The timing of this news story is quite interesting: Madeleine L’Engle died today. It’s interesting because just two days ago, I finished reading her classic book, A Wrinkle in Time, for the very first time. I enjoyed it, but I’m not sure I really understand its deeper meaning. I know this confession makes me sound stupid or backward. (After all, why on earth did it take me 30+ years to read it in the first place?!) Let me try to explain by comparing this work to, say, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. The allegory and underlying meaning to Lewis’s book is quite clear to me. E.g. Aslan is a figure of Christ. I have to admit that when I read Lewis’s series for the first time as a young child, this imagery or allegory wasn’t obvious to me then, either. For L’Engle’s book, just what does Mrs. Which stand for? Or Mrs. Whatsit? Call me an idiot but I just can’t seem to “get it.”
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I read a Wrinkle in Time many years ago, not long after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Both were important influences at an impressionable age. We have lost another great writer.
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I don’t think you will “get it” if you’re looking for the allegorical in L’Engle’s work. The greatest takeaway for me from her books is the ability to say “I don’t know.” Well, I guess that’s more what I get from her non-fiction. In her fiction, I see more of a sense of awe about the power of love and relationships, and how people can grow and change. I was amazed to learn she never took a science course in college!
Dianne, ok re looking for allegory. Maybe that is what I should have asked, period. Is there allegory?