Challenged Book

"A Wrinkle In Time"

Madeleine L'Engle

 

Bibliographical Info: L'Engle, M. (1963). A Wrinkle In Time. New York City: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Grade Level: 6th to 8th grade

Response/ Critique: A Wrinkle in Time is the story of Meg Murry, a high-school-aged girl who is transported on an adventure through time and space with her younger brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin O'Keefe to rescue her father, a gifted scientist, from the evil forces that hold him prisoner on another planet. At the beginning of the book, Meg is a homely, awkward, but loving girl, troubled by personal insecurities and her concern for her father, who has been missing for over a year. The plot begins with the arrival of Mrs. Whatsit at the Murry house on a dark and stormy evening. Although she looks like an eccentric tramp, she is actually a celestial creature with the ability to read Meg's thoughts. She startles Meg's mother by reassuring her of the existence of a tesseract--a sort of "wrinkle" in space and time. It is through this wrinkle that Meg and her companions will travel through the fifth dimension in search of Mr. Murry.

Overall, I thought it was an okay book with powerful themes, but I couldn't help feeling lost while reading this story. The main characters were relatable when it came to their inner struggles,  but I kept getting Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which mixed up and I could not wrap my head around a fifth dimensional world. It did not go into great detail about the "Black Thing" and why it is threatening the universe and where it originated from. I felt like the story jumped around a lot and often times the other worlds they found themselves in were hard to picture along with the creatures they encountered among their travels. In truth, I would be hesitant to implement this book in a classroom setting because even when I got the opinions of others who had read this book, they too shared the same feelings I had and it isn't one a could see children or young adults understanding.

• Setting: The story first takes place at the Murray household but as the plot unfolds, the main characters find themselves in different universes as they "wrinkle" through time and space. Among those worlds are Camazotz, where all objects and places appear exactly alike because the whole planet must conform to the terrifying rhythmic pulsation of IT, a giant disembodied brain, and a gray planet called Ixchel inhabited by tall, furry beasts who care for the travelers.
• Point of View: Told in third-person omniscient and the narrator oversees the story and what the characters feel and do as the story unfolds.
• Characters:
• • Meg Murry -  The book's heroine and protagonist, a homely, awkward, but loving high school student who is sent on an adventure through time and space with her brother and her friend Calvin to rescue her father from the evil force that is attempting to take over the universe. Meg's greatest faults are her anger, impatience, and lack of self-confidence, but she channels and overcomes them, ultimately emerging victorious.
  • Charles Wallace Murry  -  Meg's extraordinarily intelligent five-year-old younger brother who is capable of reading minds and understanding other creatures in a way that none of the other Murry children can.
  • Calvin O'Keefe -  A popular boy and talented athlete in Meg's high school who accompanies the Murry children on their adventure. Calvin comes from a large family that does not really care about him, but he nonetheless demonstrates a strong capacity for love and affection, and shows a burgeoning romantic interest in Meg.
  • IT -  The disembodied brain that controls all the inhabitants of Camazotz with its revolting, pulsing rhythm. IT, identified with the Black Thing, is the embodiment of evil on this planet.
  • The Black Thing  -  A cold and dark shadow that symbolizes the evil forces that Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace must fight against in order to rescue their father.
  • Mrs. Whatsit -  The youngest of the three celestial beings who accompany the children on their adventure. Meg initially comes to know Mrs. Whatsit as the tramp who stole bed-sheets from their neighbors and then sought shelter from a storm in the Murrys' warm kitchen. She later learns that Mrs. Whatsit gave up her existence as a star in order to fight the Dark Thing.
  • Mrs. Which -  The oldest of the three celestial beings who accompany the children on their adventure. Mrs. Which has difficulty materializing and is usually just a shimmering gleam. Her unconventional speech is usually rendered in capitalized words, with the first consonants repeated several times.
  • Mrs. Who -  The second of the three celestial beings who accompany the children on their adventure. She usually speaks in quotations from famous thinkers and writers because she finds it too difficult to craft her own sentences. When the children first meet Mrs. Who, she is sewing sheets in the haunted house in their neighborhood.
  • Mr. Murry  -  Meg's father and a physicist who works for a top-secret government agency on experiments with travel through space-time in the fifth dimension. In trying to tesser to Mars (i.e., travel through a tesseract, or wrinkle in time), he is captured and imprisoned on the dark planet of Camazotz. When the plot begins, no one on Earth has heard from him for over a year
• Theme: Good conquers evil, light versus darkness, and the power of love. This book also celebrates human creativity and individuality. "You mean you're comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form but freedom within it?" "Yes," Mrs. Whatsit said, "You're given the from, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you." We are free to write our own story in life, though the constraints are the same, the messages are different.
• Style: While the genre is science-fiction with a mix of fantasy, L'Engle included a lot of references such as the Bible, The Tempest, and quotes that acted as words of wisdom to the main characters, varying in different languages and dialects. While the story is easy enough to read, a background knowledge of science discoveries/theories is necessary in order to understand some concepts that are presented.

Connections: This book coincides with many of Madeleine L' Engle's common themes in her writing, such as her struggle with Christian theology and her fervent belief in the values of family, love, and moral responsibility.
 After reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and watching a movie adaptation of the book, students will be able to pick a scene from the book to draw or compose in a creative fashion and present to the class drawing from their own imagination/interpretation of the book or based on the way the movie portrayed it. Other ideas include having a contest to see who can create the best Newspaper Headline for the disappearance  of Mr. Murray or telling the students to pretend they are going on a journey through time and space. Their task would be to write a short paper describing the items they will take with them and why.

Discussion Questions:

1. In what way is A Wrinkle in Time informed by Madeleine L'Engle's personal theological and scientific ideas?
2. How are Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which distinguished from one another?
3. Why does L'Engle represent IT as a large disembodied brain? What is the symbolism of this?
4. Describe what makes Charles Wallace so extraordinary. How do these traits both hurt and help him on Camazotz?
5. What are the various non-linguistic ways in which the creatures in this book communicate with one another? Do you think that L'Engle believes that words are ultimately inadequate as a method of communication?

 Resources:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/wrinkle/quiz.html
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/wrinkle-time-extension-activities
http://books.google.com/books?id=JDsr2Oxn-3YC&pg=PA39&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false