document_title: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000 film)

question_text: who plays max in how the grinch stole christmas

text: Plot[edit]

text: The people in Whoville enjoy celebrating Christmas with much happiness and joy, except the Grinch, who despises Christmas and the Whos. He occasionally pulls dangerous and harmful practical jokes on them with vengeance. As a result, no one likes or cares for the Grinch. Meanwhile, six-year-old Cindy Lou believes everyone is missing the point about Christmas by being more concerned about the gifts and festivities. She herself has a face-to-face encounter with the Grinch at the post office, in which he reluctantly saves her life, and she becomes interested in his history. She then asks everyone what they know about him, and soon discovers that he has a tragic past.

text: The Grinch actually arrived in Whoville by mistake when he was a baby, and was adopted by two elderly sisters. Although he showed some sadistic tendencies as a child, he was rather good and timid, not as cruel as he would later become. In school, he was bullied by his classmates, led by Augustus May Who, who grew up to become mayor of Whoville, because of his appearance, with the exception of Martha May Whovier, whom both the Grinch and May Who had feelings for. One Christmas season, the Grinch made a gift for Martha, but attempted to shave his face after being made fun of for having a "beard", cutting himself by accident. When his classmates saw his cut face the next morning, May Who and the others ridiculed him. He lost his temper, trashed the classroom, and fled to live on Mount Crumpit, a mountain north of Whoville.

text: Cindy Lou, inspired by this story, decides to make the Grinch the main participant of the Whobilation, much to the displeasure of Mayor May Who, who reluctantly agrees after pressure from the townspeople, who have been warmed by Cindy Lou's generous spirit. When Cindy Lou goes to Mount Crumpit and offers an invitation to the Grinch, he turns her down. He gradually changes his mind due to the promise of an award, the presence of Martha at the celebration and the chance to upset the Mayor. Just as the Grinch is enjoying himself, May Who gives him an electric shaver as a present, reminding him of his humiliation at school. May Who then asks Martha to marry him, promising her a new car in return. In response, the Grinch berates the Whos, and criticizes Christmas, claiming that the holiday is only about gifts that they will just dispose of later, in the hopes of making them too ashamed to celebrate the holiday. The Grinch then goes on to ruin the party by burning the Christmas tree and causing chaos throughout Whoville, but his actions prove to be fruitless as the Whos have a spare tree, which the Grinch sees them erect before he leaves. May Who then accuses Cindy Lou for inviting the Grinch, making her feel ashamed.

text: The Grinch, knowing that his attack has failed to remove the Whos' Christmas spirit, instead concocts a plan to steal all of their presents while they are sleeping. Creating a Santa suit and sleigh with his own dog Max as a "reindeer", the Grinch arrives at Whoville, stealing all of the Whos' Christmas gifts. He is almost discovered by Cindy Lou, but lies to her in order to escape. On Christmas morning, the Whos discover the Grinch's scheme, and May Who blames Cindy Lou for the whole thing. However, her father, Lou Lou Who, the Whoville postmaster, finally stands up to him, and reminds everyone that they still have Christmas spirit, and that the principal meaning of Christmas is to spend it with family and friends. The people agree and begin to sing. Hoping that the change of mood would inspire the Grinch, Cindy Lou goes to Mount Crumpit to find him.

text: The Grinch intends to push the stolen gifts off the top of the mountain. However, he hears the joyful singing of the Whos. Infuriated over the failure of his plan, the Grinch has an epiphany about what Christmas is really about: not material gifts, but spending time with loved ones, an insight that profoundly inspires him, and causes his heart to grow to three times its original size. When the sleigh full of stolen gifts begins to go over the edge of the cliff, the Grinch desperately tries to save them to no avail. However, when he realizes that Cindy Lou has come to wish him a merry Christmas and is in danger of falling off the cliff with the sleigh, the Grinch finds enough strength to lift the sleigh, the gifts, and Cindy Lou to safety. The Grinch returns to Whoville with Max, Cindy, and the gifts. He confesses to the burglary, tearfully apologizes for his actions towards the Whos, and surrenders himself to the police as they arrive, but the Whos reconcile with him, much to May Who's dismay. Martha turns down May Who's proposal and decides that she would rather stay with the Grinch instead. The redeemed Grinch (along with Max) starts a new life with the Whos, commemorating the Christmas feast with them in his cave.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Jim Carrey as The Grinch, a misanthropic green creature who despises Christmas and the Whos of Whoville. It is revealed in his origin story that he started to hate Christmas after his school classmates humiliated him when he tried to shave his face. Before Jim Carrey was cast to play the Grinch, Jack Nicholson and Eddie Murphy were briefly considered.[4][5]

Josh Ryan Evans as an 8-year-old Grinch; his humiliation at school by May Who is what drives him into a hatred of Christmas.

Taylor Momsen as Cindy Lou Who, a young Who who thinks the true Christmas spirit in Whoville has lost its meaning. (In this version, she is six years old, whereas in the book in 1957 and TV special in 1966 by Chuck Jones she was "no more than two").
Jeffrey Tambor as Mayor Augustus May Who, Whoville's rude, arrogant, judgmental, and greedy mayor. He is revealed to be a school bully who picked on the young Grinch over his shaved face, which is what motivated the Grinch to hate Christmas in the first place. He also denounces the Grinch every chance he gets and wants to have a Grinch-less Christmas.

Ben Bookbinder as an 8-year-old Augustus May Who; he tormented the young Grinch, which then motivated the Grinch to hate Christmas.

