The E. T. Novels by William Kotzwinkle
The E. T. Novels consist of two books: "E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" and "E. T.: The Book of the Green Planet." These novels are based on the screenplay by Melissa Mathison and a story by Steven Spielberg. They explore the transformative bond between a young boy named Elliott and an extraterrestrial being known as E.T. The first novel focuses on Elliott's emotional growth and deepening love for E.T., who becomes a father figure, offering protection and wisdom in the boy's chaotic life. The narrative begins when a spacecraft lands in a California suburb, leading to a serendipitous encounter between Elliott and E.T., who is stranded and alone.
As the story unfolds, Elliott and E.T. embark on adventurous escapades, including a memorable flight on bicycles to evade government agents seeking to capture E.T. The sequel, "E. T.: The Book of the Green Planet," shifts the focus to E.T.'s home world, where he longs for Elliott while navigating challenges in a society that seeks to suppress his memories of Earth. Through imaginative storytelling, the novels address themes of love, friendship, and the struggle against conformity, illustrating E.T.’s determination to reconnect with Elliott despite the obstacles he faces. Overall, the E. T. Novels present a heartfelt exploration of interspecies relationships and personal growth.
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The E. T. Novels
First published:E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and E. T.: The Book of the Green Planet (1985)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Fantasy—alien civilization
Time of work: The 1980s
Locale: California, the Green Planet, and a spaceship
The Plot
E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, based on the screenplay by Melissa Mathison, and E. T.: The Book of the Green Planet, based on a story by director Steven Spielberg, concern the redemptive and transformative love between an extraterrestrial and an earthling child, a love that changes the boy, Elliott, into a purposeful, self-assured young man. E. T. becomes a father figure for Elliott, protecting him and performing miracles for him. The first novel concerns the growing love of Elliott for E. T.; the second concerns E. T.s love for Elliott.
In E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, a spacecraft seeking botanical specimens lands near a California suburb. One of the botanists, a ten-million-year-old elfin creature, strays too far from the ship and misses the takeoff. Alone and millions of light years from home, he approaches the house where Elliott and his family live. The fatherless household is boisterous and disorganized. Elliott in particular seems doomed to mediocrity by his lack of a father.
After the first, mutually terrified, meeting of E. T. and Elliott, Elliott hides him in his closet to protect him from unimaginative adults. He learns to love E. T. and realizes that E. T. possesses tremendous knowledge and wisdom. When Elliotts siblings meet E. T., five-year-old Gertie gives him a potted geranium and introduces him to her Speak-and-Spell toy, from which he deduces the phonemic structure of English. He also recognizes a computer in the toy, and by using parts of it, he constructs a device to signal his home planet. On Halloween, Elliott and the disguised E. T. bicycle to a hill to leave the transmitter. When they are followed, E. T. makes the bicycle fly, allowing them to evade their pursuers. They leave the transmitter.
The government, having kept surveillance on the house, closes in. When a government team descends on the house, E. T. is captured. Although a medical team tries to keep him alive, E. T. begins to die. He whispers to Elliott that the rescue ship has come, and he and the children make a heroic escape. They elude the officials chasing them by once again flying on their bicycles. As they bid a tearful farewell, E. T., carrying Gertie’s geranium, boards the ship. Pointing to Elliott’s forehead, he promises, “Ill be right here.”
In E. T.: The Book of the Green Planet, the spaceship returns to E. T.’s home, the Green Planet, an Edenic world in which plants supply all the inhabitants needs. E. T., an eminent doctor of botany, finds that instead of being honored for his recent adventures, he has been demoted to the Farm, to begin again the centuries-long course of study. E. T. loves his home but yearns for Elliott, a fact that is underscored by the structural device of alternating scenes between the Green Planet and Earth.
E. T. periodically sends a telepathic replicant to Elliott. His eccentric aim, however, fails to land it on Elliott’s forehead. Elliott, now interested in girls, is too distracted to notice the desperate efforts of the replicant to gain his attention. E. T. fears that Elliott will become that most horrid creature, Man, unless he intervenes. E. T.’s sadness is not allayed by the Contentment Monitors efforts to employ him in such a way that he will forget Earth. With the help of his friend, the silly but wise Flopgoggle, E. T. intuits that his fate is defiance of the traditions of his planet in order to return to Elliott.
Their first plan, to appropriate the star cruiser, requires that they free the three ancient Powers imprisoned under the planet—Occulta, Sinistro, and Electrum—to fly the ship. They are apprehended, and the plan fails. Consequently, the three Powers are re-imprisoned and E. T. is again demoted, this time to attend to the planet’s most difficult botanical specimens.
Therein lies the solution to his problem. He breeds and launches a giant turnip with walls like steel and empowers the turnip spaceship with another plant. When the turnip and its emigrants are pursued, they push the turnip to full speed. It begins to wobble, and they appear to be doomed. E. T. sends one last, perfectly placed replicant to Elliott, who is transfigured by self-knowledge. The three Powers suddenly materialize and stabilize the turnip, which gains speed, outruns the pursuing spaceship, and passes through the Gateway of Dimension, headed for Earth.