ERIC ED436785: Teaching the Madeleine L'Engle Tetralogy: Using Allegory and Fantasy as Antidote to Violence.

25 Pages·1999·0.29 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
CS 216 968
ED 436 785
AUTHOR Warner, Mary
Teaching the Madeleine L'Engle Tetralogy: Using Allegory and
TITLE
Fantasy as Antidote to Violence.
PUB DATE
1999-00-00
NOTE
23p.
Classroom
PUB TYPE
Teacher (052)
Guides
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DESCRIPTORS *Adolescent Development; *Adolescent Literature; *Allegory;
Conflict Resolution; Elementary Secondary Education;
Emotional Response; *Fantasy; *Literature Appreciation;
Science Fiction; Twentieth Century Literature; *Violence
*L Engle (Madeleine); Theme (Literary)
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
The allegory and fantasy in Madeleine L'Engle's four novels:
"A Wrinkle in Time," "A Wind in the Door," "A Swiftly Tilting Planet," and
"Many Waters," make the books powerful means for addressing the violence
pervasive in the lives of so many young people. These books are a valuable
curriculum addition because of readers appreciation for them, their
usefulness in integrating "character education," and as examples of literary
techniques. Teaching ideas for these books include:
(1) charting the
(2) identifying images or descriptions that signal conflict or
conflicts;
(4) discussing allegory; and (5)
(3) discussing fantasy elements;
violence;
encouraging students to "Get a Line." (EF)
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Teaching the Madeleine L'Engle Tetralogy: Using
Allegory and Fantasy as Antidote to Violence.
by Mary Warner
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"Teaching the Madeleine L'Engle Tetralogy:
Using Allegory and Fantasy as Antidote to Violence"
By Mary Warner
Q
Story allows for humans, but more specifically for children an d
to deal with aspects of life we least like to handle, be those evil o r
adolescents,
From Shirley Jackson's classic short
violence or the unexplainable,
like death.
creates an imaginary naughty child
story, "Charles" where a young kindergartner
in serious
to assume his bad behavior
to Sarah Byrnes, Chris Crutcher's heroine
and poignant, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, stories are the medium for facing
reality while remaining shielded from the immediate harshness.
Particularly
in this article,
when dealing with evil or violence, story-- more specifically
the channel to filter the pain in order to deal with
allegory and fantasy--provide
Madeleine L'Engle's four novels: A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A
it.
Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters, are filled with allegorical elements an d
fantasy; these two elements, instead of causing these novels to be treated lightly
or designated as merely "children's works," make the books powerful means for
in the lives of so many young people.
the violence pervasive
addressing
a middle or high school English teacher, though
I did
I am not currently
Arts in these settings for nine years;
I am, however, a n
teach English/Language
English Education professor who has truly been "up close and personal" with
public school classrooms and with the pre-service teachers.
I know in-service,
Arts teachers who are eager to find news ways to u se
veteran English/Language
in general, for the great "end"
desire:
story, and literature
all of us "literaphiles"
find their life paths through the texts we so love.
as a means to help our students
1
3
for use in a curriculum of
The selection of the Madeleine L'Engle tetralogy
peace arises from my love of these stories as well as from the love young readers
"test case" has been nieces and nephews
have for these books; my immediate
for hours by a read aloud of A Wrinkle in Time. These same children
enthralled
I also offer these teaching ideas based
then avidly read the rest of the Tetralogy.
on L'Engle works because I'm keenly aware of the desire to infuse "character
in these waning months of the 2 Oth
into school curricula,
particularly
education"
of the 2 1st, and the Tetralogy so viably achieves such
century and in anticipation
fully aware that teachers will
I offer a range of strategies,
integration.
Further,
select whatever they esteem as usable and beneficial for their teaching context; I
give more suggestions than teachers might want to use or be able to use primarily
because I appreciate options and because my work with pre-service teachers leads
for discussion of literature: More is better.
me to see that in the case of strategies
in that
L'Engle's books fit the created category of Young Adult literature
or younger, and these protagonists
the protagonists
are adolescents
narrate.