Christine Baranski as Martha May Whovier, a desirable Whoville woman, the Grinch's lifelong crush and the romantic interest of Mayor Who. She ultimately rejects the Mayor and chooses the Grinch.

Landry Allbright as an 8-year-old Martha May Whovier. She shows compassion towards the young Grinch.

Bill Irwin as Lou Lou Who, Cindy Lou's loving father and the postman of Whoville.
Molly Shannon as Betty Lou Who, Cindy Lou's mother and a rival to Martha May in a house-lighting contest.
Kelley as Max, who is The Grinch's pet dog and only companion on Mt. Crumpit. It is unknown how or when The Grinch got him.

Frank Welker as the voice of Max

Clint Howard as Whobris, the mayor's sycophantic aide.

Reid Kirchenbauer as an 8-year-old Whobris.

Mindy Sterling as Clarnella Who, one of the Grinch's childhood caretakers.
Rachel Winfree as Rose Who, one of the Grinch's childhood caretakers.
Jeremy Howard and T. J. Thyne as Drew Lou and Stu Lou Who, troublesome sons of Lou and Betty, and brothers to Cindy Lou.
Jim Meskimen as Officer Wholihan, the chief of police.
Lacey Kohl and Nadja Pionilla as Christina Whoterberry and Junie, Drew and Stu's girlfriends.
Mary Stein as Miss Rue Who, the school teacher.
Verne Troyer as Band Member
Bryce Dallas Howard as surprised Who.
Anthony Hopkins as The Narrator.

text: Production[edit]

text: Before his death in 1991, Dr. Seuss had refused offers to sell the film rights to his books. However, his widow, Audrey Geisel, agreed to several merchandising deals, including clothing lines, accessories, and CDs.[6] In July 1998, Geisel's agents announced via letter she would auction the film rights of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In order to pitch their ideas to Geisel, the suitors ultimately had to be willing to pay $5 million for the material, and hand over 4 percent of the box-office gross, 50 percent of the merchandising revenue and music-related material, and 70 percent of the income from book tie-ins. The letter also stated that "any actor submitted for the Grinch must be of comparable stature to Jack Nicholson, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman." Additionally, it was stipulated that the estate would not consider a director or writer who hadn't earned at least $1 million on a previous picture.[7]

text: 20th Century Fox pitched its version with director Tom Shadyac and producers Dave Phillips and John Davis in attendance, in which Jack Nicholson was in mind to play the Grinch.[8] Additionally, the Farrelly brothers and John Hughes pitched their separate versions.[9] Universal Pictures held its pitch presentation with Brian Grazer and Gary Ross in attendance, but Geisel refused such offer. Grazer then enlisted his producing partner Ron Howard to help with the negotiations. At the time, Howard was developing a film adaptation of The Sea Wolf, and did not express interest in Grinch, but Grazer talked Howard into traveling to Geisel's residence for the pitch meeting.[10] While studying the book, Howard became interested in the character, Cindy Lou Who, and pitched a film in which she would have a larger role, as well as a materialistic representation of the Whos and an expanded backstory of the Grinch.[7][11]

text: On September 16, 1998, it was announced that Howard would direct and co-produce a live-action adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey attached to star.[12] It was also reported that Universal Pictures, who had acquired the distribution rights, paid $9 million for the film rights for an adaptation of Grinch and Oh, the Places You'll Go to Audrey Geisel.[13] Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman wrote the final screenplay following eight drafts, but Geisel also had veto power over the script. She objected to several jokes and sexual innuendos in the screenplay, some including about one family who did not have a Christmas tree or presents jokingly called the "Who-steins" and the placement of a stuffed trophy of the Cat in the Hat on the Grinch's wall.[14] Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer did an uncredited rewrite of the script.[15]

text: The film was shot between September 1999 and January 2000. Dr. Seuss' wife, Audrey, visited the set in October 1999. Much of the Whoville set was constructed on the backlot of Universal Studios behind the Bates Motel. During a break in filming, Jim Carrey scared tourists on the Studio Tour by running out of the motel in a dress and brandishing a knife.[citation needed] Despite this, none of the Universal employees and tourists on the tour recognized him. Jim Carrey's Grinch suit was covered in yak hair, which was dyed green, and sewed onto a spandex suit. The first application of the makeup took eight hours, after which a frustrated Carrey kicked a hole in the wall of his trailer, wanting to quit the film. The production brought in CIA operative who instructed agents how to endure extreme torture techniques to coach Carrey to remain calm during the process.[16] The process was later refined so that it took only three hours in the morning getting in, and one hour in the evening to get out. In total, Carrey spent 92 days in the Grinch make-up, and became a "Zen Master" while sitting in the make-up chair.

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text:
"Kids Today" – Jim Carrey and Taylor Momsen *
"Grinch 2000" – Busta Rhymes and Jim Carrey
"Green Christmas" – Barenaked Ladies
"Christmas of Love" – Little Isidore and the Inquisitors
"Lonely Christmas Eve" – Ben Folds
"Grinch Schedule" – Jim Carrey *
"Better Do It Right" – Smash Mouth
"Whoville Medley" (Perfect Christmas Night/Grinch) – Trans-Siberian Orchestra
"Reindeer" – Jim Carrey *
"Christmas Is Going to the Dogs" – The Eels
"You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" – Jim Carrey
"Christmas Means More" – Anthony Hopkins and Jim Carrey *
"You Don't Have to Be Alone" – *NSYNC
"Where Are You, Christmas?" – Faith Hill
"The Shape of Things to Come" – James Horner
"Memories of a Green Childhood" – James Horner +
"Christmas, Why Can't I Find You?" – James Horner and Taylor Momsen
"Stealing Christmas" – Anthony Hopkins, James Horner, Jim Carrey, and Taylor Momsen ~
"The Big Heist" – James Horner +
"Does Cindy Lou Really Ruin Christmas?" – James Horner +
"A Change of Heart" – James Horner +
"The Sleigh of Presents" – James Horner +
"He Carves the Roast Beast" – James Horner ^

text:
Legend:
*Dialogue
+ Instrumental
~ Includes Narration and Dialogue
^ Includes "Welcome Christmas"

text: Release[edit]

text: How the Grinch Stole Christmas grossed $260.0 million domestically and $85.1 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $345.1 million, becoming the sixth highest-grossing film of 2000.

