Bill Denbrough is the leader of the Losers’ Club. His brother George is killed by It when Bill is 12, starting Bill’s vendetta against the monster. Bill suffers from a severe stutter. After George’s death, his parents grow distant and Bill finds new affection and attention with his new friends. As an adult, Bill marries an actress named Audra and becomes a successful horror novelist. As his memories about Derry return, he realizes that his childhood horrors were the basis for all of his books.

Bill experiences the most direct contact with It, as he travels to the void where Its eternal form lives twice, once as a child, and once as an adult. Bill also receives the most insight from the Turtle, and his experience of it gives the reader their limited understanding of the Turtle’s role in the universe. After killing It, Bill’s stutter vanishes. As he leaves Derry with Audra, he begins to forget everything that has happened. 

Ben Hanscom is an overweight, only child in Derry. He is bullied mercilessly by Henry Bowers and has a scar on his stomach from a knife wound Henry gave him. Ben is a book lover and spends a lot of time in the library researching Derry’s history.