History Main / AWrinkleInTime

* FirstInstallmentWins: Ever heard of ''A Wind in the Door'', ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet'', or ''Many Waters''? None of them got Newbery medals.
** ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet'' did win the American Book Award in 1980.
* GeniusBonus: Camazotz is [[ShoutOut also the name of]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camazotz a particularly terrifying Mayan bat god]].

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The stop on/in the two-dimensional planet.

! The Sequels Provide Examples Of:

* AdultsAreUseless: Subverted in ''A Wind in the Door''.
* HonestAxe: In ''A Wind in the Door,'' Meg is presented with three identical Mr. Jenkinses and asked to Name which one is the real one. She asks each one what he will do about Charles Wallace and his problems in school. The two fakers talk as though they want Charles Wallace to be successful and/or happy. She realizes the real Mr. Jenkins is [[spoiler: the one who is annoyed by the test and doesn't get what's going on.]] Played straight in the end when [[spoiler: the real Mr. Jenkins begins to understand Charles Wallace and Meg better, and he will work to make things better.]]
* OurAngelsAreDifferent:''A Wind In the Door'' gives us Proginoskes, the singular cherubim, who is a DeadpanSnarker composite of wind and flame at his heart, extending into dozens of immense wings and myriad, blinking eyes. (He finds it easier to not be corporeal at all, and scorns the human idea of "little pigs with wings.") Proginoskes' great skill is to Name people, and the key to naming is [[ThePowerOfLove love.]]
** By contrast, the seraphim and nephilim in the later book ''Many Waters'' are more like what a contemporary audience would think of as angels. The seraphim are basically servants of God on earth and usually have eyes and wings coloured in some variant of gold, silver or blue. The nephilim, which are implied to be fallen angels, have eyes and wings of more vivid colours like red and violet. They are all immortal, and not outright antagonistic with each other, but the nephilim are trapped on earth where the seraphim can return to heaven. Also, each one, seraphim and nephilim, has an animal form he can change into -- though the nephilim take the shapes of [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute worms, snakes, dragons, and other ugly things.]]
* OurGiantsAreBigger: Blajeny from ''Wind'' is very big, from another planet, and a Teacher (as ordained by the universe). He's also a GentleGiant.
* WarIsHell: ''Wind in the Door'' mentions it briefly.
* YearInsideHourOutside: Within a mitochondrion, the heart of the host ([[spoiler: Charles Wallace]] in this case) beats about once a decade.

* AfterTheEnd: Two in ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet''. Both were possible futures after a nuclear war on Earth encountered during interdimensional travel. One was an apocalyptic wasteland with hideously mutated barely-sentient "humans", another one had some semblance of civilization with a city of concrete bunkers and [[GasMaskMooks gas-mask-wearing soldiers]].
* BlueEyes: Of immense importance in ''Planet'' to trace Madoc's descendants through the People of the Wind. Charles Wallace has bright blue eyes as well (and it's hinted that he might be a distant relation through his father's great-aunt).
* CainAndAbel: All over ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet''.
* DarkIsNotEvil: At least, according to ''Planet'', that's the way things began.
* GoodIsImpotent: Somewhat averted in ''Planet'': the "good" people are proactive, strong, and willing to face evil, at least to give it a stern talking-to. But the wicked people are tolerated in the communities because they're ''better at things'' - one woman who is racist against Indians is the best midwife in the village, and Gedder the evil sumbitch is able to teach others how to farm.

* MightyWhitey: Madoc in ''Planet,'' though he has completely abandoned his Welsh homeland, and has no intention of ever returning.
* NobleSavage: The People of the Wind.

* TheChiefsDaughter: Zyll and Zylle in ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet.'' So. Much.
* WarIsHell: Made explicit in ''Planet''; ''Wind in the Door'' mentions it briefly.
* WitchHunt: ''Planet,'' with Zylle.

* GeniusBonus: Camazotz is also the name of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camazotz a particularly terrifying Mayan bat god]].

* SuperiorSpecies: Every species that's not human is this. They're beautiful, kind, loving, and in touch with the music of the spheres, even if they are InspirationallyDisadvantaged (like blind Aunt Beast.)

* PsychicStatic: Reciting the digits in the square root of five works, as does the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, but not the multiplication table (in fact, the Man With Red Eyes tried to break through their static with it). The trick is throwing off IT's rhythm with a continuous thought that can't easily fall into mental sync with it. Irrational number sequences and prose works temporarily, [[spoiler:and love works even better]].

