Picture Book Report

CHP. 4: The Black Thing

May 26, 2010 at 9:35 am Jeremy Sorese Leave a comment

A WRINKLE IN TIME. CHP. 4

First off, let me apologize for being late! Not even pulling an all-nighter could get these pieces in on time!

Where we left off last month, Calvin and Meg were having a moment in the apple orchard interrupted by Charles Wallace, bringing along with him Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Who. The third and final witch, a Mrs. Which is introduced as an amorphous floating orb which speaks strangely of the beginning of their quest.

Chapter 4 begins with Meg actually tesseracting, a horribly terrifying experience which is described as floating in nothingness, isolated and alone. Meg rematerializes partially when she arrives at her destination but is still invisible to her traveling companions, stuck in the limbo in between worlds. Gradually she shifts into reality and appraises her new location, a distant planet that smells like apple blossoms and is rich with song birds. The landscape is dominated by a towering behemoth of a mountain, so high in fact that the peak of the mountain is obscured by clouds.

Soon, the three witches arrive, the same arguementative and vague little creatures they always are. Mrs. Which is no longer a floating orb but is now a semi-realized human being, still see-through but now wearing a peaked witches’ hat and shouldering a broomstick. The three women explain that the children must be patient and take things seriously, even if they don’t always do the same. They explain they’ve arrived on Uriel, the third planet of the star Malak in the spiral nebula Messier 1o1 and this little detour is to help brace them for what they are up against. Its decided that the children must see for themselves with Mrs. Whatsit as their guide. In front of their very eyes, Meg, Calvin and Charles watch as Mrs. Whatsit morphs from a short squat elderly woman into strong broad-shouldered with biceps to spare Grecian centaur. With wings. And a winning smile.

They  climb onto Mrs. Whatsit’s back (because she decides that just because her body changes, her name doens’t have to) and the winged beast zooms off for that mountain. On the way, they are given three flowers, picked by another creature who looks identical to Mrs. Whatsit. The flower is made up of thousands of little buds which, when breathed into, supplies the children with enough air as they climb into the thinning atmosphere.

At the peak of the mountain, the kids are greeted by a gorgeous ceiling of stars and one of Uriel’s moons, which is surprisingly close. Mrs. Whatsit is noticiably tense as they wait for the sun to completely set. She points out a dark spot on the horizon, a place where there is a total lack of stars. The dark spot seems to shimmer and shivers run along the spines of our characters, even Mrs. Whatsit in her magnificiantly muscled form. They leave the mountain and return to Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which in the field where they left them. Meg, unsteadily works her way off of Mrs. Whatsit’s back and while standing before the two other witches realizes that the shadow they saw, that horrible bleak blip on the horizon is where her Father has been all this time.

Thanks again for reading! And tune in next month as we learn how to tesser (its really easy, you should try it some time) and travel further along Orion’s Belt, drawing nearer to the black thing!

Entry filed under: A Wrinkle in Time. Tags: A Wrinkle in Time, Jeremy Sorese, madeleine l'engle.