From toward the end of chapter 10
She had found her father and he had not made everything all right. Everything kept getting worse and worse. If the long search for her father was ended, and he wasn't able to overcome all their difficulties, there was nothing to guarantee that it would all come out right in the end. There was nothing left to hope for. She was frozen, and Charles Wallace was being devoured by IT, and her omnipotent father was doing nothing. She teetered on the see-saw of love and hate, and the Black Thing pushed her down into hate.
L'Engle shows her readers a picture perfect example of happiness and love as what is ultimately good in life. Her depiction of the great creatures of Uriel with rainbows for wings living in pastures where they sing by flying in circles doesn't leave much space for gray areas. Good is good, evil is evil and there is no way the two could ever be mistaken. Everyone knows their place. In her happy ending these roles are exemplified by writing the mother of all run on sentences. All family members are mentioned. She could have written that all were happy and hugged, but she didn't. Throughout the story, love and its power is a recurring theme. Love conquers all, it's wielded like a sword in the final show down. Along with love, which good holds a monopoly on, there are other things in the face of which evil will crumble and die. These include the Gettysburg address and the declaration of independence.
On the other side of good we find evil. In 1962, what would you set to diametrically oppose the declaration of independence? That's right... communism. Meg and IT/sweet zombie Charles Wallace duke it out over the difference between equality and everyone being the same, and since we know that anything IT says is wrong, we are stuck with taking everything Meg says as being right. This brings about a few problems from the reading up top there. Meg is a whiny little brat. She is sent to a planted by a group of guardian angels, at least one of whom used to be a star (literally), and is mad at her “human” father for not being omnipotent and saving the day. She's worried that not everything will be all right in the end. What end? And when has there ever been a guarantee from anyone that things will be all right? And really? We're talking about the “end” when time travel is possible? From all the things we've read, I've finally come to the point where I can safely say, “I'm confused and I don't know what to think about this book.” And as Jim wrote, apparently this is written for 6th graders. What is right and wrong seems to be seen differently in every society, how is it possible that in L'Engle's time and space spanning world everyone seems to agree on what is good and what isn't?
I agree with your comments pretty wholeheartedly. I wrote my own blog about how the definitions of good and evil are not absolutes that apply universally but rather defined by the person or situation. What was probably most interesting of all however was the point that you made about how even after the problems that we have the story, it is even more trivial than we at first realize because of the fact that it takes place in setting where time travel is possible.
ReplyDeleteThe only truth that I have been able to pull from this is that the right to define "good" is the real prize of whoever wins, because it is the winner who writes the story.
I sorta - kinda agree with your post... L'Engle does make a clear point as to what is good and what is evil and in fact this book is meant for people of all ages, but mostly shown to younger ages (6th grade and on up), but why be so cynical about it all? Why does the world have to be so difficult and why can't it just be simple.. what we think is good, is in fact good, and what we think is bad, is truly evil. In all honesty, she has a complete point that if we know we are loved and we can love those, we can conquer anything. I totally believe that and it has helped me personally get through some amazingly difficult times, just like Meg used to get her through her difficult time. I think that this book is meant to show that life does not have to be all detailed and complicated, that it can be simple.. it's what you make of it though, I think you made some good points for sure, but I think this time, the bigger picture is what is supposed to be looked at.
ReplyDeleteI think you make some really great points and I'm pretty much right there with you. It's frustrating to me too that it seems like L'Engle defines evil and good and something that is just black and white and that's it. While I think Christina is right and that the reader is supposed to walk away from it looking at the big picutre, in reality things just aren't that simple and creating a division like that just isn't feasible. I also agree that what's right and wrong isn't universal and portraying it that way seeks to write off these differences entirely.
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