for A Wrinkle in Time - Glencoe

1 I Study GuideforA Wrinkle in Timeby Madeleine L EngleTHEGLENCOELITERATURELIBRARYA Wrinkle in time Study Guide9 Copyright by The McGraw-Hill Companies, first few books sold well. And BothWere Young, for example, won its way ontoThe New York Times Ten Best Books of theYear list for 1949. During the 1950s, how-ever, she postponed her writing career toraise her children. L Engle and her husbandran a general store in Connecticut andraised a family. She wrote stories when shehad time . A Wrinkle in Timewas one ofthose stories. Twenty-six publishers rejectedit before editors who had liked one of herearlier stories decided to publish it. The edi-tors said they were publishing the bookbecause they loved it.

2 As it turned out, thepublic loved it 1963 A Wrinkle in time won theNewbery Medal. Other awards followed, andthe book became a classic of literature foryoung adult readers. It was simply a book Ihad to write, L Engle said of A Wrinkle inTime. And it was only after it was writtenthat I realized what some of it meant. Thewriting career that had come so close toending was relaunched. L Engle has written more than fortybooks for children and young people. In1998 she received the Margaret A. EdwardsAward from the magazine School LibraryJournal for her lifetime contribution to writ-ing for teens. She continued the storystarted in A Wrinkle in Timewith anotherbook, A Wind in the Door,in her TimeFantasy Series.

3 She also has many loyalreaders, who delight in her imaginativeapproach to stories. She says:I start with what I know with all five senses, what I have experienced, and then the imagination takes over and says, But what if and the story is Madeleine L EngleI had to write .. It didn t matter how small orinadequate[was] my talent. If I never had another book published, and it was very clear to me that thiswas a real possibility, I still had to go on writing. Madeleine L Engleadeleine L Engle (pronounced leng el )wrote her first stories when she was onlyfive years old. An only child, she often feltlonely, and to amuse herself she made up storiesin which she was the heroine.

4 Her lonelinessgrew when she and her parents moved toSwitzerland and they enrolled her in a boardingschool. She says of those unhappy years:I learned to shut out the sound of the school and listen to the story or the poem I was in the United States, L Engleattended Smith College in Massachusetts,where she acted in the theater and wroteplays. After graduation, she worked as astage manager and an actress. She met herhusband, Hugh Franklin, while she was theassistant stage manager for a Broadway production of a famous play called TheCherry Orchard. While working in the the-ater, L Engle continued to Wrinkle in time Study GuideCopyright by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

5 [A Wrinkle in time ]combines devices of fairytales, overtones of fantasy, the philosophy ofgreat lives, the visions of science, and thewarmth of a good family story. It is anexuberant book, original, vital, exciting. Funnyideas, fearful images, amazing characters, andbeautiful concepts sweep through it. And it isfull of truth. Ruth Hill, A Critical History of Children s LiteratureA Wrinkle in Timeis no ordinary adventurestory. While the pages of the novel are filledwith all the action-packed scenes and sus-pense an adventure fan could want, the novelalso explores common human struggles, suchas the difficulties involved in growing up andtrying to find one s identity.

6 It is, perhaps,this mixture of the extraordinary and theeveryday that has made the novel a favoriteamong young people and adults since 1962. Itis a novel that not only entertains but alsoencourages readers to think and ask questionsabout the world. One critic writes: It makesunusual demands on the imagination and ..gives great rewards. When A Wrinkle in time begins, maincharacters Meg Murry and her youngerbrother Charles Wallace live with theirmother and their brothers, Sandy andDennys. Meg has trouble fitting in at schooland misses the support of her father, a physi-cist, who has not been heard from for morethan a year after he disappeared while per-forming a time -travel experiment.

7 A strange being from another world visitsthe Murry home one night and drops animportant clue about Mr. Murry s , Charles Wallace, and their friend CalvinO Keefe then begin a dangerous journeythrough time and space to save Mr. are assisted by the Murrys somewhatunusual neighbors, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who,and Mrs. Which. The children soon findthemselves at the center of a struggle betweengood and evil that threatens to destroy free-dom and individuality. Along the way, theydevelop strength, courage, and abilities thatthey never knew they had. For Meg, in partic-ular, the journey is more than an adventure ora mission to help others; it is also a journey ofself-discovery that changes her ideas aboutherself and the people around her.

8 L Engle s story contains elements of twocategories, or genres, of fiction fantasy andscience fiction. Fantasy is imaginative writingthat is set in strange or imaginary places andcontains unusual characters who have magicalpowers. L Engle s unearthly characters are col-orful, unique, and sometimes fiction blends imaginative writingand science. The scientific language L Engleuses in describing parts of the children s jour-ney makes the story sound realistic, despite itsfantastic elements. It also allows readers torecognize one of her important themes theresponsible use of science and technology. Another important theme in the novel isthe importance of love in a healthy emphasize this idea, L Engle draws on herstrong personal religious beliefs and her beliefin family.

9 She expands this theme to includethe self-love that allows individuals like hercharacters to believe in time AND PLACEA lthough A Wrinkle in Timeis timeless in itsappeal to readers, its themes reflect the timesduring which it was written. For example, theidea of space exploration was new and excitingto people in the United States when the bookwas written in the early 1960s. The first artifi-cial satellite was sent into space in the late1950s by the Soviet Union. After the UnitedStates later launched its first satellite intoorbit, the two nations began competing in theexploration of outer space. In 1961, a yearbefore A Wrinkle in time was published, bothnations sent manned rockets into space for thefirst time .

10 In her novel, L Engle makes the ideaof travel through space sound exciting but alsoIntroducing the NovelA Wrinkle in time Study Guide11 Copyright by The McGraw-Hill Companies, She warns people against believingthey know everything there is to know aboutthe universe. The novel also reflects political themesof the time . For example, life on the planetCamazotz is similar to what Americansthought life in the former Soviet Union waslike at the time . In the 1960s, the UnitedStates and the Soviet Union were in themidst of a Cold War a long period of hos-tility without actual war. The two nationshad very different political systems. Then,as now, the United States was a democraticcountry in which the individual rights of every citizen were protected by theConstitution.