Blog 13: Fiction Full Draft

A Wrinkle in Time

For this blog, we needed to read a supernatural novel and use different approaches to interpret the story. The novel that I chose is “A Wrinkle is in Time,” which is a young adult scientific fiction written by Madeleine L’engle. This book is the first book in Madeleine L’engle’s classic Time Quintet and it was published in 1962. This novel, along with the other four novels, talks about the Murry and O'Keefe families (The Wrinkle in Time). I never read the book before and I found it very interesting after reading it. I will use Campbell’s Monomyth (The Hero’s Journey) to interpret the story since this book contains a lot of elements identified by the Monomyth. The theme of this novel is also very similar with the hero’s quest which is fight of good against evil and the ultimate triumph of love. The novel starts with the main protagonist Meg Murry’s father disappearance. She is told that his father’s mysterious disappearance is related to his work on exploring a scientific concept of tesseract, also known as a fifth-dimensional phenomenon. She and her extraordinary brother, Charles Wallace, then meet with three eccentric women, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which. They claim that they can help them find their father. They then start the quest to explore into the unknown to save their father. Along with them in the journey is Meg’s friend, Calvin O'Keefe, who also has the same extraordinary ability as Charles Wallace. Both of them can read certain people’s thoughts and feelings. In the quest to save her father, they travel through space-time continuum to such places as planet Uriel and Camazotz. They also meet many strange, joyful beings whose minds are controlled by an evil being. He appears as a large dark cloud called The Black Thing. The Black Thing is a major antagonist in this novel and it is functioned through IT, a brain-like substance. During the journey, they face many dangerous attacks. For example, Meg is almost killed by IT. Meg’s brother, Charles Wallace, is also controlled by a man with red eyes. The red eyes man is controlled by IT and he has telepathic abilities which can cast a hypnotic spell over people’s minds. At the end of the story, she succeeds in rescuing her father from The Black Thing and frees Charles Wallace from IT. They return to Earth and live an ordinary life.

From the Monomyth, we know that the hero’s journey is basically separated into three main sections. They are departure, separation and return. The hero must first be given the task, receives it, and either do it by themselves or with friends. Along the journey, the hero will travel to the unknown and he or she will face a lot of trials and challenges. He or she may be helped by supernatural aid to succeed the quest. Lastly, he or she will choose to either stay or return to the ordinary World. Each section is branched into several stages to make up the whole hero’s quest.

According to the Monomyth, the first stage in hero’s quest deals with departure. The hero lives an ordinary life until he or she receive a call to adventure. In “The Wrinkle in Time”, Meg live a usual life with her family except with her father. On a stormy night, a mysterious old woman who knows Charles Wallace visits her house and told her something about the tesseract. This scientific term brings a lot of shock to her mother. The next day, Meg discovers the term refers to the concept his scientist father was working on before his mysterious disappearance. She knows that the old woman, Mrs. Whatsit, knows something had happened on her father. She and her brother, little Charles Wallace and her friend, Calvin decide to explore to the unknown World to rescue her father. From the Monomyth, we learn that supernatural aid is the appeal of a guide or mentor. In the story, they meet with another two strange women, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which. This three Mrs. W’s promise to help her along the journey to save her father. Crossing of the first threshold talks about the hero crossing into the field of adventure, from known to unknown. The three Mrs. W’s changes into angelic beings and transport the three kids through the time-space continuum by mean of tesseract (a fifth- dimensional phenomenon). According to the Monomyth, belly of the whale is the final isolation of the hero’s world to the strange world. In this stage, Meg, Charles and Calvin reach the first stop in the quest, planet Uriel. They are totally separated from their known world.

In the second section of the Monomyth known as initiation, the hero will start exploring the unknown world and facing many challenges to succeed. The first element in this part is the road of trial. It includes a series of tasks and orders that the hero must go through. In “The Wrinkle in Time”, the task begin when they reach Uriel. Mrs. W’s explain the reason for them to be there and explain about ways to rescue her father. Mrs. W’s are not allowed to be with them along the journey. As a result, they give them some advice and a talisman, which is Mrs. Who’s glasses. This talisman is very useful for them during the journey to fight against evil. Along the journey in Comazotz, they meet many human beings. The objects and places appeared exactly alike. This is because they are under controlled by IT. IT manipulates all of them in order to make them act exactly like robots. Meg, Charles and Calvin manage to reach to the CENTRAL Central Intelligence, the place where the IT live. The next step in the Monomyth is known as woman as temptress. This is referred to some temptation that is offered to the hero to try to make them abandon the quest. In this story, the man with red eyes who is controlled by IT tries to hypnotize them so that they will forget about rescuing her father. He claims that he can take away the bad things that happened to them and they can live in Comazotz without worry and trouble. They almost got trapped by his trick. To find out about his father, Charles looks into the man’s red eyes and becomes taken away by IT. He is then leading Meg and Calvin to his father. Even though they reunite with their father, Charles is under controlled by IT and he can’t recognize them. To save Meg from being killed by IT, they have to abandon Charles and escape from that planet. In the end of the journey, the hero will be able to complete his quest and achieve the goal. In the story, Meg succeeds in rescuing her brother from IT by using the power of love to bring back her brother’s mind. This is the last stage of the initiation and is known as the ultimate boon.

