78 pages • 2 hours read
Madeleine L'EngleA Wrinkle In Time
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1962A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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BetaChapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Man with Red Eyes”
Inside CENTRAL Central Intelligence, the children find a sickly green room full of waiting people. They ask one man how they see whoever’s in charge. The man gets fearful and suspicious that they don’t know. The man reports them with the advice not to resist so things “will all be much easier for you” (118).
A wall disappears, revealing an enormous room full of machines. Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace cross the room and come face-to-face with a red-eyed man. Charles Wallace feels the man trying to get into his mind and struggles to resist. Atop his head, the man wears a light, “pulsing, throbbing, in steady rhythm” (120).
When the man speaks, his words go straight into their minds, and Charles Wallace realizes the man is not speaking—rather, being spoken through by IT. Mr. Murry is indeed on Camazotz, but if the children want any hope of finding him, Charles Wallace must turn himself over to IT. Feeling like there’s no other way, Charles Wallace complies and becomes a loyal servant of IT. Meg ends the chapter with the fearful realization that “Charles is gone” (132).
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Transparent Column”
Under the control of IT and the red-eyed man, Charles Wallace changes. He now believes the man is their friend and that Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which “are really our enemies” (134). Meg and Calvin don’t believe him. With instructions from the red-eyed man, Charles Wallace leads Meg and Calvin to Mr. Murry. He rearranges the atoms in a wall so they can pass through it, showing how his powers have grown under IT’s influence. Charles Wallace explains how everyone on Camazotz is happy “because we are all alike” (140). One mind governs everyone on Camazotz and keeps things organized. Meg and Calvin don’t agree, but Charles Wallace is beyond seeing their perspective. Later, Charles Wallace rearranges another wall, making it transparent. Beyond, Mr. Murry stands imprisoned in a column.
Chapter 9 Summary: “IT”
Meg rushes toward her father, but the wall is only transparent, not incorporeal. She bounces off it and begs a cackling Charles Wallace to let her into father. When Charles Wallace refuses, Meg remembers Mrs. Who’s spectacles. With their help, she moves through the wall and the column to her father, “the moment for which she had been waiting” (149).
Meg’s joy at finally finding her father is short-lived. Somehow, Mr. Murry is blind. Meg gives him Mrs. Who’s glasses and finds herself in cold darkness the moment she takes them off. With her father’s help, she passes back through the column and transparent wall. Mr. Murry doesn’t understand what’s befallen Charles Wallace and fails to break through to the boy. At once, Meg’s hope that finding her father would fix everything fades.
Charles Wallace takes the group to IT, a brain that’s “just enough larger than normal to be completely revolting and terrifying” (158). The rhythm of Camazotz assaults Meg, and she remembers Mrs. Whatsit’s gift—her faults. Meg holds out against IT by being angry, impatient, and stubborn for as long as she can. When she starts to lose, Mr. Murry tessers the group away. He isn’t as experienced with the tesser as the Mrs. Ws. That combined with IT’s hold on Meg makes the tesser “an agony of pain that finally dissolved into the darkness of complete unconsciousness” for Meg (162).
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
In Chapter 7, the waiting man tells the children not to resist because resisting will only make things difficult. His advice foreshadows the struggle the group faces in the mental battles against both the red-eyed man and IT. When Charles Wallace stops resisting and enters IT willingly, his fear evaporates. He relinquishes all responsibility to IT and appears to be untroubled by anything. His transformation contrasts sharply with Meg and Calvin, who remain out of IT and become more troubled by Charles Wallace’s transformation. Charles Wallace also contrasts against the waiting man. The man is a regular citizen of Camazotz and fears IT. As a willing addition to IT’s mind, Charles Wallace shows no fear, representing the divide between the common people and upper ranks of Camazotz.
Meg finally finds her father in Chapter 9. Her character arc takes a turn here. Up until this point, Meg rests all her faith in finding her father. She believes Mr. Murry’s presence will instantly make everything okay again. Almost immediately upon finding him, Meg’s ideal is proven wrong. Mr. Murry struggles against IT just as hard as Meg or Calvin. He doesn’t make everything better, and Charles Wallace remains trapped within IT. Meg doesn’t yet realize that adults don’t magically make everything better, and so she blames her father for not trying hard enough. Meg’s view of her father mirrors how the red-eyed man discusses IT. The man promises IT will take the burdens of responsibility and decision-making. Meg believes her father will take these burdens from her, but he does not—much like IT does not truly remove responsibility or the need to make choices.
Charles Wallace’s increased abilities once he enters IT show the false promises IT makes. Camazotz represents a dystopian society. IT promises everyone on the planet a reprieve from fear and responsibility. Many of Camazotz’s people fear IT (like the waiting man), and only the chosen few receive the “benefits” of IT’s control. Charles Wallace entered IT willingly, and he becomes one of the chosen few. It is never said but can be assumed that most of Camazotz’s people did not enter willingly. Thus, they live in fear of IT and are powerless against IT’s force.
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By Madeleine L'Engle
