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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage is worth copying for its handling of a notoriously hard problem in fiction: how to introduce a character whose age and apparent age do not match. Notice that Madeleine L'Engle does not just say 'Charles Wallace looked younger than he was.' She gives us the specific age (15), the specific apparent age (12), and then — most importantly — pivots immediately to his eyes, where the truth of him lives. The structure of the sentence is: physical fact, stranger's perception, then the inner reality that contradicts the stranger's impression. This three-part move (fact / outside view / inner truth) is one of the most efficient introductions in children's literature. By the end of the second sentence, the reader knows Charles Wallace is unusual without being told he is unusual. The technique trusts the reader to infer character from precise observation.
Charles Wallace was small for his 15 years. A stranger might have guessed him to be no more than 12, but the expression in his light blue eyes as he watched his father alter one small rod in the model...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell the chapter, then identify the single sentence that does the most work in establishing the tone of the entire book. Defend your choice with reference to specific craft details.
Discussion Questions
- L'Engle is doing something formally interesting in the first chapter. She introduces eight characters in rapid succession (Meg, Sandy, Dennis, Charles Wallace, Mr. Murry, Mrs. Murry, Mrs. O'Keefe, and the absent Calvin), each with distinct personalities and history, while also setting up the central conflict (a possible nuclear war) and a key motif (Mrs. O'Keefe's mysterious mumbled prayer). How does she manage all of this without overwhelming the reader? Identify three specific craft moves that let her introduce so much without losing control.
- Mrs. O'Keefe is described as bitter, hostile, and unwelcome — and yet L'Engle keeps her in the chapter and gives her two repetitions of the line 'At Tara in this fateful hour.' What is the author doing by making the character we LIKE LEAST the character with the most important secret? What does this say about the kind of book L'Engle is writing?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
a four-dimensional analog of a cube — and in L'Engle's fiction, a symbol of the dimensions of time and space the Murry family is uniquely comfortable navigating
Item 2
describing knowledge that arises without conscious reasoning — the kind of knowing that some characters in this book seem to have access to in ways the rational mind cannot account for
Item 3
firmly settled in a decision, refusing to be moved by fear or pressure — a quality that distinguishes Mr. Murry's voice when he tells the family to come to the table
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Critical Thinking
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