* PsychicStatic: Reciting the digits in the square root of five works, as does the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, but not the multiplication table (in fact, the Man With Red Eyes tried to break through their static with it). The trick is throwing off IT's rhythm with a continuous thought that can't easily fall into mental sync with it. Irrational, non-mathematical thoughts work temporarily, [[spoiler:and love works even better]].

* PsychicStatic: Reciting the digits in the square root of five works, as does the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, but not the multiplication table (in fact, the Man With Red Eyes tried to break through their static with it. The trick is throwing off IT's rhythm with a continuous thought that can't easily fall into mental sync with it. Irrational, non-mathematical thoughts work temporarily, [[spoiler:and love works even better]].

* PsychicStatic: Reciting the digits in the square root of five works, as does the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, but not the multiplication table doesn't work (in fact, the Man With Red Eyes tried to break through their static with it), the digits in the square root of five work. The trick is throwing off IT's rhythm with a continuous thought that can't easily fall into mental sync with it. Irrational, non-mathematical thoughts work temporarily, [[spoiler:and love works even better]].

* AdaptationDecay: The less said about [[TheFilmOfTheBook the 2003 made for TV adaptation]], the better.
** To be fair, the book, with its [[StarfishAlien Starfish Aliens]], [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind Journeys To The Center Of The Mind]] as major plot points, and [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith Mrs. Which in general]], is basically unfilmable.
** Still, difficulty in filming certain scenes doesn't explain the rather odd changes to character's personalities and motivations. Making Mrs. Which into a raging xenophobe, turning Charles Wallace from a boy desperate to save his father to a boy easily distracted by shiny alien novelties...one could go on and on.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: excusable in the first book, but becomes progressively worse in the sequels. After Meg has saved her father from being assimilated and Charles Wallace from dying from lack of mitochondria, the twins have traveled to an odd interpretation of the world in Genesis and helped Noah build the Ark, and Charles Wallace has time-traveled throughout history to save the world, you'd think Meg and her parents would be very willing to believe her daughter when she finds a portal to the past.

* HeroicSacrifice: They witness a star [[strike: go supernova]] give up its life to fight the evil.

* KarmaHoudini: IT gets away scot-free. Not so in the movie.
** Then again, the TV movie has [[spoiler:Meg free an ''entire planet'' from brain-washing by making one awkward, rambling speech.]] Talk about an AntiClimax.
** You sure IT's still okay? The book never specifies what happened to IT.
** Later books imply that IT and the other "forces of evil" out there have not ''escaped'' their karma per se; they will get what's coming to them as soon as one of the "good guys" gets around to gathering enough strength to fight them off. Which makes the entire climax of the book into something of a HopelessBossFight.
** It is intended to be rather real world, as if he was captured by a Earth nation run by a dictator, the battle between good and evil continues on after the story. In RealLife dictators sometimes get away and sometimes don't.
** In general, the plot of escape from the evil land or rescue someone from the evil land leaves the evil land and its evil rulers intact.

* NightmareFuel: The Black Thing, and IT as the HiveMind for the entire planet of Camazotz, swallowing everyone else's minds. At one point, the kids are accidentally transported to a ''two-dimensional'' planet for a few seconds. It nearly kills them.
** Or would this be HighOctaneNightmareFuel?

* PsychicStatic: Reciting the multiplication table doesn't work. However, the digits in the square root of five work. And so does the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence. (At least temporarily.)
** It has to be something that breaks [=IT's=] rhythm and rationality. [=Sqrt(5)=] is irrational, prose (like the Declaration) is non-rhythmic, [[spoiler: and love is both.]]
** Actually, the Man with the Red Eyes recited the multiplication table to suck the children in. It didn't work, fortunately.

* TheyJustDidntCare: TheMovie.
-->'''[[http://www.newsweek.com/2004/05/06/i-dare-you.html Newsweek interviewer]]:''' So you've seen the movie?
-->'''Madeleine L'Engle:''' I've glimpsed it.
-->'''Interviewer:''' And did it meet expectations?
-->'''L'Engle:''' Oh, yes. I expected it to be bad, and it is.

* BlueEyes: Of immense importance in ''Planet'' to trace Madoc's descendants through the People of the Wind - and for some reason, Charles Wallace, who is of no relation to Madoc, has bright blue eyes as well.
** Actually, it's easy to miss, but, in the same book, Charles Wallace's father mentions that he inherited their house from a great-aunt. Since this house was once the Llawcae residence, it is possible (and, given the overall story, likely) that said great-aunt was a Llawcae. Furthermore, since, under American laws and tradition, inheritance is generally by blood, not marriage, that would make Charles Wallace's father -- as well as the boy himself -- descended from the Llawcaes, who, in turn, had married into Madoc's line.

