Santoshi Pisupati

As much as I love reading books, I want to make sure I understand the full story, details in depth. So I have created book reports for the top books I read so kids can read before/after they read the actual book. After all, I encourage reading all the time!

This is a summary and a detailed  discussion of A Wrinkle in Time. The author of this book is Madeleine L’Engle. One thing you should know is: The information in this report is not taken from any site such as Bing or Google. (Although, I may have used Google to find the correct spelling for the author’s first name. I have also taken pictures from Google.) So sit back, relax and enjoy!

Main Idea
A Wrinkle in Time is about 2 kids: Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, along with their friend Calvin O’Keefe rescuing Meg and Charles Wallace’s father: Jack Murry (Alexander Murry in books, Jack Murry in the movie.)  But it is not only them. 3 ladies who have magical powers: Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which assist them in rescuing their father from the horrible planet Camazotz. All these characters succeed in doing everything else along with battling the evil brain of Camazotz: IT and learning more about a tesseract.

Summary
It is a dark and stormy night. Margaret (Meg) Murry, Charles Wallace and Dana (Kate) Murry are all downstairs for a midnight snack. It is then when they meet an odd lady named Mrs. Whatsit. She makes a mysterious remark about a tesseract. Mrs. Murry becomes very white in the face because apparently, ‘her mother got all frightened and upset by that word’. The next day, after a horrible time in school, Meg, Charles Wallace and their dog Fortinbras set out to meet Mrs. Whatsit. On the way, the three meet a boy named Calvin O’Keefe. Then, they meet another woman named Mrs. Who. She is Mrs. Whatsit’s friend. After eating, and Calvin and Meg taking a walk, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Who introduce them to another Mrs. W: Mrs. Which. It is now that all the Mrs. W’s have been introduced.

Meg, Calvin, Charles Wallace and the 3 Mrs. W’s all tesser onto a planet called Uriel. On Uriel, Mrs. Whatsit metamorphoses into a magnificent creature, one that was marble white, had legs like a horse and could fly with magnificent rainbow wings. The children had climbed onto Mrs. Whatsit and began their tour of Uriel. The children first hear some music, and Charles Wallace recognizes it to be joy in the movie. A little while later, the atmosphere gets thinner, and so the kids hold up special flowers that they had plucked to their faces, so they would still receive enough oxygen. Their last stop on this tour was a tour of the Black Thing, AKA the Powers of Darkness. Mrs. Who says that Alex Murry is behind The Black Thing. In the next chapter, all of them tesser to a place called Orion’s Belt, where a woman named The Happy Medium has been scheduled to meet them. She gives the kids a final glimpse at their parents before they leave for Camazotz. Calvin’s mother doesn’t notice that he is gone, while Meg and Charles Wallace’s mother relaxes herself into an unhappiness because of missing Alex and the kids. The Happy Medium becomes very tired, and falls asleep. Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which tesser the kids and they onto Camazotz, which on the introduction page states that it is the place where Alex is held captive.

After tessering onto Camazotz, Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin see lots of people who are doing everything in the exact same rhythm. Example: As the skipping rope went over the head of the child, the child who was being passed the ball caught it. As the skipping rope hit the pavement, the other child caught the ball. The trio goes down to ask where Alex was. The woman goes very white when Charles Wallace says that a boy dropped his ball, another boy describes Camazotz to the children as ‘perfectly channeled’ and a man tells them the procedure: You fill out the A form and the B form, and then you put the A form into the S slot. It was very confusing, but the trio finds it all out when they meet The Man with The Red Eyes. He has succumbed to IT, the evil brain of Camazotz, just like everyone else on this dark planet. He tells them that he is the Prime Coordinator. The Man with The Red Eyes then explains all about Camazotz, IT and gives them some food to eat. Charles Wallace says it tastes terrible, while Meg and Calvin just eat, not worrying about the taste. The Man with The Red Eyes then promises Charles Wallace that if he succumbs to IT, then he will tell the kids where Mr. Murry is. He says that he does not make promises lightly, and that is enough for Charles Wallace to say,” OK. Let’s go.” Once he gives in, nothing changes except for the eyes, because the black is ‘swallowed up’ in blue. Meg becomes extremely worried, but Calvin says that they can’t leave him. Charles Wallace acts rude, but explains sweetly about how difference creates problems while taking them to Alex. He then takes them to their dad, when Meg yells,” FATHER!” The thing is, he is trapped behind a transparent column, so Meg cannot get in. But luckily, she still has Mrs. Who’s spectacles from when they first came to Camazotz. Mrs. Who gave her the spectacles as a usage on Camazotz. Because Calvin’s ability to communicate did not work, Meg had an idea. She put on the spectacles and was able to get into the cell. They reunite, but Mr. Murry is not able to get Charles Wallace back to his normal self, as Meg expected. Instead, Charles Wallace takes them all to IT for a punishment. Meg does not want to be put under his control, so what she does is she tries to keep herself normal by saying the periodic table of elements and square roots. But even then, she knows that she cannot resist IT. She feels her father grab her by the wrist, and they all tesser to an unknown planet. But since Alex has not tessered onto any planet for almost a year, he almost let the Black Thing get Meg. When they finally arrive somewhere, Meg is unconscious.

