"A Wrinkle in Time" -- A Disputed Classic

I recently re-read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle for the Classics Book Club I attend at my local library. I LOVE A Wrinkle in Time. It has been one of my favorite books since I was a kid. My late Granny gave me the book on tape when I was around the same age as the main character and I listened to them so many times that I still read the book in Madeleine L'Engle's voice. I'vere-read it multiple times just in the last few years. My cats are named after two of the characters in the book (Whatsit and Calvin). It's a nostalgia read for me, but I also think it is fantastic. Not without flaws, but fantastic.

The book club did not agree. They said it was juvenile and out-dated and poorly written. They said Meg was an annoying brat and that they couldn't believe the children would become such good friends with Calvin so quickly. One of the ladies even said that she only finished it out of respect for me because I had stated at the previous meeting when we picked it how much I loved it. They didn't hate it. But they just couldn't understand why I love it so much.

I won't say I was devastated because my opinions of books are my own and I respect other people having theirs. Their opinions don't diminish how much I enjoy this book or any other. But it did get me thinking and wondering why? Why do I love this book so much when the rest of them just couldn't see the value in it?

I've been thinking about it for a few days. Some of the criticism, I think, came from not fully understanding what they were about to read. Is it juvenile? Yes, of course, it's a children's book. Is it poorly written? No, not for a children's book. There isn't as much subtext as you would get in an adult or even young adult book because it is written to be as straight forward as possible. Is it out dated? This one is a bit more complicated. I understand why people might think that. The Murray children play outside and the 10 year old twins have a vegetable garden instead of playing video games. However, there is so little reference to technology that I can see it happening today with kids who just aren't as interested in video games and computers.

The kids do become friends quickly, but I think a lot of kids do that. In addition, the book puts a lot of emphasis on choice fate and choice. Calvin mentions that he was "meant" to meet the Murrays and they were "meant" to be friends. If the characters believe that then it isn't so surprising that they would cling to each other the way they do so quickly.

But I think the reason I still love the book so much, the reason everyone I've met who read this book between 10 and 13 still looks back with love on this book, is because of Meg. Is she a brat? Yes. She's angry. For one thing she is a person who likes to understand things and she doesn't understand what has happened to her father. That makes her angry. She doesn't understand why the school won't just let her get the right answers to the math problems and she has to do them the way they want. She doesn't understand why she can't just fit in.

She is also just hitting puberty. It is never difinitively stated how old she is, but based on her grade she's either 12 or 13. I was a little younger than that when the puberty monster reared its ugly head. Like Meg, I was angry. For years I was angry. And I didn't even have good reasons like Meg does.

I think the big conflict in the book is less about the Good vs. Evil than it is about Meg going from child to young adult. She spends most of the book assuming everyone else will take care of her. Her mother, Calvin, the three Mrs. W's, her father, even Charles Wallace. She goes through life expecting that someone else will fix everything. She never considers that she's the one who has to do something. That she has to take some of that responsibility.

As children that's exactly what we do. We don't have to face consequences in a big way. Sure, you'll get a timeout if you hit another kid, but your parents can pull an Uno Reverse on almost anything you do and give you a chance to make a different choice. As we get older we want to exert our independence and make our own choices without facing the consequences for those decisions. But the bigger our decisions become, the less a parent is able to fix it.

In A Wrinkle in Time, Meg learns that she has to fight her own battles and that some battles aren't worth fighting. The battle for Charles Wallace is worth fighting, but she still has to make the choice to fight it. There is no fate that can force her go try to get him. But she would never be able to live with herself if she didn't try.

And while the conformity of the people on Camazotz is disturbing, that doesn't mean that conforming in certain ways is bad. You have to find the Happy Medium. Do you fight for a friendship or let it go? Do you stand for something you believe in or stay silent due to peer pressure? Do you fail the math class or just do it the way the teacher wants you to, even if it is the long way 'round? Some things are worth fighting for and some aren't. Some fights have a higher cost than you're willing pay.

I think that's why I love A Wrinkle in Time so much. It didn't fundamentally change my attitude and worldview at the time I first read it. I think I didn't have enough of an worldview for it to be fundamentally changes. But this book did help to shape my worldview. And I think, if read in that pivitol time, it has that same impact on every child who reads it.

I can completely understand why someone who reads it as an adult can find it a fun little story but ultimately walk away unchanged. But I also think this is one of the books that will burrow its way into a child's heart and stay there. And even if they don't pick it up for years they'll pick it up when they are adults and realize that some of their core values can be traced back to this book.

For that reason, I think it is a Classic. And I think it will remain a Classic as long as parents keep giving it to their children.