* YearInsideHourOutside: Within a mitochondrion, the heart of the host ([[spoiler: Charles Wallace]] in this case) beats about once a decade.
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<<|{{Literature}}|>>

* DarkIsEvil

* HonestAxe: In ''A Wind in the Door,'' Meg is presented with three identical Mr. Jenkins and asked to Name which one is the real one. She asks each one what he will do about Charles Wallace and his problems in school. The two fakers talk as though they want Charles Wallace to be successful and/or happy. She realizes the real Mr. Jenkins is [[spoiler: the one who is annoyed by the test and doesn't get what's going on.]] Played straight in the end when [[spoiler: the real Mr. Jenkins begins to understand Charles Wallace and Meg better, and he will work to make things better.]]

* HonestAxe: In ''A Wind in the Door,'' Meg is presented with three identical Mr. Jenkins and asked to Name which one is the real one. She asks each one what he will do about Charles Wallace and his problems in school. The two fakers talk as though they want Charles Wallace to be successful and/or happy. She realizes the real Mr. Jenkins is [[spoiler: the one who is annoyed by the test and doesn't get what's going on.]]

* CainAndAbel: All over ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet''

* BigLippedAligatorMoment: The stop on/in the two-dimensional planet.

* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Charles Wallace, though another character warns him not to fall into the trap of [[{{Pride}} thinking that he knows everything]].

The further adventures of the Murrys and, especially, Meg are detailed in the sequels: ''A Wind in the Door'', ''ASwiftlyTiltingPlanet'' and ''ManyWaters,'' followed by a series of books centered around [[spoiler: Meg and Calvin's daughter Polly.]]

* YouFailBiologyForever: In ''A Wind In The Door'', Meg must save Charles Wallace from a sickness that is killing him by averting a work-stoppage by ultra-microscopic components inside one of his mitochondria. Not only does this presume that these components are sentient (!), but it presumes that one mitochondrion (out of dozens per cell) in one specific cell (out of trillions per human being) is the ''only'' thing standing between her brother's body and death. Humans lose millions of cells every day as a matter of course, a single mitochondrion's failure just means the others in the same cell would have more sugar to work with, and if people were ''that'' vulnerable to the failure of their microscopic parts, none of us would last five minutes. The whole scenario is analogous to trying to keep one brick in a giant apartment complex from getting slightly chipped, lest it cause the entire structure to collapse.
** it doesn't presume the components are sentient, it out right states it. You meet them. Also, it also says that what is happening in this instance is being echoed throughout all the cells in his body. Plus, it involves the purely fictional 'farandolae' supposedly existing within mitochondria so saying it fails biology is kinda pointless.

* ImpossiblyDeliciousFood: When Meg is recuperating from her brush with IT among Aunt Beast's people, this is the food she gets - just one more way in which aliens are superior to humans.

* ItWasAGift: Meg Murry receives three gifts from the three Mrs. W's when she goes to fight IT.

* NightmareFuel: The Black Thing, and IT as the HiveMind for the entire planet of Camazotz, swallowing everyone else's minds.

* WallBanger: Most mentions of science in the first book (maybe the others; this troper hasn't read them) indicate that the author has only the vaguest notion of what a scientist is or what they do and is just making it up. This despite that the main character's parents are supposed to be renowned scientists with several (!!!!) PhD's each, although the mom seems to be a stay-at-home mom living in the backwoods of New England. And just about any mention of scientific concepts mangles said concepts, with a few exceptions. The most egregious example: a two-dimensional PLANET? Not universe or parallel world, but PLANET in OUR OWN universe.
** The planet is not stated to be in our universe. In fact, it's stated to reside in another layer of reality. The text explicitly states that stopping off there was a mistake by Mrs. Which, who was not used to traveling with humans and forgot that they could not survive on that level of reality. As for the rest, L'Engle has never pretended her books were anything other than fantasies aimed at young readers. They're no more intended to be scientifically accurate than a Grimm fairy tale would depict the actual ancient world. Though it should be noted that Mrs. Murray is stated to be conducting experiments at home, which in later books come to fruition.
**In the later companion books about Meg and Calvin's family, Calvin as an adult seems a fairly convincing marine biologist.

The further adventures of the Murrys and, especially, Meg are detailed in the sequels: ''A Wind in the Door'', ''ASwiftlyTiltingPlanet'' and ''Many Waters,'' followed by a series of books centered around [[spoiler: Meg and Calvin's daughter Polly.]]