The three tesser onto a planet called Ixchel, where they befriend a couple of beasts. The beasts do not know what light is, and they cannot see, so what things look like is a mystery to them. A very nice beast bonds with Meg, and she nicknames the beast Aunt Beast. Meg describes the food as delicious and the music as tender yet strong. After being cared for, Meg, Calvin and Alex get into an argument about leaving Charles Wallace on Camazotz, when Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which come. Meg is still very weak, yet the ladies say that only she can go because she is the only one who has a special bond with him. Mr. Murry and Calvin reject, Meg wants to go, Mrs. Whatsit is firm and the beasts do not give their opinion much. All of them make an executive decision: Meg gets to go. After bidding everyone good-bye, Mrs. Which takes Meg to Camazotz. She tells Meg that apart from Mrs. Whatsit’s and Mrs. Who’s gift, Meg had something that IT did not have. But she needed to find it out for herself. After walking for a couple of minutes, she sees IT’s home: Central Central Intelligence. Here, she sees Charles Wallace being hypnotized into IT’s rhythm. Charles Wallace tries to put Meg down, when suddenly she realizes what she has that IT does not have: Love. She thinks about loving Charles Wallace, and he comes out of IT’s control. In a flash, they are on Earth. The whole family reunites, including Calvin. But, IT has not been defeated yet, has he?

What a nice way to end the story!

Background Information of a Wrinkle in Time

A tesseract is the fifth dimension. First, what are the other four?

The first is a line.

The second is a square.

The third is a cube.

The fourth is time.

Now, Kate and Alex were experimenting with this fifth dimension on a project. Alex disappeared but accidentally came to Camazotz instead of his intended planet: Mars. At first the Murrys’ got lots of letters. Kate and Alex wrote to each other almost every night. Kate still writes to Alex.

Have you ever had a time where you refused to share someone’s belongings or powers?

That’s exactly what Alex did. Alex refused to submit to IT once he landed on Camazotz, so he was imprisoned in a transparent column for a year. Anybody who refuses to submit to IT or does things out of rhythm is sent to IT, where they are either imprisoned, punished or taught the right way. This is why the boy who was bouncing the basketball out of rhythm was sent to IT.

People are very scared in the movie when they are sent to IT, because it usually means that they are in trouble, and it is very serious when somebody is in trouble on Camazotz.

The three ladies described in this book: Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which are all supernatural, right? Listen to some of their stories.

Mrs. Whatsit can transform into anything, like a magnificent flying horse or just a plain old human. Any one of those things is of the tiniest group of things Mrs. Whatsit could be. She is also said to be a star that sacrificed herself in order to destroy a part of the Black Thing. She is the youngest of the Mrs. W’s despite being over two billion years old.

Mrs. Who is a short, plump woman with huge spectacles. She quotes others for meaning instead of verbalizing, though verbalization from her happens in the story. She can communicate in French, Latin, Portuguese, Italian, German and other languages.

Mrs. Which has an unset appearance because having a normal appearance for a long time is very difficult for her. She does, though, once take the form of a real witch, but this does not last for long. Mrs. Which is the wisest of the three ladies, giving out answers that always make sense. From the story, Mrs. Which appears to be the oldest.

