- After the Flood (1957)
- After the Carnival (1984)
- Six Phone Calls (1985)
- Derry: The First Interlude
- Ben Hanscom Takes a Fall
- Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (I)
- One of the Missing: A Tale From the Summer of '58
- The Dam In the Barrens
- Georgie's Room and the House On Neibolt Street
- Cleaning Up
- Derry: The Second Interlude
- The Reunion
- Walking Tours
- Three Uninvited Guests
- Derry: The Third Interlude
- The Apocalyptic Rockfight
- The Album
- The Smoke-Hole
- Eddie's Bad Break
- Another One of the Missing: The Death of Patrick Hockstetter
- The Bullseye
- Derry: The Fourth Interlude
- In the Watches of the Night
- The Circle Closes
- Under the City
- The Ritual of Chud
- Out
- Derry: The Final Interlude
- Epilogue: Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (II)
Eddie's Bad Break
This is a fantastic chapter and a tour-de-force for King. It may actually be the strongest chapter of the novel! The character of Eddie Kaspbrak is fleshed out to the fullest here and we see the very beginning of his adulthood. On a second reading, it's extremely tragic knowing that this character, who goes through such an arc here, will not survive the story's climax.
As the adults continue telling stories, Eddie feels a pain in his arm and thinks about the fracture he had that summer, which he had never really thought about again. This is very uncharacteristic for someone so nervous about health and so he begins to unlock the memory to the others. As a child that same July, Eddie was doing errands at the pharmacy when Mr. Keene asked him to come to the back room and there revealed to him that his asthma medicine is a placebo. Eddie's "asthma" is psycho-semantic and its symptoms are perpetuated by his overbearing mother and his insecure personality. Scared, Eddie runs out, but later begins to realize it's true. As he's processing this, he runs into Henry and his gang, and after giving chase, Eddie gets beaten up on the sidewalk, his arm broken, and is picked up by an ambulance. In the hospital, Eddie's mother causes mayhem among the nurses, and her tampering finally climaxes when she sends Eddie's friends away. At this, Eddie finally stands up to her, and reveals that he knows he doesn't have asthma, but bargains that he will let it go if she lets him see his friends. Once they come back, they sign Eddie's cast, and Eddie realizes he truly has friends and is part of a group.
So much happens in these few pages that it could have been a short story, except it is so well integrated in the overall plot. The sequence with Mr. Keene is long and almost painfully drawn out. Eddie's discomfort overwhelms us and although we know what Keene is ultimately going to reveal, we almost can't concentrate through Eddie's desperation. Keene also comes off morally ambiguous here. Although we know he is doing the right thing by telling Eddie the truth and trying to help him be a stronger person, the event is told in a way that makes him seem like a villain because he is causing Eddie so much discomfort. He even seems to take a certain pleasure in making Eddie so uncomfortable; laughing when Eddie knocks over the ice cream soda and using it as a bargaining tool: "I won't tell your mother you broke the glass if you don't tell her we had this conversation." Interestingly, Eddie ends up telling his mother anyway, only to then bargain with her as well.
Receiving this revelation from Keene ends up giving Eddie the strength to stand up to his mother later. Or, another way of looking at it is that it gives him the strength to potentially overcome his asthma, but he trades that in exchange for standing up to his mother. Hence, Eddie chooses a life of continued asthma in order to have his friends. He's made a sacrifice for being part of the Loser's Club, and maybe that's why he will be the one to give up his life later.
Mrs. Kaspbrak is more of a symbol than an actual character. She doesn't get a whole lot of depth, but she is exposed a bit here. It is revealed that she is predatory, intentionally playing off Eddie's emotions. The fact that she uses psychology to manipulate her prey is a reference to Tom Rogan's tactics on Beverly. Mrs. Kaspbrak is just as abusive as Tom, Al, Butch, and the others, damaging Eddie to the point that she makes him think he's sick in order to control him. She has so much jealousy for Eddie's friends that it is strangely telling how she blames them for Eddie's accident rather than Henry. She doesn't press charges against "the Bowers boy;" in fact, she only mentions the name with a passing interest. To her, Bill Denbrough and the others are the villains and Henry is just the executioner who incidentally happened to have done this. Eddie's defiance of her allows him to grow, and he's no longer quite as scared because he has felt real pain. The accident has been an initiation for him.
The sequence with Henry is equally horrific; Henry is now a full-fledged psychopath who not only stands up to but even physically attacks an interfering adult. Again, it is realistic that his gang has been changed up again: Belch is absent, Moose makes his second and (thankfully) last appearance, still cartoonish as ever, and we are finally introduced to Patrick Hockstetter. Although we only catch a glimpse here of what is to come, it is already clear that Patrick is not quite sane; instead of Henry's aggressive violence, he is disturbing in a creepy way, and King spends a lot of time describing his sneer. Later, when Eddie has a vision of Pennywise driving the ambulance, King mentions Pennywise's sneer. Patrick & Pennywise; perhaps the two have a lot more in common than we realize.
