A Wrinkle In Time
Madeleine L’engle
By Maga Kim
A Wrinkle In Time is a book about 3 children named Meg, Charles and Calvin
who fight the Dark Thing while looking for Mr. Murray. They meet people such as The
Happy Medium, Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, Aunt beast, etc. Who help the
children in this journey by giving them valuable information, items, or even love and
care.
The main conflict about this book is light against dark, love against hate, the heart
against the brain, faith versus reason, etc. These Ideas, emotions and things are
conflicting because they are polar opposites and oppose each other naturally. These
conflicts can also be found in real life, which is why I think Madeleine L’engle wants the
readers to sympathize with the side of light, love and the heart. Without these thoughts
we would take a wallet on the street and keep it not even fathoming that the owner of this
wallet might lose a lot of his/her money being sad while the person who picked the wallet
is happy. I think Madeleine L’engle is trying to teach us to be kind to one another so that
the world will not erupt in chaos and possibly live in harmony like the first place Mrs.
Which brings the children to. (Pg. 66 and Pg. 77).
The protagonist Meg is a girl who is homely and monstrous at the beginning but
later learns that looks are not everything. She is brave, acts entirely on impulse, listens to
her heart and loves many people.
Not much is known about Sandy and Dennys who are Meg’s twin brothers. They
are normal or try to act normal. Mr. Murray, Meg’s father, is a very kind man who loves
Meg a lot. Mr. Murray is lost somewhere and Meg, Charles and Calivin try to find him
with the help of Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which and Mrs. Whatsit. Mrs. Murray is Mr. Murray’s
wife and Meg and Charles’s mom. Mrs. Murray is beautiful, has red hair and talks to
Meg keeping Meg happy. The Happy Medium is a jolly person who looks through a
globe seeing the joyful and happy side of the universe and beyond. Aunt Beast is a
revolting beast with no eyes. She lives with other creatures like her but is actually
beautiful in the inside. She can feel others emotions with her tentacles, calmed Meg down
and made Meg happy. She also healed Meg of the contact with The Dark Thing and is
almost the exact opposite of The Dark Thing.
The main settings in the book A Wrinkle In Time is on Earth and Camazotz. Earth
because that is where the book begins and ends, Camazotz because that is where most of
the plot unfolds. On Earth almost all people are free to do what they like and believe in
what they want to believe in. On Camazotz the people must do whatever The Dark Thing
tells them to do and are enslave to The Dark Thing. There is no particular setting of time
in A Wrinkle In Time because when they tessert they can choose what time they wish to
go to as well as what place.
The themes in this book are love and faith. Meg constantly loves or is being loved
in the story. Meg loves Charles and in that way helps him escape from The Dark Thing.
The children have faith in Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Which. This faith in the
three women helped the children feel safer in Camazotz than they would have felt
without the faith they had in the women. Meg has faith that she could save Charles and
loves him too much not to try. Calvin and Meg have faith that Charles is right to trust the
3 women and faith that Mr. Murray has not given in to The Dark Thing. Without love
Meg could not free Charles and without both faith and love the children might not have
left off in search of Mr. Murray.
The moral of this story is to listen to your heart and not too much to your brain
and your pride. An example why this might be the moral of the story is that while
Charles, only listening to his pride and his brain, was enslaved by The Dark Thing while
Meg listening to her heart escapes The Dark Thing’s grasp and came back saving
Charles. I agree to this moral because if we only listened to our thoughts we would
become like the people in Camazotz enslaved by our own brain.
The most effective sentence in this book is:
Mrs Whatsit said breathlessly, “Oh, my darlings, I’m sorry we don’t have time to
say good-bye properly. You see, we have to—“
This is the most effective sentence because it makes you curious to what happens
next and in effect excites you to read the next book.