text: In the United States, The Grinch opened at number-one on its opening day, making $15.6 million, with a weekend gross of $55.0 million, for an average of $17,615 from 3,127 theaters. The film still holds the record for the highest opening weekend for a Christmas-themed film. In its second weekend, the film grossed $52.1 million, dropping only 5.1%, settling a new record for highest-grossing second weekend for any film. The film stayed at the top of the box office for four weekends, until it was overtaken by What Women Want in mid-December. The Grinch closed on April 30, 2001, after five months, with a final gross of $260,044,825.[1] Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 48.1 million tickets in North America.[17] The film was released on VHS and DVD on November 20, 2001. The extended version on VHS and DVD is released on October 29, 2002. The network TV version was premiered in November 30, 2003. A Blu-ray/DVD combo pack was released on October 13, 2009.

text: Reception[edit]

text: Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 53%; the critical consensus reads, "Jim Carrey shines as the Grinch. Unfortunately, it's not enough to save this movie. You'd be better off watching the TV cartoon."[18] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 46 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[19]

text: Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, referring to it as "a dank, eerie, weird movie about a sour creature" and said, "There should be...a jollier production design and a brighter look overall... It's just not much fun." Ebert observed that Carrey "works as hard as an actor has ever worked in a movie, to small avail." Nevertheless, he decided that "adults may appreciate Carrey's remarkable performance in an intellectual sort of way and give him points for what was obviously a supreme effort."[20]

text: Paul Clinton of CNN declared that Carrey "was born to play this role" and noted that "Carrey carries nearly every scene. In fact, if he's not in the scene, there is no scene.[21] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly began his review of the film analyzing the Grinch's "mischievously divided, now-I'm-calm/ now-I'm-a-raving-sarcastic-PSYCH-o! personality" and summed up Carrey's Grinch as "a slobby, self-loathing elitist ruled by the secret fear that he's always being left out of things." Gleiberman expressed surprise at "how affecting Carrey makes the Grinch's ultimate big-hearted turnaround, as Carrey the actor sneaks up on Carrey the wild-man dervish. In whichever mode, he carreys  [sic] the movie."[22]

text: Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "Nobody could play the Grinch better than Jim Carrey, whose rubbery antics and maniacal sense of mischief are so well suited to How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Dr. Seuss himself might have turned to Carrey as a model for the classic curmudgeon had the actor been around in 1957." However, he wondered why Carrey "made himself sound like Sean Connery" and warned that the character's intensity may frighten small children.[23] James Berardinelli of ReelViews wrote that Carrey's "off-the-wall performance is reminiscent of what he accomplished in The Mask, except that here he never allows the special effects to upstage him. Carrey's Grinch is a combination of Seuss' creation and Carrey's personality, with a voice that sounds far more like a weird amalgamation of Sean Connery and Jim Backus (Bond meets Magoo!) than it does Karloff." He concluded that Carrey "brings animation to the live action, and, surrounded by glittering, fantastical sets and computer-spun special effects, Carrey enables Ron Howard's version of the classic story to come across as more of a welcome endeavor than a pointless re-tread."[24]

text: Some reviews were more middling. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon, in a generally negative review of the film, wrote, "Carrey pulls off an admirable impersonation of an animated figure ... It’s fine as mimicry goes — but mimicry isn't the best playground for comic genius. Shouldn't we be asking more of a man who's very likely the most gifted comic actor of his generation?" She concluded that in spite of "a few terrific ad-libs [...] his jokes come off as nothing more than a desperate effort to inject some offbeat humor into an otherwise numbingly unhip, nonsensical and just plain dull story."[25]

text: Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote, "Carrey tries out all sorts of intonations, vocal pitches and delivery styles, his tough guy posturing reminding at times of Cagney and his sibilant S's recalling Bogart. His antic gesturing and face-making hit the mark at times, but at other moments seem arbitrary and scattershot. Furthermore, his free-flowing tirades, full of catch-all allusions and references, are pitched for adult appreciation and look destined to sail right over the heads of pre-teens."[26]

text: Awards[edit]

text: Despite receiving mixed reviews, the film was still able to be nominated for as well as win several awards. It garnered three Academy Award nominations, including Best Costume Design (Rita Ryack) and Best Art Direction (Michael Corenblith and Merideth Boswell), and nominees Rick Baker and Gail Rowell-Ryan won the Academy Award for Best Makeup. At the Golden Globes, Carrey was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, losing the award to George Clooney for O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

text: It also won the Blimp Awards for Favorite Movie and Favorite Movie Actor at the 2001 Kids' Choice Awards. The film won a Saturn Award for Best Music and a Saturn Award for Best Make-Up. However, it was also nominated for two 2000 Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Screenplay, but lost to Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 and Battlefield Earth respectively.[citation needed]

text: Carrey's performance earned him a Best Villain at 2001 MTV Movie Awards.


