Discussion Questions for "A Wrinkle In Time"

A Wrinkle In Time our book for January 8th Elizabeth our Discussion Leader

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007)

Madeleine was born in New York City, at age 12 moved to the French Alps, but went to boarding school in England. Her high school years were spent back in the U.S.  She went to Smith College and graduated with honors. She married Hugh Franklin, best known for his role of Dr. Charles Tyler in All My Children.

A Wrinkle in Time was rejected by 26 publishers before it was published.  It won the 1963 Newbery Award and has has been in continuous print ever since.

Questions:

1. What word or words would you use to describe the theme of A Wrinkle in Time? Does this match any of the themes in Lewis’s Space Trilogy?
2. Does Auntie Beast play the same role as the Oyéresu? How are they the same or different?
3. What do you think of the three “gifts” given to the children in the chapter “The Happy Medium”.  What was the role of Meg’s faults?
4. What is the role of Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which?  What did they used to be?  
5. Does the section of the book dealing with the journey to Camazotz remind you of any of Lewis’s books?
6. The people on the planet Camazotz have no crime, no responsibility, and no decisions to make. What is so wrong with their society?
7. What was Meg’s expectation as to what would happen when she found her father?
8. How do #6 and #7 relate to Meg’s anger with her father?
9. Does this relate to our own expectations of our Heavenly Father and his expectations of us?
10. What is the struggle the children have to wage to not fall into the power of IT?  How are those same choices and struggles manifested in society and in history?
11. Why is Charles Wallace the key?  What got him into the power of IT? What had to change before he could be released and why was Meg the one who had to do it?
12. Questions of trust keep coming up in both Wrinkle in Time and Lewis’s  books.  In the books, and in our lives we have to decide who and what to trust and what not to trust.  How do the characters (and we) decide who to trust and who is not trustworthy?   How do we keep our moral compass?
13. Aunt Beast talks about the “help” we get in the fight against the dark.  What do you think are some of the helps she was referring to, and what are the helps you have?