It: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

In 1985, Richard Tozier is driving in his rental car from Bangor International Airport and switches off the radio, which has been playing Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.” He pulls the car over, feeling a sudden burning in his eyes. A deer walks into the road and he launches into his Irish cop voice. He laughs at his own joke and finds that he is calm enough to get back behind the wheel of the car. He starts thinking about Mr. Nell and the day at the dam.

Ben confesses to Officer Nell that he is the one who showed the boys how to build the dam. Then, all of the boys step forward and claim responsibility for the dam. Richie cannot resist mocking the officer’s accent, prompting a dry response from Mr. Nell and an order from Bill to keep quiet. Mr. Nell explains how waste flows through the Barrens and that the boys’ dam has caused a small back-up. He tells them that they should not play in the Barrens, but Bill tries to explain that it is the only place where they can be left alone. Mr. Nell knows that he cannot forbid the boys from coming to the Barrens, but he asks them to come together only for their safety. Mr. Nell tells Richie to work harder on his Irish accent. He then praises Ben’s engineering ability, but he orders the boys to dismantle the dam while he watches and sips from a flask of whisky.

Later, Bill and Richie are walking up Witcham Street. Bill is pushing Silver. Richie has the idea that the boys should go to Bill’s house and look around George’s old room. Bill explains the moving picture as a ghost in the photo. Richie considers this. He thinks about what he has learned at church. His parents are Methodists. He figures God is at least “one-third ghost.” Bill thinks that George’s ghost is mad at him for causing him to get killed. Richie insists that the incident is not Bill’s fault. This makes Bill feel better but he persists in thinking that he is not supposed to feel better.

Richie insists that they go to George’s room. A clue may exist there about who has been killing all of the kids in Derry. Richie and Bill slip into the Denbrough house like ghosts, but Sharon Denbrough hears them. Richie announces himself and Bill’s mother invites Richie to dinner, which he politely declines. They go down the hall to Bill’s room. George’s room is across the hall, its door shut. They walk inside. Richie finds it “spooky.” There are posters all over the walls of characters who would appeal to small children. Mrs. Denbrough has stacked all of George’s report cards on a table by the window. Bill then points to the photo album lying on the floor.

Bill tells Richie that the album was open before. Richie does not think this is out of the ordinary. However, it is not just the pages that have closed, but the cover, too. Richie gets up and walks over to the photo album to get a better look at it. He sees a dried maroon stain coloring the pages in the middle of the book. He opens the book and sees the faces of all of the relatives who have donated pictures, as well as pictures of Derry in yesteryears. Bill takes the book and starts looking for George’s picture. When he stops, the pages start to turn by themselves. They come across an old picture of Center Street and see themselves in the old photo.

Suddenly, Bill reaches into the picture. Richie prompts him to stop. He sees Bill’s fingers turn into the old white of the photos. A series of diagonal cuts go through Bill’s fingers where he stuck them into the picture. Richie grabs Bill’s forearm and gives it a big yank, sending them both back and the album to the floor. Richie tells him not to open the book again; he could have lost his fingers. Bill shakes him off and opens the book to the old photo of Center Street again. This time, there is no one in the photo. However, an arc shows over the low concrete wall at the edge of the Canal. It looks like the top of a balloon.

Bill and Richie leave George’s room. Sharon Denbrough calls up from the foot of the stairs and asks if the boys have been wrestling. They lie and say that they have, and she tells them to stop, because of all of the thumping on the ceiling. Bill gets some Band-Aids for his fingers. Bill realizes that the clown was pretending to be George when the photograph winked. Richie also thinks that the clown was pretending to be the mummy that Ben saw and the hobo that Eddie saw. Bill then wonders if it really is a clown. Richie surmises that It is a monster that has been killing kids.

On Saturday, Richie, Ben, and Beverly go to see Michael Landon play in I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Ben is quiet during the show, and Richie figures this is because he has nearly been spotted by Henry Bowers, Victor Criss, and “Belch” Huggins. However, Ben has forgotten about them and is quiet due to feeling overwhelmed by Beverly’s presence next to him.

Richie wanted to see this film so badly that he convinced his father to give him additional allowance money, albeit less than what Richie wanted, in exchange for mowing the entire lawn. As he mows, he practices his voices. He calls Bill, Eddie, and Stan to go with him but none can make it. He decides to look Ben up and finds Arlene Hanscom’s name in the phone book. Ben has spent his allowance, but Richie offers to pay his way. They meet outside of the Aladdin Theater. Halfway up Center Street Hill he sees Beverly Marsh approaching. Richie likes Beverly because she is tough and has a good sense of humor. She shows Richie how to make his yo-yo sleep and other tricks. He invites her to attend the movie with him and Ben, and offers to pay her way.

Richie and Beverly look around for Ben when the movie is about to start. They see Ben rush around the corner of Center and Macklin Streets. They wait until the show starts before going in and sitting in the balcony to avoid Henry Bowers, Victor Criss, and “Belch” Huggins. They see a double-feature. First, they watch I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. During the film, Richie spots Henry and his friends. He also sees Foxy Foxworth tell them to put their feet on the floor. They obey, then put their feet up again when Foxy leaves. The second feature is I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Richie finds the second film scarier. At the end, the werewolf is killed. The audience applauds, and Richie is somehow relieved.