document_title: A Wrinkle in Time

question_text: who has magical glasses in a wrinkle in time

root

text: A Wrinkle in Time

text: Publication history[edit]

text: The book was written between 1959 and 1960.[4] L'Engle wrote repeatedly about the writing of the story and the long struggle to get it published. In A Circle of Quiet (1972),[5] she explains that the book was conceived "during a time of transition." After years of living in rural Goshen, Connecticut, and running a general store, L'Engle's family, the Franklins, moved back to New York City, first taking a ten-week camping trip across the country and back again. L'Engle writes that "we drove through a world of deserts and buttes and leafless mountains, wholly new and alien to me. And suddenly into my mind came the names, Mrs Whatsit. Mrs Who. Mrs Which."[6] This was in the spring of 1959. L'Engle was reading about quantum physics at the time, which also made its way into the story.[7] When she completed the book in early 1960, however, it was rejected by at least 26 publishers, because it was, in L'Engle's words, "too different," and "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was really difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adults' book, anyhow?"[2][6]

tag: p

text: In "A Special Message from Madeleine L'Engle" on the Random House website, L'Engle explains another possible reason for the rejections: "A Wrinkle in Time had a female protagonist in a science fiction book," which at the time was uncommon. After trying "forty-odd" publishers (L'Engle later said "twenty-six rejections"), L'Engle's agent returned the manuscript to her. Then at Christmas, L'Engle threw a tea party for her mother. One of the guests happened to know John C. Farrar of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and insisted that L'Engle should meet with him. Although the publisher did not, at the time, publish a line of children's books, Farrar met L'Engle, liked the novel, and ultimately published it.[8]

text: In 1963 the book won the Newbery Medal which awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The book has been continuously in print since its first publication. The hardback edition is still published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The original blue dust jacket by Ellen Raskin was replaced with new art by Leo and Diane Dillon, with the publication of A Swiftly Tilting Planet in 1978. The book has also been published in a 25th anniversary collectors' edition (limited to 500 signed and numbered copies), at least two book club editions (one hardback, one Scholastic Book Services paperback), as a trade paperback under the Dell Yearling imprint, and as a mass market paperback under the Dell Laurel-Leaf imprint. The cover art on the paperback editions has changed several times since first publication.

text: The book was reissued by Square Fish in trade and mass market paperback formats in May 2007, along with the rest of the Time Quintet. This new edition includes a previously unpublished interview with L'Engle as well as the text of her Newbery Medal acceptance speech.[9]

text: Plot summary[edit]

text: Thirteen-year-old Meg Murry's classmates and teachers see her as a troublesome and stubborn student. Her family knows that she is emotionally immature but also sees her capable of doing great things. The family includes her scientist mother Katherine, her missing scientist father Alexander, the twins Sandy and Dennys, and her five-year-old brother Charles Wallace Murry, a child genius who can sometimes read Meg's mind.

text: The book begins with the line "It was a dark and stormy night," an allusion to the opening words in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel Paul Clifford. Unable to sleep during a thunderstorm, Meg descends from her attic room to find Charles Wallace sitting at the table drinking milk and eating bread and jam. They are then joined by their mother, and are visited by their new eccentric neighbor, Mrs Whatsit. In the course of conversation, Mrs Whatsit casually mentions there is such a thing as a tesseract, which causes Katherine to almost faint.

text: The next morning, Meg discovers that the term refers to a scientific concept her father was working on before his mysterious disappearance. The following afternoon, Meg and Charles Wallace encounter Meg's schoolmate, Calvin O'Keefe, a high-school junior who, although he is a "big man on campus", considers himself a misfit as well. They then go to visit an old haunted house near town which Charles Wallace already knows is the home of Mrs Whatsit. There they encounter two companions of Mrs Whatsit's, the equally strange Mrs Who and the unseen voice of Mrs Which. She promises that she and her friends will help Meg find and rescue her father. A budding love interest develops between Meg and Calvin. In the evening, Charles Wallace declares it is time for them to go on their mission to save their father. This is accompanied by the appearance of the third member of the "Mrs Ws", Mrs Which, who appears to materialize out of nothing.

text: Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which turn out to be supernatural beings who transport Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe through the universe by means of tesseract, a fifth-dimensional phenomenon explained as being similar to folding the fabric of space and time. Their first stop is the planet Uriel, a Utopian world filled with Centaur-like beings who live in a state of light and love. Mrs Whatsit herself shows that she, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which are all these centaur-like creatures in disguise as humans. There the "Mrs Ws" reveal to the children that the universe is under attack from an evil being who appears as a large dark cloud called The Black Thing, which is essentially the personification of evil. The children are then taken to visit the "Happy Medium", a woman with a crystal ball through which they see that Earth is partially covered by the darkness, although great religious figures, philosophers, and artists have been fighting against it. Mrs Whatsit is revealed to be a former star who exploded in an act of self-sacrifice to fight the darkness.

text: The children then travel to the dark planet of Camazotz, which has "given in" to the Black Thing. Meg's father is trapped there. They find that all the inhabitants behave in a mechanistic way and seem to be under the control of a single mind. At the planet's central headquarters (described as CENTRAL Central Intelligence), they discover a telepathic red-eyed man who can cast a hypnotic spell and claims to know their father’s whereabouts. Charles Wallace deliberately looks into the man’s red eyes, allowing himself to be hypnotized in order to find their father. Under its influence, he takes Meg and Calvin to the place where Alexander is being held prisoner because he would not succumb to the group mind.