The last section of the monomyth, which talks about the hero’s Return, is the rescue from without. According to Campbell’s Monomyth, this part is defined as the assistants or guides that bring the hero back to their ordinary world. Meg and her companion are aided by Mrs. W’s to tesser them back to Earth. The last stage in this story is crossing of the return threshold. This discusses the hero’s return to the ordinary life with experiences earned along the quest. Meg and her family learn about many supernatural powers in the universe. They also meet different kinds of creatures in different planets. Those trials and tasks they face along the journey will make them to be stronger and braver to face any challenges in the future. The feeling of love that they are feel during the journey will also make them more appreciating and caring of their family members.

After reading this fiction, I am able to explain gender plays a role in this novel. The women in this novel are portrayed as strong, competent and smart. The great examples are Mrs. Murry, Meg, and Mrs. Witch. L’engle describes Mrs. Murry to be a competent and pretty scientist. She is also self- reliant as well since she has to take care of her children after her husband’s disappearance. This is related to the great mother archetype that is protective and loves their children (Archetype). She acts strong and tough in order that her children do not know about her inner delicate feeling. Meg, being the hero in the novel, pretends that she is strong and tough in school and in front of family. She is awkward but loving girl. She is also inferior to her unattractive appearance since her mother is very pretty. She acts very different from other people in school but only her little brother, who can read her mind, understands her inner feeling. During the journey, she learns to confront and express her inner feeling to the people that she cares. I think Meg can be said to be partially related to the wild woman archetype. Wild woman archetype is known as a woman that is out of control, but lives in an ordinary life. This woman may speak and act in her own behalf, totally different from usual people (Wild Woman Archetype). Another female figure I want to talk about is Mrs. W’s. Three of them play similar role in the novel, which is the mentor that guides the kids for a lot of things and aid them so that they can accomplish the quest (Archetype). They dress like a witch and are eccentric at the beginning but they are very kind to the kids along the journey. They also give the kids some talisman in order to do well in the quest. Since this book is mainly based on the female perspective, L’engle portrays the mentor to be female that are powerful instead of male. At the climax of this novel, the heroes succeed in conquering the devil using the power of love and rescue her family. This is very different from the usual hero quest that mostly uses fight to resolve the conflict. I can say that this is the difference between novels that use female perspective rather than male perspective.

The main antagonist in this novel is The Dark Thing. He is describe to be very powerful and destructive. The Dark Thing in the novel is referred to as the cold and dark shadow. According to the Dictionary of Symbolism, shadow represents a person’s soul and the ultimate power of the darkness. It is also known as a part of unconscious complex defined as the repressed, suppressed or disowned qualities of self (Jungian Psychology). He manipulates its power through a brain called IT. This is the main devil figure in this novel. Eyes are the window of soul for human and IT has the power of take away people’s soul by looking through their eyes. By doing this, IT can manipulate people to comply his order. I think this is related to the Jungian Psychology because looking through the eyes can remind a person’s about the repressed weakness that they do not want to confront. This will make the shadow supersede the conscious, transforming from ego to id. For example, Charles’s soul is taken away by IT because he looks through the devil’s eyes. This transforms him into a totally different person. “A Wrinkle in Time” contains countless interpretations and each one is very significant.


Works Cited:
A Wrinkle in Time. Spark Notes. Web. May 22, 2010.

A Wrinkle in Time. Wikipedia. Web. May 22, 2010.

Dictionary of Symbolism. University of Michigan Fantasy and Science Fiction Website. 2001. Web. May 22, 2010.

Jeffers, Rebecca. Wildness becomes me. Wild woman archetype. October 25, 2009. Web. May 22, 2010.

L’engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1962. Print.
Monomyth. Wikipedia. Web. May 22, 2010.

Shadow (psychology). Wikipedia. Web. May 22, 2010.