This chapter contains so many magical little moments: as Eddie lies helpless on the sidewalk with his arm broken, he begins to laugh, and sees a vision of a turtle. He thinks about Officer Nell coming to rescue him, then thinks that it is unlikely given Nell being a beat cop, only to be found by Nell after all. Keene, his assistant Ruby, Mrs. Kaspbrak, the nurse...all of them are given little moments of reality. At the end of it all, Eddie, despite being victimized, has come out ahead.
Finally, it is interesting to evaluate this chapter within the context of the greater saga. A violent bully, an overbearing mother, and a supernatural evil...is there any difference between them? This is a story about the passageway toward adulthood, and the various evils on the way there. All of them are part of a great evil: It.
As the adults continue telling stories, Eddie feels a pain in his arm and thinks about the fracture he had that summer, which he had never really thought about again. This is very uncharacteristic for someone so nervous about health and so he begins to unlock the memory to the others. As a child that same July, Eddie was doing errands at the pharmacy when Mr. Keene asked him to come to the back room and there revealed to him that his asthma medicine is a placebo. Eddie's "asthma" is psycho-semantic and its symptoms are perpetuated by his overbearing mother and his insecure personality. Scared, Eddie runs out, but later begins to realize it's true. As he's processing this, he runs into Henry and his gang, and after giving chase, Eddie gets beaten up on the sidewalk, his arm broken, and is picked up by an ambulance. In the hospital, Eddie's mother causes mayhem among the nurses, and her tampering finally climaxes when she sends Eddie's friends away. At this, Eddie finally stands up to her, and reveals that he knows he doesn't have asthma, but bargains that he will let it go if she lets him see his friends. Once they come back, they sign Eddie's cast, and Eddie realizes he truly has friends and is part of a group.
So much happens in these few pages that it could have been a short story, except it is so well integrated in the overall plot. The sequence with Mr. Keene is long and almost painfully drawn out. Eddie's discomfort overwhelms us and although we know what Keene is ultimately going to reveal, we almost can't concentrate through Eddie's desperation. Keene also comes off morally ambiguous here. Although we know he is doing the right thing by telling Eddie the truth and trying to help him be a stronger person, the event is told in a way that makes him seem like a villain because he is causing Eddie so much discomfort. He even seems to take a certain pleasure in making Eddie so uncomfortable; laughing when Eddie knocks over the ice cream soda and using it as a bargaining tool: "I won't tell your mother you broke the glass if you don't tell her we had this conversation." Interestingly, Eddie ends up telling his mother anyway, only to then bargain with her as well.
Receiving this revelation from Keene ends up giving Eddie the strength to stand up to his mother later. Or, another way of looking at it is that it gives him the strength to potentially overcome his asthma, but he trades that in exchange for standing up to his mother. Hence, Eddie chooses a life of continued asthma in order to have his friends. He's made a sacrifice for being part of the Loser's Club, and maybe that's why he will be the one to give up his life later.
Mrs. Kaspbrak is more of a symbol than an actual character. She doesn't get a whole lot of depth, but she is exposed a bit here. It is revealed that she is predatory, intentionally playing off Eddie's emotions. The fact that she uses psychology to manipulate her prey is a reference to Tom Rogan's tactics on Beverly. Mrs. Kaspbrak is just as abusive as Tom, Al, Butch, and the others, damaging Eddie to the point that she makes him think he's sick in order to control him. She has so much jealousy for Eddie's friends that it is strangely telling how she blames them for Eddie's accident rather than Henry. She doesn't press charges against "the Bowers boy;" in fact, she only mentions the name with a passing interest. To her, Bill Denbrough and the others are the villains and Henry is just the executioner who incidentally happened to have done this. Eddie's defiance of her allows him to grow, and he's no longer quite as scared because he has felt real pain. The accident has been an initiation for him.
The sequence with Henry is equally horrific; Henry is now a full-fledged psychopath who not only stands up to but even physically attacks an interfering adult. Again, it is realistic that his gang has been changed up again: Belch is absent, Moose makes his second and (thankfully) last appearance, still cartoonish as ever, and we are finally introduced to Patrick Hockstetter. Although we only catch a glimpse here of what is to come, it is already clear that Patrick is not quite sane; instead of Henry's aggressive violence, he is disturbing in a creepy way, and King spends a lot of time describing his sneer. Later, when Eddie has a vision of Pennywise driving the ambulance, King mentions Pennywise's sneer. Patrick & Pennywise; perhaps the two have a lot more in common than we realize.
This chapter contains so many magical little moments: as Eddie lies helpless on the sidewalk with his arm broken, he begins to laugh, and sees a vision of a turtle. He thinks about Officer Nell coming to rescue him, then thinks that it is unlikely given Nell being a beat cop, only to be found by Nell after all. Keene, his assistant Ruby, Mrs. Kaspbrak, the nurse...all of them are given little moments of reality. At the end of it all, Eddie, despite being victimized, has come out ahead.
Finally, it is interesting to evaluate this chapter within the context of the greater saga. A violent bully, an overbearing mother, and a supernatural evil...is there any difference between them? This is a story about the passageway toward adulthood, and the various evils on the way there. All of them are part of a great evil: It.