Meg Murry--A Wrinkle in Time

"Like and equal are not the same thing at all!"
Meg Murry is one of the characters I've known for the longest time. She is the protagonist of one of my top childhood favorite books, and is another one of the few characters whose story I have acted out. I love Meg Murry, not because she's perfect, but because she's so relatably flawed.

Meg has a hard time with life. She's different from everyone else, and so few people like her. She's brilliant when it comes to math and science, but when it comes to English and geography, forget it. On top of that, her dear little brother Charles Wallace (oh, how I wanted a brother like him) is super brilliant and can know what she's thinking, but doesn't talk outside the family, and so people think he's stupid. Meg isn't pretty. She has very plain mousy brown hair, braces and glasses. I remember my glasses and braces phase. It's certainly an awkward one. But that's not even all. While doing government work, her father disappeared. Without a trace. No one knows anything. Or at least, no one is telling Meg's family. Because what he did was Top Secret.

And then strange things begin to happen. With the arrival of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe, a boy from school, set out to rescue Meg's father. But to rescue him, they have to travel to other planets by way of the tesseract and encounter IT on the planet Camazotz. And in doing so, they become fighters against evil, doing their part to defeat the Black Thing, the powers of darkness, as we all must do.

Meg is fearful. Who wouldn't be? But she is also impatient and stubborn. And when IT, via the Man With Red Eyes, takes control of Charles Wallace, Meg has to be braver than ever before. But it is through this that she begins to realize that it is good to be different. That like and equal are not the same thing.

Her struggles are not yet over. Finding her father doesn't make things immediately better, as she thought it would. If anything, they're worse. Charles Wallace is gone. The Black Thing almost takes her as they tesser through it. And she blames her father for not making it all better. When the Mrs. W's return and bring the news that Meg is the only one who can rescue Charles Wallace, she doesn't take the news willingly. Slowly she realizes her mistakes. And she understands that she really is the only one who can save Charles Wallace, with the thing she has that IT hasn't got. What does IT not have? Meg discovers it to be love. Love. Love for her baby brother. Love for all the people she cares about. Loving her baby brother is the only thing that can save him. And that love brings them home.

Meg Murry learns some hard lessons. She learns what a good vs. evil fight really is. She learns that it's not wrong to be different and that everyone shouldn't be exactly alike. She gains friends, Calvin in particular. She gets her father back. She has Charles Wallace still with her. The fight isn't over. Meg still has her impatience and stubbornness to deal with. But she will be able to fight evil in every way she can.