The
themes of the books, though, clearly are not bounded by age-specificity; rather
Also, while often
each novel addresses the large universals
of human experience.
the richer implications of
the novels have been read by middle school students,
In exploring the
the allegory are better interpreted
by high school students.
theme of the darkness, both literal and metaphorical which clouds Earth and all
inhabitants even into the waning years of the twentieth century, A Wrinkle in
its
the allegory to the real and challenges them t o
Time draws readers through
discover what each has to counteract the forces of h ate and evil. A Wind in the
Door examines the inner sickness that can stifle human growth, particularly the
2
4
of the mitrochondria an d
Through the fantastic environment
growth of the spirit.
too minute to be explored, L'Engle
farandola which are literally and scientifically
presents the all-important philosophy:
Remember, Mr. Jenkins, you're great on Benjamin Franklin's
or assuredly we will all
saying, "We must all hang together,
That's how it is with human beings an d
hang separately."
and farandolaeand our planet,
too, I guess,
mitrochondria
and the solar system. We have to live together inin
(A Wind in the Door147)
or we won't live at all.
harmony,
The next two novels, A Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters both explore
or in families and communities,
reality of enmity between brothers
the deplorable
again using the adolescent protagonists who see the reality through those who are
lovers of peace and those who are not.
Since L'Engle's novels are not necessarily among the canonical texts and
thus teachers who are so time-bound by curricular demands and end-of-course
tests might not feel they can justify teaching one or more of the novels, a
I argue that the
rationale for teaching the works does need to be established.
discusses many issues of violence
Tetralogy pervasively and comprehensively
to the human aversion
from responsible use of the planet's limited resources
t o
Additionally
attacks on any person of difference.
difference and the consequent
L'Engle uses allegory and fantasy as media for her narrative and thus provides
in these literary techniques.
readers with contemporary
textual experience
teaching, the ninth grade end-of-
In North Carolina where I am currently
course test has a major component evaluating knowledge of literary term.
as science fiction, provide engaging
L'Engle's novels, sometimes categorized
uses of symbol, fantasy and allegory and
reading with easily comprehensible
35
Time might not permit the total-class
would be most appropriate
for this group.
study of more than one of the Tetralogy; A Wrinkle in Time might be the best of
The other three novels could be used for out of class
texts to cover in class.
in North Carolina (and
reading and literature
The tenth grade curriculum
circles.
in other states as well) requires
the study of world literature, in a
culminating
writing test involving a prompt that always includes discussion of literary
often includes selections from
Because the world literature curriculum
elements.
the Bible, Many Waters would be an excellent text for students
to study.
This
novel would clearly offer an extension of the Flood story and would make a
wonderful parallel with the Gilgamesh epic.
A working definition of fantasy suggests
Fantasy is a "conscious-breaking free from experienced
reality that can be seen in several contexts: a work taking
place in a non-existent and unreal world; a work that
a work that
incredible and unreal characters;
concerns
or
not yet discovered
employs physical or scientific principles
or contrary to present experience " (Thrall, Hibbard, Holman 198).
In the Tetralogy, L'Engle creates several non-existent worlds in order to better
expose the real world of late twentieth century United States.
In seeing the world
in A Wrinkle in Time, the reader meets what
of Camazotz, which L'Engle creates
The man with the red eyes assures
as an ideal world.
could be seen superficially,
Charles Wallace, Meg and Calvin, that indeed Camazotz is a world without pain.
All the hard decisions of life have been taken away from the citizens, but then the
precious gift of freedom has also been taken.
In A Wind in the Door, the unreal world of "inside" helps demonstrate how
In this same novel, the "Echthroi," incredible
the exterior world can be recreated.
characters who are always at the site of war and evil, work away at young
to prevent these vital-to-life microscopic elements from "deepening"
farandolae
and performing their essential role in the life chain.
is the basis of both A Swiftly Tilting
The non-existent world of time travel
In the former, Charles Wallace goes "inside" several
Planet and Many Waters.
males in the Welsh line of Mrs. O'Keefe, traveling from "long ago to Salem, MA i n
the 1640's and eventually to the 1860's in both Civil War America and Vespugia in
In the latter, Sandy and Dennys go back into Pre-flood period in
South America.
the world of such evil that the God who
the desert of Noah's era, experiencing
All four works then can allow help high
created would destroy
all civilization.
texts of
g rasp the notion of utopias or dystopias,
school students
paralleling
A Swiftly Tilting Planet with its tracing of
British Literature or World Literature.
in Salem, MA and in Civil War America, would work well in the
civil hatreds
eleventh grade study of American Literature.
Fantasy may be used purely for whimsical delight, or it may be the means
of an author for serious comment on reality (Thrall et al 199). Clearly Madeleine
on the
serves to comment seriously on reality, particularly
L'Engle's tetralogy
yet is as old as centuries
range of violence which marks the twentieth century,
BCE, when the Nephilim were on earth, having refused to be loyal to the Presence.
this article begins with an activity called
The Teaching Guide accompanying
Students need to see that each novel includes "real world"
Charting the Conflicts.
in real world conflicts: Meg and Charles Wallace each experience very
characters
is understood for their intuitive and creative
real conflicts in school; neither
While the Chart works only with the conflicts coming early in A
intelligence.
5
the reading of the
Wrinkle in Time, the same process can be used throughout
that power
A Swiftly Tilting Planet for example, shows the corruption
Tetralogy.
wreaks in "the People of the Wind" an early civilization, while also exposing the
violence spawned during the Witchcraft hysteria
in Colonial America and the
of war, particularly a civil war.
brutality
At the same time, each novel is rich in the fantasy elements serving as
(in the sense of
conduits of reality.
Students can create a list of the incredible
that are part of each novel to
or difficult to believe in) characters
unbelievable
recognize the fantastical and its power in the narratives.
Animals like Fortinbras
in the first two novels; Ananda, Louise the Larger, the mammoth, the manticore,
and the Nephilim or other creatures
fit the category of
like the Echthroi
as in the case with Ananda, her name is allegorical and her
incredible;
in addition,
arrival, seemingly from nowhere and at such a crucial time in the events of A
Swiftly Tilting Planet further demonstrates
L'Engle's careful craft.
A second literary device which L'Engle uses is
allegory.
Allegory is a technique of aligning imaginative constructs,
or moral models.
mythological or poetic, with conceptual
structures were
in Medieval times, imaginative
Particularly
as rhetorical analogues to the revealed truth,
regarded
in conceptual
which was communicated more directly
(and mainly theological) language (Frye, Baker and Perkins,12-13);
Allegory is a form of extended metaphor
in which objects an d
are equated with meanings that lie
in a narrative
persons
one thing
outside the narrative
itself; allegory represents
6
in that of a
in the guise of another
an abstraction
are usually
concrete image.
In allegory, characters
the action and the setting
personifications
of abstract
qualities,
of the relationships among these abstractions.
representative
to evoke a dual interestone in the events,
Allegory attempts
and settings presented, and the other in the ideas
characters,
The characters,
they are intended
to convey or the significance.
events and setting may be historical, fictitious or fabulous
the test is that these materials be so employed in a
that they represent meaning
or pattern
logical organization
in the surface story.
of the action described
independent
Such meaning may be religious, moral, political, personal
or satiric (Thrall et al 8-9).
These definitions, and those connected with fantasy, are provided for
teachersyou will have your own ways of helping students
grasp these terms, but
again L'Engle has provided a series of allegorical elements.
From A Wrinkle in
Time a dominant image is "the Black Thing"" What could there be about a
shadow that was so terrible that she knew that there had never been before o r
that would chill her with a fear that was beyond
ever would be again, anything
beyond crying or screaming, beyond the possibility of comfort? (72)
shuddering,
Also from A Wrinkle in Time: Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, the
and "IT" each represent
Happy Medium, Aunt Beast and her fellow creatures,
In the case of the latter, IT, the wisdom is the seductive temptation
to b e
wisdom.
part of a world where all human initiative
All wisdom figures are
is acquiesced.
7
9
allegorical; specifically in the L'Engle works, the allegorical significance
is religious
and moral.
in the garden, the microscopic elements
From A Wind in the Door: dragons
that signal the "sickness" of the whole universe, Louise the Larger, Proginoskes
Blajeny(the meaning of their names and the occupation of Teacher), birth an d
deaths of stars, Naming, Kything, "Going inside," Sporos, and X-ing --all these
characters and elements convey the central message of interrelatedness.
While
each living thing is unique and separate, each also depends on other
life forms.
When we destroy or corrupt any one element, we hurt the whole.
In A Swiftly Tilting Planet, poetic elements, the Rune and the oracle poem
about the special gifts of the blue-eyed child, serve as central conveyors of th e
This novel also has wisdom figures like Gaudior, the unicorn, who
allegory.
constantly challenges Charles Wallace to fulfill his call.
"You human beings ten d
to want good things to last forever.
Not while we're in time" (169) In
They don't.
the allegorical and fantastical, time can be altered; L'Engle's use of time and space
variations allows her fiction greater scope of reality than she might have in solely
using realism.
to the
In each work there are sensory allegorical elements, integral
smells, soundsfrequently
music, the warmth or coldness, the light o r
ambient:
darkness, the wind; and the power of eyes or looks or vision.
In Many Waters,
to "listen to the stars."
Yalith, the youngest of Noah's household has learned
She
teaches Dennys this art as well:
"Alarid says you are able to
"Listen," Yalith suggested.
understand."