A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L’Engle

Annotation:

Margaret Murry is not sure what to think about life. She is seen as an oddball at school, the whole town is making assumptions about her father-gone-missing, and her little brother can, it seems, read her and her mother’s minds. All of these things become quite trivial, though, when Meg, her brother, Charles Wallace, and her new friend, Calvin, seek out Mrs Whatsit and her friends, whom Charles Wallace has befriended. This interesting group of six travels through time/space to try to save Meg and Charles Wallace’s father from a force much stronger than the children might expect. Encountering other planets and finding hope, solace, and strength in places and people she never imagined, Meg realizes the importance of being who she is made to be. Interlaced with religious (Biblical) insight, this book is sure to capture the reader’s full attention.

Story Line

• Margaret (Meg) Murry is alone in her attic room on a stormy night – pondering many negative thoughts about herself that others have put in her mind.
• She goes downstairs to find her little brother, Charles Wallace, already waiting for her and their mother in the kitchen.
• They are soon visited by Mrs Whatsit, a woman who Meg and her mother are quite curious about, but whom Charles Wallace has already met.
• Meg gets confronted by the principal at school, which does nothing to help her low self-esteem and her assumptions that everyone else in town believes her father has abandoned his family.
• Meg and Charles Wallace set out on a walk to the house where Mrs Whatsit and her friends are staying, when they encounter Calvin O’Keefe.
• After a short conversation with Charles Wallace, Calvin realizes his ideas about the Murry family are wrong, and both Charles Wallace and Calvin come to the conclusion they are supposed to be together.
• Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin go to the “haunted house,” where the ladies are staying, and meet Mrs Who before continuing home.
• After a quick supper, Meg and Calvin walk and talk. Before long Charles Wallace appears, and soon after the three are in for the time of their lives as they travel through time & space, or tesser to another planet.
• Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which take the children to Uriel to begin to try to explain what is going on and what is going to happen. These women also reveal that they are not women, but beautiful creatures which words cannot describe.
• There is a “Black Thing” that is clouded around earth, and it is easy to see that it is evil. They find out this “thing” is what Mr. Murry is attempting to battle.
• The children are taken to another planet and to the Happy Medium before being tessered to Camazotz, where they will find Mr. Murry.
• The children eventually encounter “IT,” or the evil thing that is controlling minds.
• Charles Wallace does not resist the evil, and is taken over by it.
• They are taken to Mr. Murry and Meg, Calvin, and Mr. Murry end up narrowly escaping being overcome by the evil by tessering to another planet.
• Meg is nursed back to physical potential by the beings that inhabit the planet, even though the spiritual battle between good and evil continues to rage within.
• Meg finally finds peace and strength in the power of the good, and realizes she must save her brother.
• Meg returns to battle IT, and, through love alone, is able to rescue her brother.
• Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which tesser the children and Mr. Murry back to earth, and they are back minutes before they left, just in time to meet Mrs. Murry and the twins as they come into the yard from the house.

Life Application

I can really relate to the underlying storyline of A Wrinkle in Time. As a Christian battling the evil one can be so frustrating, difficult, and certainly deceiving! In the story, Meg definitely takes the typical journey of many Christians. She gets into a situation in which evil surrounds her and it is very difficult to resist once she begins to give in. With the love and strength of others, she is able to overcome the evil. I’ve taken that path too many times to count, and as the story reminded me, it is a completely spiritual battle that can be overcome! I also like that Meg is told to use her faults to fight the battle – it is a good reminder that God can use us no matter what to accomplish His good and perfect purposes.

Ideas for Use in Classroom

In the story Meg deals with being “different” from other students, and has a friend who lives his life as someone else, unhappily. This would be a good lesson for students in the area of being themselves and what kind of important people you can find and become friends with when you are yourself. Also, sometimes what we see as making us different in a bad way, is really something that makes us different in a positive. Just as Meg uses her faults to save a life, we, too, must realize the importance of who we really are, not who we want to be.

In a Christian school, it would be beneficial to talk to the students about the correlation of the “Black Thing” to evil in the Christian’s life, and how it must be resisted, and the love of family, friends, and most importantly, God, is key to remaining in the light.