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world in which fairies and goblin-like Never-Land is only make-believe, and so it thorax and glowing fingertip of E.T.
extraterrestrials would be at home. is to the likes of you, but this is the Similarly, Spielberg uses cold white light to
Far more important than the tiny, Never-Land come true." The setting is a represent the scientific searchers with their
albeit significant, mushroom image are forest with a lagoon, which disappears at flashlights and the doctors who, with all
three other images which occur in both the end of the play while Peter Pan plays their technology, cannot deal with the
Peter Pan and E.T. and lead directly into on his pipes, "plays on and on till we complex organism of the extraterrestrial.
the romantic themes that dominate both wake up." The earthly paradise for the Radiant, warm light reflects the life-force—
works. These are the images of flight, of children is the imagined dream of the healing, communicating, benevolent—that
the place set apart, and of light. artist. is the essence of the advanced science of
For the reviewer of E.T. in Texas Mathison's special place is far less the extraterrestrials, while cold light
Monthly, the flight imagery linked E.T. ephemeral than the Never-Land; it has symbolizes the apparently destructive and
most clearly to Peter Pan. James Woolcott existence in the ordinary world of the film, clearly inhuman aspects of earthly, adult,
called the movie "a distillation of as a clearing in the forest. Yet it, too, is a male-dominated science and technology.
adolescent American pop, taking its love place set apart, known primarily to the In addition to the parallels in
of flight from Peter Pan and its aching children of the area, especially Elliott, characterization and imagery, Barrie's play
throb of homesickness from The Wizard of Michael, and Michael's friends Steve, Greg, and Spielberg's film contain thematic
Oz â– . â– ." But the aching throb is part of and Tyler. It is wild, a natural island in the parallels that reflect their common source
Peter Pan too, for Wendy tells a story midst of suburbia. It is the place the in the assumptions of romanticism. One of
about her abandoned Bloomsbury home spaceship lands, a place associated with these, according to Meyer Abrams in The
that leaves all the boys except Peter mushrooms, rabbits, and deer, and the Mirror and the Lamp, is mat for the
longing for their real mothers. place from which E.T. phones home and romantic poet, "as a vehicle of an
Nevertheless, the flight motif is an from which he finally leaves. It is emotional state of mind, poetry is opposed
important link between play and film, for mysterious only in that it is hard to get to, not to prose, but to unemotional
it is an outward sign of the inward grace of that we see it almost always at night, and assertions of fact, or science." Put another
acceptance of the alien by human children. that it is here that extraterrestrial and way, the romantic imagination brings into
No adult flies in these fantasies—indeed terrestrial worlds make contact. Mathison's question the assumptions behind the
they oppose flight—and at the end of the magic is the superior and benevolent everyday world of fact, of business, of
play, when Wendy returns to the Never- science of the extraterrestrials, and she technology. Both play and film do just
Land for spring cleaning, "She flies so replaces the elves, leprechauns, and goblins this. Presenting alternative worlds to our
badly now that she has to use a of dream with a new form of real life. It is own on stage or on the screen, they draw
broomstick." Fairy dust and Keys's connection with the special place us into a consideration of which is
extraterrestrial power are essentially the that allows him to become part of the superior, reality or the imaginative dream.
same thing, and flight is the romantic closing scene: his lines to Elliott, "I've Given Mr. Darling's postage-stamp like
symbol of escape from the ordinary and of existence in the reality of the urban
the power of the alien. In this regard, both business world, who would not choose
E.T. and Peter Pan are part of a tradition "Barrie's play and Spielberg's film instead the Never-Land, fear maturity, and
that also includes Mary Poppins and The contain thematic parallelism that wish "to be a little boy and to have fun"?
Wizard of Oz. Given the world of adult science, as
In The Spoken Seen, McConnell suggests reflect their common. . . symbolized in E.T. by the flashlights and
that, in romanticism, places, particularly romanticism." pickups of the hunters, the ether and frogs
isolated or fancied places, acquire a special in jars of the school biology lab, and the
power when perceived by the activated dark mirror like face-plates of the NASA
imagination of a sensitive observer. He been to the forest" and "I've been wishing scientists who invade Elliott's home, who
for this since I was ten years old," make would not choose the apparently loving
examines the films Mary Poppins and The him one of the believers.