text: The planet turns out to be controlled by an evil disembodied brain with powerful abilities, which the inhabitants of Camazotz call "IT." Charles Wallace takes them to the place where IT is held. In such proximity to IT, the children are threatened by a possible telepathic takeover of their minds. With special powers from Mrs Who's glasses, Alexander is able to "tesser" Calvin, Meg and himself away from Camazotz, but Charles Wallace is left behind, still under the influence of IT. Dr. Murry, inexperienced at tessering, does not know how to protect Meg from the Black Thing which surrounds the planet as they tesser through it, nearly killing her. When they arrive on the neighboring planet of Ixchel, Meg is nearly frozen, and paralyzed. Calvin and the Murrys are discovered by the planet's inhabitants - large, eyeless "beasts" with featureless faces, tentacles and four arms, who prove both wise and gentle. Meg's paralysis is cured under the care of one inhabitant, whom Meg nicknames "Aunt Beast." Meg overcomes her anger at her father for leaving Charles Wallace on Camazotz, realizing that parents can't fix everything, and sometimes children can solve problems themselves.

text: Then the trio of Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which arrive. They charge Meg with rescuing Charles Wallace from IT, because only Meg has a strong enough bond with him. Their father had last seen Charles Wallace when he was a baby and Calvin had only just met him. They each give her a gift. Mrs Whatsit gives Meg her love. Mrs Who quotes to Meg a passage from the Bible about God choosing the foolish of the world to confound the wise, and the weak to defeat the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Mrs Which tells Meg that she has one thing that IT does not have but doesn't specify what it is. Upon arriving at the building where IT is housed, Charles Wallace is still there under IT's influence. Meg realizes that the one thing she has that IT does not is love. She focuses all her love at Charles Wallace and is able to free him from IT's control. Mrs Who, Mrs Which and Mrs Whatsit tesser the Murrys and Calvin back to Earth. In the vegetable garden they are all reunited with Katherine and the twins. Mrs Whatsit says that although she and the others like the spectacle of the family reuniting, they have to go somewhere. Before Mrs Whatsit finishes her sentence, she and the others disappear.

text: Major themes[edit]

text: Madeleine L'Engle's fantasy works are in part highly expressive of her Christian viewpoint in a manner somewhat similar to that of Christian fantasy writer C. S. Lewis. She was herself the official writer-in-residence at New York City's Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which is known for its prominent position in the liberal wing of the Episcopal Church.[10] L'Engle's liberal Christianity has been the target of criticism from more conservative Christians, especially with respect to certain elements of A Wrinkle in Time.[11]

text: The theme of picturing the fight of good against evil as a battle of light and darkness is a recurring one. Its manner is reminiscent of the prologue to the Gospel of John, which is quoted within the book. When the "Mrs Ws" reveal their secret roles in the cosmic fight against "the darkness" they ask the children to name some figures on Earth (a partially dark planet) who fight the darkness. They name Jesus, and later in the discussion Buddha is named as well, along with various creative artists and philanthropists. The three women are described as ancient star-beings who act as guardian angels.[12]

text: Further, the themes of "conformity" and the "status quo" are present. It is a generic theme that is within every society there is a powerful dominant group that challenges the minority group. Very few of the powerless members of this group are resilient. In this case, IT is the powerful dominant group that manipulates the planet of Camazotz into conformity (i.e., they all have the same rhythm). Even Charles Wallace falls prey (due to flattery) and is hence persuaded to conform. It is thanks to Meg that she and her family are able to break from conformity.[13] According to the author's granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis, the story wasn't a simple allegory of communism; in a three-page passage that was cut before publication, the process of domination is said to be an outcome of dictatorship under totalitarian regimes, and by an excessive desire of security under democratic countries.[14][15]

text: Scholar Jean Fulton writes, "L'Engle's fiction for young readers is considered important partly because she was among the first to focus directly on the deep, delicate issues that young people must face, such as death, social conformity, and truth. L'Engle's work always is uplifting because she is able to look at the surface values of life from a perspective of wholeness, both joy and pain, transcending each to uncover the absolute nature of human experience that they share."[7]

text: Reception[edit]

text: At the time of the book's publication, Kirkus Reviews said, "Readers who relish symbolic reference may find this trip through time and space an exhilarating experience; the rest will be forced to ponder the double entendres."[16]

text: A Wrinkle in Time is on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 at number 23.[17] Reasons given include the book's references to witches and crystal balls,[18] the claim that it "challenges religious beliefs",[19] and the listing of Jesus "with the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists, and religious leaders".[20]

text: A 2004 study found that it was a common read-aloud book for sixth-graders in schools in San Diego County, California.[21] Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".[22] It was one of the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.[23]

text: In 2016, the novel saw a spike in sales after Chelsea Clinton mentioned it as influential in her childhood in a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.[24]

text: Characters[edit]

text: Main characters[edit]

text: Margaret "Meg" Murry[edit]

text: Meg is the outcast of the family and also the oldest child of scientists Alex and Kate Murry. Mathematically brilliant but less than adept at other subjects in school, Meg is "awkward", unpopular, and defensive around authority figures as well as her peers. Although she has the brains to accomplish difficult tasks, she rarely puts her strengths to use. She adores her mother and three brothers especially her youngest brother, Charles Wallace, and weeps much for her missing father. Like many adolescent girls, Meg is unhappy with her physical appearance, particularly her mouse-brown, unruly hair, braces and glasses, and considers herself a "monster" in comparison with her mother. But then she meets Calvin. She is about thirteen years old, and is a couple of grades below Calvin, who is fourteen years old but in eleventh grade. Introduced on the first page of the book, she is the story's main protagonist.

