If you couldn't tell by the title, this post contains a discussion about sex in the novel It
. Weaker brothers and sisters take heed.Rachel recently read Stephen King's
It (I flatter myself that it was on my recommendation), and we had a brief discussion of a scene we both find troubling. If you haven't read it (get it?), the plot follows a group of children who fight an evil force as a child and must fight it again as adults.
The scene in question takes place after the children (ages 12-14, I believe) have (so far as they know) defeated the creature, but they're still lost in the sewers in which the creature lived. Before finding their way out, all of the guys have sex with the one girl. You're freaked out now, right? Everyone who reads it is. But after reflecting on the book and King's work as a whole, I think I understand the significance.
As forces of good opposed to evil, the children forge a mystical bond that allows them to work perfectly together to overcome the creature. But after defeating the creature, the bond is broken, with the children still lost in the sewer. Realizing that they must reforge the bond, Beverly, the girl, offers herself to the group. The children know that sex unites people in a mystical way, a fact that eludes many adults.
One of the themes in the novel is the need for the adults to become children again in order to confront the evil force. What is less obvious (except in this scene and a handful of others) is how the children are forced to become adults. King often writes about children who are more mature, responsible, and loving that the adult characters, and here his characters reveal the power of sex in an unsettling way. I think we can agree that our society's views of sexuality could stand to be unsettled.
