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Why are all people on Camazotz the same?
All people on the planet Camazotz have ultimately come under the control of an evil force that causes them to operate in robotic, society-wide conformity. When Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace arrive on Camazotz, the first sign of this force’s control is children playing outside in every driveway, bouncing balls in the exact same rhythm. As they see more of the planet and encounter The Man with the Red Eyes, they learn that every individual on Camazotz has been hypnotized into the rhythm of IT, the disembodied brain that controls everything and everyone on the planet. IT’s sinister pull forces everyone to abandon their own autonomy, coming under a power that controls every word and action, compelling and drowning individuals into a collective pulse. For anyone who makes a mistake or “aberration,” slipping out of the required perfection, they must be re-programmed through the Process machine, and those who resist are imprisoned or annihilated. The planet’s chilling uniformity is a societal commentary on the dangers of conformity.
What is a tesseract?
A tesseract is the fifth dimension, explained by Charles Wallace and Mrs. Whatsit. If the third dimension is a cube, and the fourth dimension is time, then the fifth dimension is time squared, a shortcut of sorts through conventional understandings of time and space. When the main characters travel through time, they tesser, which is a way of moving from one point to another that is shorter than a straight line, bending the common conception of distance. This bending, or wrinkling, as the title posits, sets the plot in motion and is the impetus for Mr. Murry’s classified mission. Mr. and Mrs. Murry were studying the idea of a tesseract before his disappearance, and Mrs. Whatsit shocks Mrs. Murry upon her arrival by assuring her “there is such a thing as a tesseract.”
Why is Mr. Murry missing?
When the novel begins, Mr. Murry has been missing for over a year, due to a classified mission with the government. As the story unfolds, Meg learns that her father has traveled through time and space in an experiment to understand and utilize a tesseract. He accidentally tessered to the planet Camazotz and has thus far resisted the evil hypnosis that has swallowed up everyone else on the planet. Mr. Murry is trapped in a mysterious, column-shaped prison, devoid of light and inescapable by conventional methods. Unable to communicate with the outside world, he remains trapped in a cell that functions like a door peephole, where others can see him but he cannot see out.
What kind of beings are Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit?
The three celestial beings that guide Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin through their journey morph into different forms throughout the story, but they function most like guardian angels, as Calvin articulates—though even this comparison falls short of fully encapsulating them. Mrs. Whatsit was a star before she sacrificed herself in the battle of good against evil, and she is the youngest of the three, although she is still over 2 billion years old. Like many of the things the children encounter during their quest to save Mr. Murry, the true nature of these beings seems beyond earth-bound understanding. However, the characteristics of Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit as inherently good and wise helpers are obvious despite their mysterious exteriors.
How does Meg ultimately save Charles Wallace from IT?
Meg rescues her baby brother from the sinister, rhythmic grip of IT through a relentless declaration of her love for him. When she travels back to Camazotz, Meg receives the gift of the knowledge of Mrs. Whatsit’s love and Mrs. Whatsit reminds her never to forget it, while Mrs. Which tells Meg her power lies in having something that IT does not. In the moment of confrontation, IT makes a fatal mistake by telling Meg that Mrs. Whatsit hates her, and this lie galvanizes Meg into victory. She realizes that what she has is love, being loved by the people closest to her, and her love for them, especially Charles Wallace. She breaks Charles Wallace out of the horrific hypnosis by telling him over and over how much she adores and cares for him in a valiant triumph over evil’s ignorance of love.
