A Wind in the Door
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| A Wind in the Door cover | |
| Author | Madeleine L'Engle |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Time Quartet |
| Genre(s) | Young Adult Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus & Giroux |
| Released | January 1, 1973 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 211 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-374-38443-6 |
| Preceded by | A Wrinkle in Time |
| Followed by | Many Waters |
A Wind in the Door is a 1973 novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is a sequel to A Wrinkle in Time, and part of the Time Quartet.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Meg Murry is worried about her brother Charles Wallace, a 6-year-old genius and telepath who is shunned and bullied by the other children. The new principal of the elementary school is the former high school principal, Mr. Jenkins, who often disciplined Meg, and who Meg is sure has a grudge against her whole family. Meg tries to enlist Jenkins' help in protecting her brother, but is unsuccessful. On top of this, Meg discovers that Charles Wallace has a progressive disease which is leaving him short of breath. Their mother, a microbiologist, suspects it may have something to do with his mitochondria and the farandolae which live within them.
One afternoon, Charles Wallace tells Meg he saw a "drive of dragons" in the field near the house. Meg goes out with him to investigate, but all they find is a pile of very odd feathers. Later, Meg has a frightening encounter with something that looks like Mr. Jenkins. Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin O'Keefe discover that Charles Wallace's drive of dragons is a single creature named Proginoskes. Progo, as he is quickly nicknamed, insists on being called "a cherubim" instead of a cherub because he is "nearly plural," having a multitude of wings and eyes. The children also encounter a tall robed being named Blajeny, who informs them that he is a Teacher, and that they and Proginoskes have all been called to his class.
Meg learns that the galaxy is threatened by beings called Echthroi, which seek to erase the entire universe by un-Naming things. She soon has to save Mr. Jenkins from this fate, by Naming him. Part of the task is to distinguish the real Mr. Jenkins from two Echthroi doubles, but it also means that she must look past her personal grudge, find the goodness in Mr. Jenkins, and let herself love him.
The characters then learn that Echthroi are destroying Charles Wallace's farandolae. They travel inside one of his mitochondria, which is named Yadah, and turn the tide by convincing a larval farandola to take root and accept its role as a mature fara, against the urgings of an Echthros. In the process, Meg is nearly "Xed," and Mr. Jenkins is invaded by his Echthros doubles. Proginoskes sacrifices himself to "fill in" the emptiness of the Echthroi, and Charles Wallace's life is saved.
[edit] Characters
The story follows the adventures of Meg Murry, her youngest brother Charles Wallace and their friend Calvin O'Keefe, all of whom first appeared in A Wrinkle in Time. These characters and their families collectively appear in a total of eight books, four about the Murry family (the Time Quartet) and four about the eldest of the O'Keefe children a generation later. Although this is not the case in some of the books, A Wind in the Door focuses on the same three protagonists as Wrinkle.
Another character from Wrinkle, school principal Mr. Jenkins, is further developed in Wind. Formerly the high school principal, Mr. Jenkins has become the principal of Charles Wallace's elementary school instead, an apparent demotion. He is described as having dandruff and smelling of "old hair cream," and Meg thinks of him as a failure and an obstacle. Yet he notices Charles Wallace's weakness before Meg does, and Meg is reminded that he once secretly bought Calvin a badly-needed pair of shoes. Meg eventually realizes that both she and Mr. Jenkins himself have consistently underestimated him.
A memorable new character, a "singular cherubim" named Proginoskes, who seems to resemble a Seraph, becomes a particular friend of Meg's. "Progo" has what seems like hundreds of constantly-moving wings, a great quantity and variety of eyes, and "jets of flame" and smoke. He does not always take material form, and even when he does, as he tells Meg, not everyone is able to see him. Like Meg, Proginoskes is a Namer, and once learned the names of all the stars. The character's own name means "foreknowledge" [1]
[edit] Major themes
In this story, science and spirituality are intertwined. Cosmic evil is connected with evil on a cellular level, and the children along with some new friends go within Charles Wallace in order to save his mitochondria (and the fictive entities living within them, the farandolae) from the un-namers -- the Echthroi (which, incidentally, is the Koine Greek word for "enemy"). The Echthroi are powerful, evil creatures whose desire is to X (i.e. extinguish) creation.
Space and time hold little meaning within the Time Quartet series. In several instances, we find Meg and other characters frustrated with their new friends and confused about these concepts. However, according to the mythical creatures that are introduced, these concepts are limiting and unimportant. This is the key concept to understanding why Charles' sickness could be so important. His sickness, the ailment of his mitochondria is just as important as the fate of a planet elsewhere in the universe because each part of creation, great or small, is important.
Like all of L'Engle's books, the power of love is again a force to be reckoned with as it helps save several characters -- not just Charles Wallace but also Meg and a farandola named Sporos. Meg learns to see beyond superficial impressions, and appreciate and embrace inner beauty and strength. Much of the communication between characters in this book involves a process called kything. This process is similar to telepathy and empathic abilities combined. Meg also learns that she is a Namer. Namers work in the universe to love and name parts of Creation, and help them to be themselves. This is the exact opposite of what Echthroi do in their Xing or un-naming.
The premise of naming and counting is inspired by passages in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke which say that God has numbered every hair on our heads and that God is aware of every sparrow that falls. In her book The Rock That Is Higher, L'Engle mentions this concept, and the interdependency that is at the heart of A Wind in the Door:
The secrets of the atom are not unlike Pandora's box, and what we must look for is not the destructive power but the vision of interrelatedness that is desperately needed on this fragmented planet. We are indeed part of a universe. We belong to each other; the fall of every sparrow is noted, every tear we shed is collected in the Creator's bottle.[2].
—Madeleine L'Engle
[edit] Story development
In another of her non-fiction books, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, L'Engle states that at one stage in the writing of A Wind in the Door, she knew who most of the characters would be, including Progo, the snake and "the three Mr. Jenkinses." She had difficulty developing the story, however, until a physician friend gave her two articles about mitochondria. "And there was where the story wanted me to go," L'Engle writes, "away from the macrocosm and into the microcosm." Enlisting the help of her elder daughter, she proceeded to give herself "a crash course in cellular biology," which she found to be hard work, but also a lot of fun.[3]
[edit] Audio adaptation
A Listening Library edition on four audio cassettes, unabridged and read by the author, was issued in 1994. ISBN 0-8072-7506-9
[edit] References
- ^ Wink, Walter (1998), "Evil in The Wind in the Door" in Shaw, Luci, ed., The Swiftly Tilting Worlds of Madeleine L'Engle, Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw, ISBN 0-87788-483-8.
- ^ L'Engle, Madeleine. The Rock That is Higher: Story as Truth, ISBN 0-87788-726-8]
- ^ L'Engle, Madeleine. Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, ISBN 0-86547-487-7]
