Topic > The theme of insecurity and the main character of Madeleine L'engle in the folds of time

In the story of “A Wrinkle in Time,” by Madeleine L'Engle, Meg Murray is a 13-year-old girl who has many insecurities about her personality and intelligence. Meg starts out as the "ugly duckling" of the family, you might say. She's not smart, or average, or pretty, and she just doesn't fit anywhere. Meg and her younger brother, Charles Wallace, are the two outliers in this story and are the ones who go on a rather interesting and long journey. At school, Meg has trouble doing her homework and the teachers always bully her and treat her less than others because of the way she reacted to her father's disappearance. Since Meg never took her father's disappearance very well, she, with Charles Wallace, her brother, and their friend Calvin went in search of her father and had to face the greatest mind in the universe known as IT. During this time, Charles had to submit to IT to find out where his father was and how to reach him. Unfortunately, during this subjugation under IT, Charles got lost and only when he freed his brother do we finally see Meg show her true self and maturity. The decision where we see Meg fully develop her character is when she returns to face IT to save her brother, for love. The factors and experiences that led Meg to make this choice were: her love for her brother, the maturity she gained during the journey, and her general awareness that she was special in many ways. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Meg has realized that it has always been her responsibility as a big sister to protect her little brother and feels like she has failed to do her job because of her insecurities. Through the story we see that Meg has a very strong bond with Charles due to their "differences". Likewise, Charles has always had empathy for Meg and her mother and has always been able to understand when they have problems and when they need him. This type of bond had made them closer and stronger because Meg and Charles not only loved each other immensely, but also tolerated people's criticism for being different. Throughout their journey, Meg finds herself constantly depending on her brother and his intelligence to overcome obstacles. From the very beginning of the story we see that Meg was always holding onto him to do something. And while they were on the road, we can also see that Meg relied on Charles a little too much. L'Engle says: “They could see nothing but a billowing whiteness, and the moisture clung to them and condensed into frozen droplets. As Meg trembled, Calvin's grip tightened. Across from her Charles Wallace sat silently. Once he turned just long enough to give her a quick look of tenderness and concern” (L'Engle 50). We can quickly see here that Meg is very dependent on Charles' warmth and leadership to guide and protect her. And it was only when she realized that her brother was being held under IT's control that Meg finally took her position as the big sister and her love and appreciation for her brother was the cause why Meg finally took courage and faced her biggest fear: his insecurities. If Charles had not been bought out, it would have taken Meg much longer to finally make her own choices and confront herself about taking on a courageous leadership role, but because of how much she loved him, she accepted this role without question. With this leadership that she has undertaken, Meg finally realizes that she is a special girl because she has the ability to love and this will then lead her to her final heroic act..