text: Charles Wallace Murry[edit]

text: Charles Wallace is the youngest Murry child, being five years old. He is very smart and is the most extraordinary and the most vulnerable of the novel's human characters, and the youngest to journey to Camazotz. Charles Wallace did not talk at all until he was nearly four years old, at which time he began to speak in complete sentences. Now five years old, Charles Wallace speaks only to his family, but can empathically or telepathically "read" certain people's thoughts and feelings, and above that has an extraordinary vocabulary. A biological "sport," he is intellectually curious, loving, and unfazed by extraordinary people and events. He was the first to meet the Mesdames W and brought Meg to see them. Initially able to block IT out of his mind, he opens his mind to the Man with Red Eyes and thus falls under IT's control.

text: Calvin O'Keefe[edit]

text: Calvin is the third oldest of Paddy and Branwen O'Keefe's eleven children, a tall, thin, red-haired 14-year-old high school junior who is not the best in math but has to study to play on the school basketball team, and is one of the popular boys in high school. His mother is a very cranky, tired woman with too many children. Neglected by his own family, Calvin enters the lives of the Murry family, starting in Chapter Two. He also loves Meg Murry. He shows some signs of being able to communicate telepathically, the same power Charles Wallace seems to have, a technique referred to in later books as kything. He also feels as if he has been hiding his true self all his life, and likes the Murry family much more than his own, which is characterized by abuse and dysfunctional dynamics.

text: Primary immortal characters[edit]

text: Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which are immortal beings who can travel across large stretches of time and space by dematerializing and rematerializing. They are capable of shapeshifting, but spend most of their time on Earth as elderly women. All three are billions of years old and were once stars that had sacrificed themselves as a nova or supernova to destroy parts of the Black Thing.

text: Mrs Whatsit[edit]

text: Mrs Whatsit is first described as a very old woman wrapped in layers of clothes with a jacket and first appears in chapter one. Charles Wallace finds her in a 'haunted house' in the woods, where she has been living with her two friends, Mrs Who and Mrs Which. Mrs Whatsit is the youngest of the Mmes. W (despite being 2,379,152,497 years, 8 months, and 3 days old), and the best of the three at interacting with the children.

text: In Chapter Four, Charles Wallace, Calvin, and Meg witnesses Mrs. Whatsit transform into a centaur-like winged being on the planet Uriel. After explaining their sacrificial backstory to the children, Mrs Whatsit admits to Meg that she had once been one of them, and to Mrs Which that it hadn't been very long (from their perspective) since it happened.

text: Mrs Who[edit]

text: Mrs Who is described as a plump woman with spectacles. She communicates in Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Portuguese and Greek, notably quoting William Shakespeare, Pascal, Dante Alighieri, Seneca, A. Perez, Horace, Miguel de Cervantes, Delille, Euripides, the Bible and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Mrs Whatsit explains that Mrs Who finds it "difficult to verbalize" in her own words.

text: Mrs Which[edit]

text: Mrs Which's physical appearance is not set; she appears as a shimmering light most of the time. However, she does once take on the appearance of a traditional witch with a black hat and broom. She does not stay long in this form, though, as corporeal appearance is quite difficult for her to maintain. She first appears at the end of Chapter 3. She is the clear leader of the three women and the wisest, and upon appearing, immediately demonstrates her vast knowledge of understanding in tesseract travel. Her distinguishing quirk is her long, drawn-out method of speech, symbolized by doubled and tripled consonants in her words (as in; "Nnoww, cchilldrenn, yyou musstt nott bee frrightennedd att whatt iss ggoingg tto hhappenn,"). She is the one who usually provides the group, most especially Meg, with the clues the children need to solve the problems encountered during their travels.

text: The Man with Red Eyes[edit]

text: The Man with Red Eyes is a being whom Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin encounter on their quest to rescue Meg and Charles Wallace's father on the planet Camazotz. He is the Prime Coordinator on Camazotz. He and IT control Camazotz together and are the main antagonists. He entices Charles Wallace to look into his glowing red eyes in order to find his father. When Charles Wallace does so, he too becomes possessed by the mind of IT, after which the Man with Red Eyes drops out of the story.

text: IT[edit]

text: IT is the bodiless, telepathic brain that dominates the planet of Camazotz and is the main antagonist of the story. IT controls all the people in Camazotz and makes people often do the same things together in a mechanistic synchronism as if they were robots. IT speaks through The Man With Red Eyes and later through Charles Wallace, and is functionally part of the interstellar evil cloud called the Black Thing. IT is described as a giant sized human brain. Housed in a dome near the "CENTRAL Central Intelligence" building, IT is said to pulse and quiver on its dais. IT's aim is to enforce absolute conformity on Camazotz, with the claimed benefit of eliminating war, unhappiness and inefficiency. However, IT is aware of cruelty, referring to "ITself" as "the Happiest Sadist". While IT usually speaks through one of its pawns, IT can speak directly to people through telepathy, but IT only does this once throughout the entire novel. IT's name is always used whenever IT is spoken of (rather than the pronoun "it"), so pervasively that even the word "itself" is rewritten as "ITself."

text: The Black Thing[edit]

text: A formless, shadowy being. According to the Mrs. Whatsit, the Black Thing is the source of all evil in the universe. It is unclear from where the Black Thing came or what its motivations are. It is unclear what its relationship to IT is, although it is suggested that IT is a powerful servant of the Black Thing. Many people have fought the Black Thing and added to the peace of the world, including Mr. Murry.

