A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time is a young adult science fantasy novel written by American author Madeleine L'Engle.[2] First published in 1962,[3] the book won the Newbery Medal, the Sequoyah Book Award, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.[4][a] The main characters – Meg Murry, Charles Wallace Murry, and Calvin O'Keefe – embark on a journey through space and time, from galaxy to galaxy, as they endeavor to rescue the Murrys' father and fight The Black Thing that has intruded into several worlds.
For the film adaptations, see A Wrinkle in Time (2003 film) and A Wrinkle in Time (2018 film). For the book on cosmology, see Wrinkles in Time.Author
The novel offers a glimpse into the war between light and darkness, and good and evil, as the young characters mature into adolescents on their journey.[5] The novel wrestles with questions of spirituality and purpose, as the characters are often thrown into conflicts of love, divinity, and goodness.[5] It is the first book in L'Engle's Time Quintet, which follows the Murry family and O'Keefe.
L'Engle modeled the Murry family on her own. B.E. Cullinan noted that L'Engle created characters who "share common joy with a mixed fantasy and science fiction setting".[6] The novel's scientific and religious undertones are therefore highly reflective of the life of L'Engle.[7]
The book has inspired a 2003 television film directed by John Kent Harrison, and a 2018 theatrical film directed by Ava DuVernay, both produced by The Walt Disney Company.
Publication history[edit]
Upon completion in 1960, the novel was rejected by at least 26 publishers, because it was, in L'Engle's words, "too different," and "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was really difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adults' book, anyhow?"[3][11]
In "A special message from Madeleine L'Engle", L'Engle offers another possible reason for the rejections: "A Wrinkle in Time had a female protagonist in a science fiction book",[14] which at the time was rare.
After trying "forty-odd" publishers (L'Engle later said "twenty-six rejections"), L'Engle's agent returned the manuscript to her. Then at Christmas, L'Engle threw a tea party for her mother. One of the guests happened to know J.C. Farrar of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and he insisted that L'Engle should meet with him.[14] Although the publisher did not, at the time, publish a line of children's books, Farrar met L'Engle, liked the novel, and ultimately published it under the Ariel imprint.[14]
In 1963, the book won the Newbery Medal, an annual award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American children's literature. The book has been continuously in print since its first publication. The hardback edition is still published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The original blue dust jacket by Ellen Raskin was replaced with new art by Leo and Diane Dillon, with the publication of A Swiftly Tilting Planet in 1978. The book has also been published in a 25th anniversary collectors' edition (limited to 500 signed and numbered copies), at least two book club editions (one hardback, one Scholastic Book Services paperback), as a trade paperback under the Dell Yearling imprint, and as a mass market paperback under the Dell Laurel-Leaf imprint. The cover art on the paperback editions has changed several times since its first publication.[15]
The book was reissued by Square Fish in trade and mass market paperback formats in May 2007, along with the rest of the Time Quintet. This new edition includes a previously unpublished interview with L'Engle as well as a transcription of her Newbery Medal acceptance speech.[16]
Plot summary[edit]
One night, thirteen-year-old Meg Murry meets an eccentric new neighbor, Mrs. Whatsit, who refers to something called a tesseract. Meg later finds out it is a scientific concept her father was working on before his mysterious disappearance. The following day, Meg, her child genius brother Charles Wallace, and fellow schoolmate Calvin visit Mrs. Whatsit's home, where the equally strange Mrs. Who and the voice of the unseen Mrs. Which promise to help Meg find and rescue her father.
Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which turn out to be supernatural beings who teleport Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe through the universe by means of a tesseract, a fifth-dimensional phenomenon explained as folding the fabric of space and time; this form of travel is called tessering. Their first stop is the planet Uriel, a world inhabited by centaur-like beings who live in a state of light and love, fighting against the approaching darkness. There, the Mrs. Ws demonstrate to the children how the universe is under attack from an evil being that appears particularly clearly on Uriel as an overwhelming dark cloud, called The Black Thing. They then take the children to Orion's Belt to visit the Happy Medium, a far-seeing person with a crystal ball through which they are shown that Earth is partially covered by the darkness, although great religious figures, philosophers, scientists, and artists, have been fighting against it. Mrs. Whatsit is revealed to be a former star, who exploded in an act of self-sacrifice to fight the darkness.
