Chapter 10 - The Book That Saved The Earth

This article will help you to learn about the summary, characters and themes in the story “The Book That Saved the Earth”.

Synopsis

This drama is set in the 25th century. A historian in the museum is telling the story about the 20th century; the century of the books. He tells how a book saved the earth from Martian invasion. The invaders from Mars consider themselves too intelligent for the earthlings. They think they are superior race than the inhabitants of the earth. There is a megalomaniac commander who commands the team of the invader. Various members from the invaders’ team enter a library. They are unable to identify what a book is. They make several wild guesses, and finally, arrive at the conclusion that it must be a communication device for the earthlings. They try to decode what is written in the book. The book is full of nursery rhymes. Their encoding tells them that earthlings must have been on a mission to attack Mars. Fearing that, they immediately leave the earth and fly away to the distant Alpha Centauri.

Character List 

Think Tank – Think-Tank is a living being from Mars who has a huge and egg-shaped head. He wears a long robe decorated with stars and circles. He considers himself to be the most powerful and intelligent creature in the whole universe. He thinks himself to be the ruler of Mars and commands the Mars space control. He owns a crew that has Captain Omega, Lieutenant Iota and Sergeant Oop and apprentice Noodle. As he is from Mars, he considers books as communication sandwiches. He likes to be praised because of his intelligence and authority. He smacks his mirror as it delays in praising him. He boasts of his intelligence and power but decides to evacuate his planet and escape as soon as he gets to know that the people from Earth had planned to take control of Mars.

Noodle – Noodle is the apprentice of the think-tank. He is a smart and intelligent fellow. Though he is the one, to make the right decisions, he makes sure that his boss gets all the praise. This shows his modesty and humility.

He is good at handling tasks by himself. He is wise and uses logical reasoning, which is evident in the way he recognises that the books are some means of communication. He is also a great leader, which can be seen in the conclusion of the play. After 500 years, the people of earth are in good relationship with Martians with noodle as the commander.

Themes 

The play ‘The Book that Saved the Earth’ is based on the theme that half-fed knowledge is always dangerous. It also tells how an old book of rhymes ‘Mother Goose’ saved the world from Martian invasion. The play is set in the 25th century. But Historian turns on the hysteroscope and brings us back to the twentieth century, five centuries back. The play begins with great and mighty Think-Tank with the people of Marks Central Control.

Think Tank is the Commander-in-Chief and the rulers of Mars. He is praised and flattered as the most intelligent and powerful creature in the whole universe. But Think Tank gives ridiculous and fantastic interpretations of books. He calls them sandwiches. His misinterpretations of the rhymes of `Mother Goose’ belie all the tall claims. He is nothing more than an ignorant and haughty despot who relishes nothing but pure and simple, flattery and psychophancy. In the end, Think Tank stops the invasion on Earth and orders the complete evacuation of Mars.

For the book that saved the earth questions and answers, the book that saved the earth class 10, the book that saved the earth NCERT solutions, refer to the solutions PDF.