text: Sub-characters[edit]

text: Alex Murry[edit]

text: Meg's father is a physicist who is researching the mysteries of the space/time continuum, specifically five-dimensional means of travel between planets. He is also the father of Meg, Sandy, Dennys and Charles Wallace. He has been missing for some time at the start of the novel, and not even his government colleagues know where he is. He is usually referred to as Mr. Murry. His first name is revealed in the fifth and last Time novel An Acceptable Time. In the television adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, he is renamed Jack. He first appears in a flashback in Chapter One.

text: Dr. Katherine "Kate" Murry[edit]

text: Meg's mother is a microbiologist, Dr. Alexander Murry’s wife, and the mother of the four Murry children. She is considered beautiful by the Murry children and others, having "flaming red hair" and violet eyes. Her physical attractiveness, academic and scientific accomplishments give Meg a bit of an inferiority complex. She is introduced in Chapter One, and usually referred to as Mrs. Murry. As in her husband's case, her first name is given in the subsequently published An Acceptable Time. The television version of her character is renamed Dana.

text: Sandy Murry[edit]

text: Sandy and his twin brother Dennys are the middle children in the Murry family, older than Charles Wallace but younger than Meg. They are 10 years old at the time of this book. Sandy is named after his father, Dr. Alex Murry. Although they are certainly intelligent, Sandy and his twin are considered the "normal" children in the family: B students, good at sports, and well able to fit in with their peers. Of the twins, Sandy is generally the leader, and the more pragmatic of the two. He and Dennys first appear in Chapter One.

text: Dennys Murry[edit]

text: Dennys is the twin of Sandy Murry. Dennys and his twin are usually inseparable, with Dennys generally following Sandy's lead. However, Dennys is slightly less skeptical than his brother about the strange theories and even stranger adventures of Meg and Charles Wallace. (Note: The name Dennys is a shortened version of "Dionysus", which is the name of a Greek god, but is pronounced the same way as the more common spelling "Dennis.")

text: Mrs. Buncombe[edit]

text: The wife of the constable in Meg's hometown, who has twelve bed-sheets stolen from her at the beginning of the novel.[25]

text: Mr. Jenkins[edit]

text: Mr. Jenkins [25] is Meg's cold and unfeeling high-school principal who calls her "belligerent and uncooperative" and implies that her family is in denial about Mr. Murry's true whereabouts.

text: Supporting alien characters[edit]

text: The Happy Medium lives in a cavern on a planet in Orion's Belt. Human in appearance, she is described as wearing a satin gown and a silk turban, and uses a crystal ball to look at distant places and people. Her title comes from the character's jolly temperament, and her preference for looking at happy things. She helps Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace see The Black Thing through the crystal ball and understand what they are fighting against. She is introduced in chapter five. (The name "Happy Medium" is a pun alluding to the common expression for reaching an acceptable compromise: "to find a happy medium.")

text: Aunt Beast is a character who takes care of Meg and befriends her on the planet Ixchel after Meg is "frozen" by the Black Thing. Introduced in chapter ten, the character is a four-armed eyeless gray creature with telepathic abilities and numerous long, waving tentacles instead of fingers. Aunt Beast has a motherly, nurturing attitude toward Meg. The name Aunt Beast is one that Meg and the alien come up with together, based on the character's perusal of Meg's mind. The character's actual name, if any, is not given.

text: Locations[edit]

text: Early scenes in the novel take place in and around an unnamed village, later established in An Acceptable Time as being in Connecticut. The nearly 200-year-old Murry farmhouse has parallels in the Austin family series of books and in L'Engle's own Connecticut home, Crosswicks.[6]

text: When Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace travel to other planets, the ones whose names are given include the following:

text:
Camazotz – A planet of extreme, enforced conformity, ruled by a disembodied brain called IT. Camazotz is similar to Earth, with familiar trees such as birches, pines, and maples, an ordinary hill on which the children arrive, and a town with smokestacks, which "might have been one of any number of familiar towns". The horror of the place arises from its ordinary appearance, endlessly duplicated. Thus, the houses are "all exactly alike, small square boxes painted gray"; this characterization has been compared with "the burgeoning American suburbia"[26] such as the post-war housing developments of Levittown, Pennsylvania. The people who live in the houses are similarly described, with "mother figures" who "all gave the appearance of being the same". Camazotz has also been compared with "an early sixties American image of life in a Communist state", a characterization partially dismissed as too glib.[27] The name Camazotz refers to a Mayan bat god, one of L'Engle's many mythological allusions in her nomenclature.[28] It is also stated that Camazotz is a planet that has "given in" to the Black Thing, implying that it was not always the dystopian place that it is at present..
Ixchel – A planet of muted colors, inhabited by tall, sightless creatures with tentacles. It orbits the same sun as Camazotz. The name Ixchel refers to a Mayan jaguar goddess of medicine.[28]
Uriel – A planet with extremely tall mountains, an allusion to the Archangel Uriel. It is inhabited by creatures that resemble winged centaurs. It is "the third planet of the Star Malak (meaning 'angel' in Hebrew) in the spiral nebula Messier 101", which would place it at roughly 25 million light-years from Earth. The site of Mrs Whatsit's temporary transformation into one of these winged creatures, it is the place where "the guardian angels" (i.e. the Mrs Ws, who are explicitly referred to as such by Calvin later in the book) "show the questers a vision of the universe that is obscured on earth."[12]

tag: ul

text: They also stop briefly on an unnamed two-dimensional planet and on an unnamed planet in Orion's belt, the latter of which is the home of the Happy Medium.

