“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle

“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle begins with the clichéesque “It was a dark and stormy night” but quickly develops into a character study of the Murry family, a family put under stress by the lengthy absence of the father, Dr. Murry an eminent physicist experimenting with a tesseract, enabling one to travel from one place to another utilizing the fifth dimension. Meg Murry is constantly living under stress of other people’s expectations living in a small rural climate of reverse intellectual prejudice - the daughter of two brilliant scientists. Sadly, Meg lacks the necessary social skills to fit into her school; frustrating her, since her younger twin brothers Sandy and Dennys flourish these skills so effortlessly and make it look so easy. Meg’s lack of confidence and poor self-image is put to the test when she meets Calvin O’Keefe, a popular and bright boy at school; but unhappy because he lacks what Meg has, an unconditional loving family. Meg’s youngest brother Charles Wallace is special. Thought by most of the community to be an idiot, due to the fact that he did not talk until a later age, and then in complete intelligent sentences, Charles Wallace possesses not only great intelligence and a keen wit but additional gifts he will develop and use throughout the story and the stories to come.
This story quickly develops from a mystery into a rescue, then to suspense, all being intermingled and coalesced into a fantasy adventure. The trio of Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin are enlisted to save Meg’s father. The gifts each of the children possess are crucial to their success, as well as their teamwork, courage and most important – their love for each other. Throughout their quest they meet both friends and foes, in surprising forms and places locked in a battle spread throughout the universe. They learn that their own home planet is endangered of being engulfed by an ominous shadow of evil and are being recruited to aid in that fight. They experience firsthand the results of submission to evil, as they rescue Mr. Murry from the fallen planet Camazotz, a place where utmost order is upheld, apathy expected and sickness is battled by euthanizing citizens with any type of infirmary.
“A Wrinkle in Time” lets us examine ourselves and our society through a child’s eyes and recognize elements within us that we seldom see. One of the most amazing gifts of a story is the ability of the reader to identify with one or more of the characters, their weaknesses and strengths, their dreams and fears but mostly how they treat and are treated by others. The importance of acceptance, values, family and most important, love, shows how we can overcome fear, apathy, ignorance and evil. We all suffer from these from time to time. Madeleine L’Engle reminds us through her imaginative characters that there are choices we make every day that influence us and others positively or negatively. We need our friends, we need our families, we need our values but most important of all we all need to be loved and accepted.