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Henry Bowers is a supporting antagonist of the Stephen King multiverse.

Serving as the secondary antagonist of Stephen King's 1986 horror novel IT, its miniseries adaptation, and its two film adaptations, IT and IT: Chapter Two and a mentioned antagonist in 11/22/63.

He is the local bully, the leader of the Bowers Gang and the puppet of the bloodthirsty trans-dimensional fiend known as IT. He is the Losers Club's arch-rival.

Physical Appearance[]

Henry_bowers

Henry bowers

Henry Bowers

Henry is described in the novel as being very big and strong for a 12-year-old boy with his hair cut in a flattop spiked with a lot of Butch Wax that he keeps in his jeans. He always wears a pink motorcycle jacket with an eagle on the back and worn-out engineer boots. At only 12, his teeth are already rotting and it is very noticeable whenever he smiles. In the book he is also said to constantly smell like a mixture of sweat and Juicy Fruit chewing gum. In the 1990 miniseries, his appearance is relatively faithful to the book, except he sports a greaser pompadour and wears a brown leather jacket. In the film adaptation, Henry is 16 years old with a mullet and wears sleeveless T-shirts and torn jeans.

Personality[]

Henry Bowers is portrayed as sociopathic and sadistic, traits that together make him the perfect human puppet for the entity known as It. As a student, Henry is academically deficient in middle school, not very intelligent but very cunning and crafty. He spends much of his time working on his father's farm on the outskirts of Derry, performing most of the manual labor involved. He has grown up without a mother, who left the family because of her husband's alcoholism and untreated post-traumatic stress disorder as a veteran of World War II. Henry himself is often abused by his drunken father.

Henry and his small gang of bullies often terrorize and physically abuse the members of The Losers Club. Eventually, the group's members learn to fight back, often defeating Henry by outwitting him. Though Henry is often hurt, even severely, his will, manipulated by It, seems to make him unstoppable. He is often kicked or hit in the crotch, an injury that would halt most boys his age and size. However, as the Losers often note, he is back on his feet in very little time and it takes a tremendous effort to stop him even for a short period.

At the age of 10, Henry kills Mike Hanlon's dog, Mr Chips, when he feeds the animal ground beef he'd laced with rat poison, sitting back serenely watching the dog die. For years before this deed, Henry had been subjected to Butch Bower's racist opinion of Mike's father, whose own farm down the road was more successful than the Bowers'. Butch simply blames Hanlon for every misfortune he has and claims that the rest of the community had lied in their support of Hanlon. Killing Mr Chips was Henry's way of winning his father's affection; his reward was joy from Butch and being treated to a beer.

Sometime during the summer of 1958, Henry receives a package from It that contains a switchblade with a six-inch blade. He uses it to murder his father and it becomes his primary weapon to threaten the Losers, on whom he's vowed revenge.

Henry openly attacks the Losers whenever he spots them in Derry. Though several adults try to stop him, their own fear, and perhaps the collective community fear of It, keeps them from stopping him outright. When he breaks Eddie Kaspbrak's arm outside a local store, the store's proprietor tries to intervene, only to be halted when Henry shoves the man to the ground. While attacking Beverly Marsh, a woman driving a car pulls up to the curb, shouting for him to let Beverly go, only to be scared off when Henry brandishes his switchblade.

It Part One & It Part Two[]

1989[]

In It Part One, Henry appears as a violent and sadistic bully who terrorizes the Losers Club throughout 1989 with his gang. At one point, Henry and his gang kidnap Ben Hanscom and Henry attempts to carve his own name into Ben's stomach, before Ben breaks free and escapes. Henry later terrorizes Mike Hanlon in the Barrens, attempting to beat Mike with a rock. However, Mike is rescued by the rest of the Losers Club who start a rock war with Henry and his gang, driving the bullies off and uniting the Losers. Tricked himself by It, Henry eventually goes insane and murders his father. As the Losers enter the Neibolt House to confront It, Henry attacks Mike, and attempts to kill him with Mike's bolt gun. However, the shot misses Mike's head as Mike manages to push Henry's arm out of the way. Mike then hits Henry's head with a rock, and manages to knock Henry down the well to his apparent death.

In a flashback in It: Chapter Two, Richie Tozier plays Street Fighter at the arcade with Connor Bowers during the time when the Losers are broken up. As Richie asks Connor to play again, having shared a moment with him, Henry enters with his gang and is revealed to be Connor's cousin. Seeing Henry, Connor claims Richie is acting weird and tells Henry that Henry never told him that Derry was "full of fucking fairies." Henry is shocked to recognize Richie and asks if Richie is "trying to bone my cousin." Henry angrily orders the humiliated Richie to leave which he does.

As seen at the beginning of It: Chapter Two, Henry survives the fall down the well and is ultimately washed out of the storm drains and into the Barrens by a flash flood with the bodies of It's victims. Returning home, Henry is arrested by the police for murdering his father muttering that he's not done yet and has to "kill them all." As he is taken into custody, Henry notices one of It's balloons floating by. Having completely lost his mind, Henry is locked in an insane asylum for the next 27 years.