Wizard o/ Oz as depictions of world of the extraterrestrials? Both my
The final connecting image between husband and son say that, given Elliott's
transportation to magic places where child Peter Pan and E.T. is the image of light. In
observers learn something they cannot choice, they'd go.
learn at home. In the mundane existence of Peter Pan the two lights of significance are I'd stay. In both Peter Pan and E.T. the
the Banks children on Cherry Tree Lane the night-lights and Tinker Bell. The night- central humans, Wendy and Elliott, choose
and of Dorothy in Kansas, there is nothing lights, though addressed by Mrs. Darling in to return to their homes, drawn back
to liberate their imaginations. Only the Act I as if they are guardian angels, are primarily by the power of maternal love.
special place, like the /tortus conclusus of helpless in the face of the supernatural, Thus the romantic concept of the power of
medieval literature and the magical persons represented by the ball of light that is emotion is central in both play and film.
connected with it, can lift the minds of the Tink. Life and light are equated only in Moreover, Peter Pan, because he is simply
children beyond the limits of conventional Tinker Bell, whose light fades as she is a personification of eternal boyhood,
upper middle class London, or equally dying and revives with the expression of cannot love; but E.T. can, and this makes
conventional gray, rural Kansas. faith of the clapping hands. In Peter Pan, Elliott's choice more emotionally painful
In both Peter Pan and E.T. there is such the light image is relatively simple and than Wendy's.
a special place. In Peter Pan it is, of course, unimportant; in E.T. it is much more The second romantic axiom that lies at
the Never-Land. In Barrie's stage important, both visually and symbolically. the base of Barrie's play, as well as of
directions, this place is clearly associated Visually, light is more prominent in E.T. Mathison's screenplay, is the celebration of
because the original text was conceived as the creative consciousness, which is
with dreams, for he says, at the beginning a screenplay, while Barrie's work was for
of Act II, "You have often half seen it particularly alive in childhood but is
before, or even three-quarters, after the
theatrical production. Mathison's spaceship preserved in the mind of the visionary
night-lights were lit, and you might then and extraterrestrial provide great adult who, alone, can be the seer for the
have beached your coracle on it if you had opportunities for Spielberg to exploit the rest of mankind. In "Ode: Intimations of
associations of warm light and color, Immortality from Recollections of Early
not always at the great moment fallen especially, of course, in the radiant red
asleep ... .In the daytime you think the
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Childhood," Wordsworth calls it the seen as superior to that of rational but with insightful adults as well. In the
"visionary gleam," as well as "the glory adulthood, and the warmth of emotion is film, though not in the book based on it,
and the dream," and natural phenomena shown to be needed to humanize the world Keys stands beside Mary as Elliott makes
like the pansy remind him of it. The of scientific, technological fact. Both are his choice, representing, I think, the man
romantic view of childhood conceives of clearly in the romantic mode. who has preserved the dream he had as a
the child, because he is close to nature, as This examination of the parallels ten-year-old. In a way, then, Barrie has
capable of clearer vision than the socialized between Peter Pan and ET: The created a tragedy of romanticism;
adult. The child's mind accepts and Extraterrestrial does not intend to show that Mathison and Spielberg have made it into
integrates, rather than excludes, the strange E.T. is merely an update of the older play. comedy.
and the wonderful. In Peter Pan, Mrs. I have already discussed some clear
Darling fears the face at the window and differences, such as the relative importance REFERENCES
the ball of light; Wendy is "pleasantly of the images of the special place and of Abrams, M.H. The Mirror and the Lamp.
interested to see a stranger" in her light in each work. There are many others. New York: Norton, 1958.
bedroom at night. All three Darling Perhaps most significant is the difference Barrie, James M. The Plays o/J.M. Barrie.
children are ready to try flight and to in what happens to the "visionary gleam" New York: Scribner's, 1935.
desert their home in search of adventure in in each work. At the end of Barrie's play,
the forest and lagoon of the Never-Land. Wendy is growing up; she is unable to see Kotzwinkle, William. E.T: The
In E.T, Elliott is only the most accepting Peter clearly any more, and she can fly Extraterrestrial in His Adventure on Earth.
of the children in the film; he welcomes only with a broomstick. Barrie holds out New York: Berkley, 1982.
the alien with love. Quickly overcoming little hope that Wendy, John, Michael, or McConnell, Frank D. The Spoken Seen.
his fear of E.T.'s bizarre appearance, Elliott the lost boys can keep their faith and Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
adopts what his brother Michael calls "the belief in Peter; they will forget him as 1975.
goblin" and ultimately plays the father role quickly as John and Michael begin to Spielberg, Steven, director, and Melissa
much more creditably than does the boy's forget home when they are in the Never- Mathison, scriptwriter. ET: The
own father, to whom Elliott cannot talk Land. Only the artist retains his memory Extraterrestrial. 1982.
about his problems because "he's in of the dream and gives it permanence for
Mexico with Sally." Elliott, Gertie, the audience by creating the true Never- Walcott, James. "Little Alien Lost." Texas
Michael, and the three friends on bicycles, Land on stage. In contrast, Spielberg's Monthly (July, 1982).
who are the parallels to the lost boys in movie holds out hope that Elliott's vision
Peter Pan, conspire to save E.T. from the of a creative relationship with the alien, Stephen F. Austin State University
crude and destructive response made to the extraterrestrial society represented by
him by adult society in the film. In both the spaceship, and E.T. can be preserved
works, then, the vision of childhood is and shared, not only with other children,