As Richie, Beverly, and Ben leave the theater, Ben is confronted by Henry Bowers. Beverly tells Henry to leave Ben alone. Henry calls Beverly a “bitch” and Richie sticks out his foot to trip Henry; though he does not mean to. Henry spills forward and “goes skidding like a shuffleboard weight.” Until this moment, Ben is terrified, then he grabs a garbage can and throws it as the group runs away. They run toward an opening in an alley and Victor Criss jumps in front of them. “Belch” Huggins grabs Beverly’s pony-tail and flings her against a wall. He then swings his fist at Richie, who has picked up a garbage lid as a shield, which “Belch” hits instead. The three then successfully run away from the bullies.

Richie proposes that they go down to the Barrens. Beverly has not yet been there with them. When they arrive, she declares it “beautiful.” They hear voices in the distance and suddenly, Bill Denbrough emerges. He has another kid with him, probably from Bangor, which is where he went for speech therapy. The boy’s name is Bradley. Richie feels that Beverly is a part of them, but not this new kid, this Bradley-somebody.

At the end of June, Bill tells Richie that he wants to go to the house on 29 Neibolt Street and investigate the leper that Eddie thinks he has seen. Beverly Marsh shows up around three o’clock and the three children play in the Barrens. Later, Bill and Richie go to Richie’s house. Bill decides that he wants to kill the clown and tells Richie that he will do it, using his father’s pistol. Richie asks what they will do if a gun does not stop It. Bill says that they will have to think of something else.

The next morning, Richie and Bill walk their bikes up Kansas Street beside the Barrens. Bill brings a Bullseye slingshot out of his back pocket. Bill received the slingshot for his birthday the year before. It was Zack Denbrough’s compromise between the .22 Bill wanted and Sharon Denbrough’s adamant refusal about the boy having a firearm. Bill is not very good at using his slingshot, but Richie has also brought his sneezing powder to use on It. Bill then unzips his duffel bag and takes out his father’s pistol. Suddenly, the house on Neibolt Street seems less frightening.

Bill and Richie mount Silver and ride away. Richie is sure that they will crash. They turn onto Neibolt Street, get off of the bike, and start walking. The house was once a “trim red Cape Cod.” Now, the red paint appears to be “a wishy-washy pink that [is] peeling in ugly patches that look [like] sores.” Bill and Richie squat, looking under the porch. Bill takes out the Walther pistol, which Zack Denbrough had taken during World War II, and examines a broken window to the cellar. He slithers through the cellar window, barely missing a chunk of glass that would have badly cut him. Richie follows Bill inside. Both boys suddenly hear a snarling sound.

The sound is coming from a wild animal. Richie and Bill see someone—or something—in loafers coming down the stairs. It is wearing faded jeans but has paws instead of hands. Bill is calling for Richie to climb the pile of coal to a window, but Richie is frozen. Bill gives Richie “a gigantic shove.” Richie seizes the latch to the window, but it won’t move. The snarling gets closer, and Richie hears the gun go off below him. Bill screams at It in anger for killing his brother. It snarls back that It will kill Bill, too.

Richie gives the window “a tremendous shove,” but it does not break. Bill fires the Walther a third time. Bill cries out that It has him. Bill is being pulled backward. Richie sees what It is: the teenage werewolf from the movie he saw at the Aladdin. Bill scrambles back up the coal. Richie grabs his forearms and pulls. Then, with no thought at all about why he is doing it, Richie launches into the voice of the Irish cop. The creature lets out a sound of rage but is distracted enough for Richie to pull Bill up and out of the cellar. The werewolf’s claws paw at the grass where Richie and Bill are now sitting.

Bill pulls the trigger on the Walther and takes off a chunk of the werewolf’s skull. Still roaring, the werewolf climbs out of the window. Richie goes back into his Irish cop voice. He puffs a cloud of the sneezing powder at the monster. The werewolf stares at Richie for a moment, with slight surprise, then it starts sneezing. The boys see “greenish-black clots of snot [fly] out of its nostrils.” The werewolf looks angry but it is also in pain. Richie stares at the werewolf in wonder until Bill pulls him away. The werewolf is still coming, “snarling and slobbering.” Silver is leaning against a tree.

Richie takes another look at the werewolf and sees that there are “big fluffy orange buttons, like pompoms” on its jacket. Stitched on the left breast of its jacket is the name “Richie Tozier.” Silver begins to move, but much too slowly. The werewolf comes closer and grabs at Richie with one of its paws. Richie can see its teeth, which are crooked fangs, and smells the “sweet rotten meat on its breath.” Bill pumps the pedals on the bike, which finally stops wavering, and they take off. The werewolf roars again and Richie feels as though it is right beside him. The paw swings again. Richie closes his eyes, holds on to Bill, and waits for the end.

Bill does not see a werewolf but a clown. Unlike Richie, he does not turn around to look at his monster. However, he, too, sees the clown wearing a Derry High jacket with pompoms for buttons. Bill rides Silver toward the intersection of Neibolt Street and Route 2. The street is empty. Nearly too late, Bill notices that Richie is sliding off of Silver. His glasses hang askew and blood drips from his forehead. They crash in the street. Richie half-consciously goes into his Pancho Vanilla voice and Bill smacks him in the head to bring him fully back into consciousness. Richie begins to cry and Bill hugs him. He tries to say something, but Bill urges him to remain quiet.