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Margaret Murry, known as Meg, is a curious yet misunderstood adolescent who defeats the antagonistic forces of evil around her by allowing her weaknesses to be realized as her greatest strengths, with the help of her family, friends, and trusted guides. As the novel’s protagonist, Meg’s journey to gain self-confidence and embody bravery is riddled with her own insecurity but propelled by her sense of justice and love for those around her. At the story’s onset, Meg struggles in school, constantly being pulled into the principal’s office and scolded for her lack of focus and drive. However, at home it is clear that Meg is quite bright, especially where numbers are concerned, but the disappearance of her father and her own certainty that she does not fit in brew an inner sense of isolation that proves nearly impossible to shake. When Calvin O’Keefe comes to visit the Murry house and shows genuine interest in Meg,noticing her beauty and admiring her intelligence, his friendship and encouragement becomes a catalyst for the unraveling of Meg’s insecurity.
As the novel progresses and the journey to find Mr. Murry gains momentum, Meg is whirled through time and space. The new context she finds herself in proves to be a fertile space of discovery. Among celestial beings and unfamiliar planets, Meg finds a sense of belonging in her uniqueness, realizing that a lack of conformity can be a positive and powerful force. This strength is made especially clear on Camazotz, when Meg sees the fatal effects that forced, homogenous conformity can have on individuals and society as a whole. In the most climactic moments of the story, like when Charles Wallace is taken captive by IT’s hypnosis, Meg must discover what she possesses that IT does not—the knowledge and experience of love—and heroically wield it in the battle for good. She realizes that being different is a miraculous gift, and her stubbornness, anger, and impatience prove to be the secret weapons necessary for victory against evil. By the end of the story, Meg is sure that though she might not like the feeling of being different, she “does not want to be like anyone else, either.”