2016[]

After It becomes active again in 2016, It floats one of It's balloons in front of the asylum where Henry is locked up, causing him to excitedly chase the balloon along the asylum's windows before he is locked up in his room. Disappointed that the balloon is gone, Henry is surprised to spot it under his bed where Henry yanks on the balloon until it pops. It, in the form of Patrick Hockstetter's corpse, emerges from underneath the bed and offers Henry his knife back. Gleeful, Henry brutally murders an asylum guard and escapes, fleeing in a vehicle driven by Patrick's corpse.

Returning to Derry, Henry stalks the Losers Club and ambushes Eddie Kaspbrak in the bathroom after Richie Tozier leaves. Henry stabs Eddie in the cheek, stating that It told him that it's Eddie's time and that its "time to float." Eddie hides behind the shower curtain and when Henry gets close, Eddie stabs him in the chest with his own knife. Telling Henry to cut his mullet, that it's been almost thirty years, Eddie flees downstairs. However, Henry, though badly wounded, escapes out the window to continue his rampage. Watching from the broken window, Ben Hanscom witnesses a laughing Henry remove the knife and take off, experiencing a flashback to Henry trying to carve his name into Ben's stomach.

That night, Henry sneaks into the library where he purposefully pushes the book containing the story on the deaths of Mike Hanlon's parents in a fire off the shelf behind Mike. As Mike is distracted by the book, Henry charges him and the two men fight through library, but Henry gets the upper hand and pins Mike to the floor. As Mike struggles to keep Henry from stabbing him, Henry gleefully taunts Mike that he should've died with his parents in the fire and sadistically enjoys describing how they burned to death. However, before Henry can succeed in stabbing Mike, Richie impales him in the back of the head with an axe that was in one of the library's display cases, killing Henry. Richie jokes that Henry's death was long overdue before throwing up from having actually killed someone.

Quotes[]

Novel[]

"I know you, kid. I know you, too. Where’s your glasses, four-eyes? Well, son of a bitch! The Jew and the fatboy are here too! That your girlfriend, fatboy? I got bones to pick with a lot of you, but I can let that go for today. I want that n***er. So you little s***s buzz off."
―Henry confronting the Losers.

Miniseries[]

"Well, whaddaya know? The fat boy, the Jew, and the sissy. Four eyes and the patch girl, too. N***er, you know how to pick them: the Losers' Club."
―Henry to Mike Hanlon with the Losers
"And given me and my daddy grief for a long, long time! You like fireworks, boy, huh? What do you say to "Rocket in your pocket"?"
―Henry to Mike Hanlon
"Belch."
―Henry's last word thinking Belch is alive
"My father will tan my hide."
―Henry trying to dodge detention implying his father whipped him twice minimum for school punishments in the past

It 2017[]

"You s-s-say something, B-B-B-B-Billy? Dumb stuttering freak."
―Henry to Bill, mimicking his stutter
"Summer’s gonna be a hurt train. For you and your fucking faggot f-f-friends."
―Henry to Bill before he licks his hand and slaps Bill's face
"Where you off to, Tits?"
―Henry to Ben
"Shut up! I'm gonna carve my whole name out of this cottage cheese!"
―Henry to Belch before Ben escapes from him
"My knife! My old man will kill me!"
―Henry to his friends about Butch after losing his knife
"You didn't listen to what I told you, did you? You should have stayed out of Derry. Your parents didn't, and look what happened to them. I still get sad everytime I pass by that pile of ashes, sad that I couldn't have done it myself."
―Henry's last words to Mike before he fell into a well
"You got a free ride this year cuz of your little brother. Ride's over, Denbrough."
―Henry explaining to Bill why he didn’t bully him during the school year before he attempts to bully him
"Did I fucking stutter?"
―To Vic, telling him to move seats[src]
"Who cares?!"
―To Belch, about Patrick still being missing[src]
"Like lambs to a slaughter. Wouldn't you say fellas? Yeah, sure you would."
―Henry to a dead Belch Huggins and Victor Criss, watching the Losers enter Neibolt[src]

IT (2019)[]

"Hockstetter? My knife."
―Bowers sees zombified Patrick
"Hey, Hockstetter. Let's go!"
―Henry to Patrick after escaping from the asylum
"It's your time, Eddie."
―Henry to Eddie before stabbing his cheek
"You should've burned, Mike. Just like your druggie parents. Can you see them yet? Crisping? Like fried fucking chi—"
―Henry's last words as he tries to kill Mike, but before his demise.

Trivia[]

  • Henry is mentioned in the novel 11/22/63 by Beverly and Richie while talking to Jake Epping about the whereabouts of the Dunning family.
  • The Haven (TV Series) Character Kirk Bowers is intended to be somehow related to him.
  • Despite being the secondary antagonist, Henry's role in the film is only slight compared to the novel and miniseries. This earned criticism toward the film, as he does not have much characterization or impact on the plot in the 2017 films, with him being swiftly defeated in both parts before he can cause major harm.
  • Henry dies three different ways between the novel and movie.
  • Henry is possibly bisexual as he wanted to have sex with Beverly, and he seemed to like it when Patrick Hockstetter gave him a handjob though he denied it.
  • Had two pigs, named Bip and Bop.[1]
  • Uses a nightlight of "Donald Duck doffing his little sailor hat" while staying at Juniper Hill, which was likely his last link to sanity and the outside world. He also keeps a record of how many bulbs he burned out in his use of the nightlight, which was four.

References[]

  1. PG1867, Chapter 17, Section 3

Images[]

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