A preview of what is going to happen after you have read the story by giving you one question. What is going to happen after this book?

Read A Wind in the Door, Ms. L’Engle’s next book in the Time series.

Hint for A Wind in the Door: All the kids are older now. Meg is in college, Sandy and Dennys are in high school and Charles Wallace is in 1st grade. Mr. Jenkins has become the principal of Charles Wallace’s elementary school.

Discussion Questions

You have heard the story. Just in case you did not catch anything, read the story one more time. So, you have this report. You have the book. You have the movie. Watch/read any two of these. Then, try to answer the questions below. Once you have an answer, read what I have to say.

Inthe book, what do they describe Mrs. Whatsit as when she metamorphoses on Uriel?

She is described as marble white, with wings that are rainbow colored. Her legs are like a horse’s.

In the report, check out Background Information of a Wrinkle in Time. What are the first four dimensions? What is a tesseract?

The first dimension is a line.

The second dimension is a square.

The third dimension is a cube.

The fourth dimension has to do with time.

The fifth dimension is a tesseract. You add a tesseract to the first four dimensions and you can travel in space and time without having to go the long way around. In other words, a line is not the shortest way around two points.

In the movie, how does Camazotz look when Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin first come?

There is grey and a little gold. A bunch of sandy mountains make up the background. Blue lightning strikes. As they draw nearer to the city, everything has color but looks plain.

How does Meg feel about herself in the beginning of the book?

She feels as though she is an oddball, and she hates being one. Meg tries to pretend to be like everyone else, but she is far too unique to pretend, her mother said. Meg also calls herself repulsive-looking and plain. In short, she is not happy with who she is.

Why does Charles Wallace succumb to The Man with The Red Eyes, even though he knows the man is evil?

He does so only because of his attitude towards the kids. He acts so loving, sweet and kind, not like a horrible monster. It is also because he promises to help the kids find Alex, and Charles Wallace does not want to miss out on any chances to find Alex.

Why do you think in the book, Mrs. Who quotes Shakespeare’s The Tempest as a hint for the children?

She quotes it for Charles Wallace, because in the quote, a man who was too sure of himself went to jail trying to achieve a goal. Mrs. Who does not want that happening to Charles Wallace.

Does Meg care for Charles Wallace more than anyone? How can you explain this?

She does. She cares about Charles Wallace more than herself when they tesser onto Ixchel and let him be trapped in the mind of IT. She also shrieks wildly when Charles Wallace submits to The Man with The Red Eyes. So, she cares about Charles Wallace’s safety a lot.

What would have happened if Calvin did not come on the journey?

Charles Wallace and Meg would have never met Mrs. Who, Meg would have never became angry if The Happy Medium hadn’t shown Calvin’s mother and without Calvin’s suggestion to tesser, Alex Murry, Meg and Charles Wallace would have been stuck on Camazotz.

Why do you think the letters from Mr. Murry stopped coming after a while?

I think it is because Alex was thrown in that cell, and without any friends, there would be nobody to deliver letters. That is why he stopped sending letters.

What are other emotions and things that IT does not have, but Meg has?

Joy, compassion, happiness, comfort, peace, calamity, purity, fun.

How do you think Mrs. Whatsit knew about a tesseract?

She knows how to tesser, so that’s one clue. Charles Wallace may have given her some information when he met her about Father’s disappearance and how he disappeared. In the story, Charles Wallace also says that he got his mother to explain about a tesseract to him. So, Mrs. Whatsit just put two and two together.

Why do you think Camazotz eventually submitted to IT?

A common reason is that IT was too strong for Camazotz to fight, so they could have just submitted to IT, hoping that they would not tire themselves out anymore. Another reason could be that IT may have promised them peace and comfort, so Camazotz foolishly could say,” OK.”

In the movie, how does Mrs. Which appear? Does she appear as a shimmering light, or a regular person?

Mrs. Which appears like a regular person.

But, there is one question that I will not give the answer to. It is….

What did you learn from the story?

It is very important to know the moral of this story. Email what you learnt from reading the book, watching the movie or just reading this report to toshi2005@outlook.com.

Now, you have completed reading this report. We look forward to seeing you on another report like this. Be sure to check out the rest of my website. And remember: Read Well!