Madeleine LEngle uses a creative mixture of three different story-book motifs for building the story line in her book A Wrinkle in Time. From beginning to end Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin go through adventure after adventure bursting with animated fairy-tale characteristics, a model preteen coming-of-age theme, and a subtle Christian suggestion. The three are intertwined naturally, and work well within the science-fiction twist of this very believable fantasy tale. The main character Meg Murry is the perfect innocent child turned heroine. As in the typical coming-of-age theme, the beginning of the story presents 13 year old Meg as young, and terribly dependent on others. Constantly wallowing in self-pity, Meg enters the first chapter emotionally immature with a dismal self-centered why-must-everything-happen-to-me attitude [P.7]. Although her five year old younger brother Charles Wallace is rumored to be not quite bright [P.9], he is actually extremely advanced for his age and Megs main caretaker. How did Charles Wallace always know about her? How could he alwaysprobe (and understand) with frightening accuracy [P.8]? The two are remarkably close, and whenever life becomes too much for Meg, Charles Wallace reaches out to comfort her. All threeMeg, Charles Wallace, and their new found friend, 14 year old Calvin Okeefefit the average misunderstood characteristics found in many fairy-tale and preteen stories. While both Calvin and Charles Wallace are misunderstood by most, Charles Wallace at least has the support of a loving home, with dysfunctional preoccupied parents, Calvin, on the contrary, has no one to understand and appreciate him. The funny part of it he says, (is that) I love them all and they dont give a hoot about meI care, (but) nobody else does [P.40]. All three children, each with his own special individual qualities, strive to get along in their everyday world. The boys dont seem to care much what others think, only Me...
