Monday, April 7, 2014

The Ultimate Lover

L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time captures a theme that our class has been discussing all semester: the power of love. Many works we have studied have incorporated this idea of the power in love, but L’Engle’s novel depicts the ultimate power of love embodied in Meg Murry. Where Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin highlights Huck’s love for Jim trumping their differences in skin color, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night shows that love is not restricted by gender, and Walker’s The Color Purple demonstrates how a familial love can carry one through life, A Wrinkle In Time takes this idea of the power in love to a whole new level. 
The power of love is embodied in Meg from the beginning of the novel through the end. In the first chapter Meg wonders why she is not able to talk about her father so unfeelingly as her mother does, thinking, “Why can’t I hide it, too? Meg thought. Why do I always have to show everything?” (6). The reason Meg has to show everything is because she loves her father so much, she is unable to hide that love even when she wants to. When others suggest that her father has left them, she can not even imagine why, so Meg tends to get very emotional. 
Meg acts similarly with her younger brother who others call stupid. Meg retaliates by tackling the insulter because of her love for her brother. Meg is not able to control her emotional or physical actions because of this deep love for her family. 
Meg’s love is ultimately demonstrated when she saves her brother from IT. Meg is the only one capable of saving her brother. Meg believes that she is the only option because Calvin has only known Charles for a short amount of time, and Meg’s father has been missing for a long time; the reality of the situation is that Meg is the only one that possesses the love that might free Charles from the forces of IT. 

Before Meg understands why she is the only one capable of saving Charles, she is scared and upset. Once she learns that this is a duty only for her, “She looked toward her father and her confused anger was gone and all she felt was love and pride” (187). This passage at the end of the novel demonstrates that Meg not only possesses the love to save her brother, but that she is proud of her love as well. She has now accepted her role as the ultimate lover, taking pride in her ability to free her brother from IT. 

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