text: Adaptations[edit]

text: Audio books[edit]

text: In 1994, Listening Library released an unabridged, 4-cassette audio edition read by the author.[29]

text: On January 10, 2012, Audible released a 50th anniversary edition recorded by Hope Davis.[30]

text: Film adaptations[edit]

text:
In 2003, a television adaptation of the novel was made by a collaboration of Canadian production companies, to be distributed in America by Disney. The movie was directed by John Kent Harrison, with a teleplay by Susan Shilliday. It cast Katie Stuart as Meg Murry, Alfre Woodard as Mrs.Whatsit, Alison Elliott as Mrs.Who, and Kate Nelligan as Mrs.Which. In an interview with Newsweek, when L'Engle was asked if the film "met her expectations", she said, "Yes, I expected it to be bad, and it is."[31]
A theatrical feature film adaptation of the novel by Walt Disney Pictures, was released in 2018. The film is directed by Ava DuVernay and stars Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Storm Reid, Michael Peña, and Zach Galifianakis.[32][33]

text: Play[edit]

text: An adaptation by James Sie premiered at the Lifeline Theatre in Chicago in 1990, and returned to the stage in 1998 and 2017.[34]

text: John Glore adapted the novel as a play that premiered in 2010. It was written for six actors playing 12 parts. One actor plays Mrs Whatsit, the Man with Red Eyes, and Camazotz Man. Dr. Kate Murry, Mrs Who, Camazotz Woman, and Aunt Beast also share one performer. The stage adaptation premiered in Costa Mesa, California, with productions in Bethesda, Maryland; Cincinnati; Philadelphia; Orlando; Portland, Oregon; and other cities.[35][36]

text: An adaptation by Tracy Young premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in April 2014, as well as at colleges and theaters around the U.S.[37]

text: Opera[edit]

text: In 1992, OperaDelaware (known for frequently adapting children's books) staged an opera based on A Wrinkle in Time written by Libby Larsen with a libretto by Walter Green. The review in Philly.com stated "The composer does not place arias and set pieces, but conversational ensembles with spoken dialogue that made the young daughter's climactic but concise song about familial love all the more imposing."[38][39]

text: Graphic novel[edit]

text: In 2010, Hope Larson announced that she was writing and illustrating the official graphic novel version of the book. This version was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in October 2012.[40][41]

text: References in popular culture[edit]

text: The television show Lost featured appearances of the book: it is one of the novels Sawyer reads on the Island, and it is seen on his dresser.[42]

text: Further reading[edit]

text: Other books in the series[edit]

text: L'Engle wrote four other books featuring this generation of the Murry family, collectively known as the Time Quintet.

text:
A Wind in the Door (1973) ISBN 0-374-38443-6
A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978) ISBN 0-374-37362-0
Many Waters (1986) ISBN 0-374-34796-4
An Acceptable Time (1989) ISBN 0-374-30027-5

text: Jean C. Fulton remarks that the books are not "intended to be read consecutively, these books, though integrated, are independent." Although Many Waters was published approximately eight years after A Swiftly Tilting Planet, it takes place several years earlier, when Sandy and Dennys are in high school and Meg is in college.

text: Four further novels have been published that feature Meg and Calvin's children, especially Polly O'Keefe. The most recent of these, An Acceptable Time, features Meg's parents, and is marketed with the four Murry books as part of the Time Quintet; Sandy Murry appears prominently in A House Like a Lotus, which features Polly O'Keefe. Nearly every novel by Madeleine L'Engle connects to the Murry-O'Keefe series either directly or indirectly with appearances by recurring characters. See also: List of L'Engle's works and Major characters in the works of Madeleine L'Engle for further detail.

text: Concerning A Wrinkle in Time[edit]

text:
Scholastic BookFiles: A Reading Guide to A Wrinkle in Time ISBN 0-439-46364-5
Chase, Carole F. Suncatcher: A Study of Madeleine L'Engle and Her Writing, p. 170. Innisfree Press, 1998, ISBN 1-880913-31-3


document_title: List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 2002

question_text: what was the number one song on august 24 2002

text: Chart history

text:
Key

The yellow background indicates the #1 song on Billboard's 2002 Year-End Chart of Pop Singles.

tag: table

text:
Issue date

Song

Artist(s)

Reference

January 5

"How You Remind Me"

Nickelback

[11]

January 12

[12]

January 19

"U Got It Bad"

Usher

[13]

January 26

[14]

February 2

[15]

February 9

[16]

February 16

[17]

February 23

"Always on Time"

Ja Rule featuring Ashanti

[18]

March 2

[19]

March 9

"Ain't It Funny"

Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule

[20]

March 16

[21]

March 23

[22]

March 30

[23]

April 6

[24]

April 13

[25]

April 20

"Foolish"

Ashanti

[26]

April 27

[27]

May 4

[28]

May 11

[29]

May 18

[30]

May 25

[31][32]

June 1

[33]

June 8

[34]

June 15

[35]

June 22

[36]

June 29

"Hot in Herre"

Nelly

[37]

July 6

[38]

July 13

[39]

July 20

[40]

July 27

[41]

August 3

[42]

August 10

[43]

August 17

"Dilemma"

Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland

[44]

August 24

[45]

August 31

[46]

September 7

[47]

September 14

[48]

September 21

[49]

September 28

[50]

October 5

"A Moment Like This"

Kelly Clarkson

[51]

October 12

[52]

October 19

"Dilemma"

Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland

[53]

October 26

[54]

November 2

[55]

November 9

"Lose Yourself"

Eminem

[56]

November 16

[57]

November 23

[58]

November 30

[59]

December 7

[60]

December 14

[61]

December 21

[62]

December 28

[63]