The three Mrs. Ws tesser the children to the edge of the inhabited part of a dark planet named Camazotz, which has succumbed to The Black Thing, and where the Mrs. Ws cannot themselves enter. Meg's and Charles Wallace's father, Alex Murry, is imprisoned in a nearby city because he refused to yield to the group mind that causes inhabitants to behave in a mechanical way. When they reach the CENTRAL Central Intelligence building, Charles Wallace deliberately allows himself to be hypnotized, in order to find where their father is kept. Controlled by the group mind, Charles Wallace takes Meg and Calvin to the place where Meg's father is being held prisoner. He then takes them to IT, the disembodied brain with powerful telepathic abilities that controls the planet. Using special powers from Mrs. Who's glasses, Meg is able to reach her father, who tessers Calvin, Meg, and himself to the adjacent planet Ixchel, before IT can control them all. Charles Wallace is left behind, still under the influence of IT, Meg is paralyzed from contact with The Black Thing during the trip, and Dr. Murry suffers broken ribs. The inhabitants of Ixchel are beast-like, with featureless faces, tentacles, and four arms. Despite their frightening appearance, they prove to be both wise and gentle; one cures Meg's paralysis, prompting Meg to nickname it "Aunt Beast".
The trio of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which arrive on Ixchel, before Alex Murry has recovered, and assign the rescue of Charles Wallace to Meg alone. Arriving at the building where IT resides, she finds Charles Wallace still under IT's control. Inspired by hints from the Mrs. Ws, Meg focuses all her love on Charles Wallace and is able to free him from IT, at which point Mrs. Which remotely tessers Meg and Charles Wallace off Camazotz.
They all then tesser back to Earth, to the edge of the forest near the Murry home, and back to the moment in time just after the Mrs. Ws and the children originally left Earth. Then the Mrs. Ws vanish.[b]
Analysis[edit]
Religion[edit]
The novel is highly spiritualized, with notable influences of divine intervention and prominent undertones of religious messages.[17] According to James Beasley Simpson, the overwhelming love and desire for light within the novel is directly representative of a Christian love for God and Jesus Christ.[17] Furthermore, the children encounter spiritual intervention, signaling God's presence in the ordinary, as well as the extendibility of God's power and love.[5] Madeleine L'Engle's fantasy works are in part highly expressive of her Christian viewpoint in a manner somewhat similar to that of Christian fantasy writer C.S. Lewis.[c]
L'Engle's liberal Christianity has been the target of criticism from conservative Christians, especially with respect to certain elements of A Wrinkle in Time.[19]
L'Engle utilizes numerous religious references and allusions in the naming of locations within the novel. Camazotz is the name of a Mayan bat god, one of L'Engle's many mythological allusions in her nomenclature.[20]
The name Ixchel refers to a Mayan jaguar goddess of medicine.[20] Uriel is a planet with extremely tall mountains, an allusion to the Archangel Uriel. It is inhabited by creatures that resemble winged centaurs. It is "the third planet of the star Malak (meaning 'angel' in Hebrew) in the spiral galaxy Messier 101", which would place it at roughly 21 million light-years from Earth. The site of Mrs Whatsit's temporary transformation into one of these winged creatures, it is the place where "the guardian angels show the questers a vision of the universe that is obscured on earth."[19](p 26) The three women are described as ancient beings who act as guardian angels.[19](p 26)
The theme of picturing the fight of good against evil as a battle of light and darkness is a recurring one. Its manner is reminiscent of the prologue to the Gospel of John, which is quoted within the book.[6] When the Mrs Ws reveal their secret roles in the cosmic fight against darkness, they ask the children to name some figures on Earth, a partially dark planet, who fight the darkness. They name Jesus and, later in the discussion, the Buddha is named as well.
Nevertheless, religious journalist Sarah Pulliam Bailey doubts whether the novel contains religious undertones.[7] Bailey explains that many readers somehow believe the novel promotes witchcraft, as opposed to alluding to Christian spirituality.[7] Bailey states that conservative Christians take offense, due to the novel's potential relativistic qualities, suggesting the various interpretations of religious allusions signals anti-Christian sentiments.[7] However, in her personal journal referencing A Wrinkle in Time, L'Engle confirms the religious content within the novel: "If I've ever written a book that says what I feel about God and the universe, this is it."[7]
Conformity[edit]
Themes of conformity and yielding to the status quo are prominent in the novel:
IT is a powerful dominant group that manipulates the planet of Camazotz into conformity. Even Charles Wallace falls prey and is hence persuaded to conform. It is thanks to Meg that she and her father and brother are able to break from conformity.[d]
According to Charlotte Jones Voiklis, the author's granddaughter, the story was not a simple allegory of communism; in a three-page passage that was cut before publication, the process of domination and conformity is said to be an outcome of dictatorship under totalitarian regimes, and of an intemperate desire for security in democratic countries.[22][23]
J. Fulton writes: