Stephen King's novel IT concerns a group of children who confronted an evil entity haunting their town -- and their reunion twenty-five years later to face the being again for the final time.
Early in the novel, we see each of "The Losers' Club" react to the news and the summons. All are frightened, most are disbelieving, but they all answer the call -- all except for Stanley Uris, who commits suicide. Stanley kills himself, after scrawling a cryptic message on the wall with his own blood.
While this is a horror novel, and there is no question that It is horrifying, Stanley's behavior stands out in stark contrast to that of his friends. When I read the novel, I understood this as a kind of promise -- a promise that, as we learn the story of the children in '57-'58, one of the things we learn is how It left Stanley uniquely scarred among the group. Or, really, any explanation that would justify why Stanley kills himself in such an awful manner.
But as I read, I felt this was never addressed. I don't see Stanley as differentiating himself from the rest of the group in any particular way, or being more affected by It than the others, or being a person inclined to panic or suicide.
Does IT explain why Stanley, and he alone, was driven to suicide? Or does the book not actually mean to imply that Stanley was unique in responding this way?