overcome their fears together, gradually, during their battle with “it” in sewer, “It” transformed to the images of
their greatest fear, but the kids was no longer scared of “it” so “it” couldn’t do anything but to back away. Bill
said that “You scare people because that’s how you feed on them, but since we no longer fear you, you will s’
starve and die.” but “It” just repeatedly say the tongue twister that Bill was mumbling during the entirety of the
film, before “It” disappear. The kids rejoice because they killed “it” and finally brought back peace in their town,
so they thought.

In conclusion, Pennywise, a devourer of subjected fear of children, was a mysterious killing clown who
goes on a feeding frenzy cycle every 27 years. He influences his victims to their own unconscious fears,
terrorizing them to the bone, just as seasoning a steak with salt to be readily eaten. The movie was entitled IT
because the evil creature doesn’t have a real form, it just manifest into your greatest and deepest fear, hence
calling “it.” It manipulates the isolated bound unconscious consciousness and the undeveloped psyche of children
since their imagination is seemingly gullible and naive in their stage. As the story unfolds and as “it” haunted
them the young individuals develop a fortification of bond to each other due to their similar encounters of “it”
leaving their isolation to a bond of friendship. The unresolved reservoir of unpleasant and unacceptable, feelings,
thoughts, pain, anxieties, and past conflicts is overcome through a relational being or in other words language to
relate or share to someone a significant experience means a whole lot to the human psyche.

References:

https://www.inverse.com/article/29659-pennywise-it-stephen-king-psychology-clown-fear

https://stephenking.fandom.com/wiki/IT?fbclid=IwAR2y-SZKxR7t4Te1haXRug0x0Oq2fW-
jN8bmEBPfNmlP7SHBf-1CiiC3OfI

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_(2017_film)?fbclid=IwAR0LVvVUUOIgXxi3YMsqrBjFnZ2VZ4XS1ozPLMi
e4aUH9Lbt6d7ey5rNEwk

http://www.stuartthamanbooks.com/blog/2017/10/14/it-by-stephen-king-analysis-by-horror-author-ashley-
holtzmann?fbclid=IwAR1BCsOYRM0RtsQviKCGVHJQ4CqEG3uEMVTm1q_uNg6yGJk0TAjENhISQ4E

https://www.unilad.co.uk/featured/stephen-king-has-his-say-on-dark-reason-he-began-writing-horror/