Calvin O'Keefe
Encyclopedia
Calvin O'Keefe is a major character in Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her young-adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time...

's Time Quartet series of books, and, as "Dr. Calvin O'Keefe", an important character in her O'Keefe series of young adult
Young adult literature
Young-adult fiction or young adult literature , also juvenile fiction, is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 21. The Young Adult Library Services of the American Library Association defines a young adult as "someone between the...

 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s. In an interview released on the DVD of the TV adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time (film)
A Wrinkle in Time is a television film based on the children's fantasy novel of the same name by Madeleine L'Engle.In 2003, a television adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time was produced by multiple Canadian production companies to be distributed in the United States by Disney. The TV movie was directed...

, L'Engle describes Calvin as "the boy that we all, all us girls want to meet. Not all of us are lucky enough to meet a Calvin, but I was. And I married mine."

Major traits

Calvin is tall and skinny, with orange hair, freckles, and blue eyes, and is a popular boy on the basketball team as an adolescent. Being bright, he is already a high school junior at the age of fourteen. However, he does not feel that anyone understands or cares about him until he becomes close friends with the unpopular Meg Murry
Meg Murry
Margaret "Meg" Murry O'Keefe is the main character and main protagonist in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet of Science fantasy novels, the daughter of two scientists, the sister of twins Sandy and Dennys Murry and telepath Charles Wallace Murry, and the mother of Polly O'Keefe and others in the...

.

He is the third eldest child of Paddy and Branwen O'Keefe, who have eleven children and seemingly neglect all of them. Calvin considers himself a biological "sport" and different from the rest of his family. Meg agrees, and wonders in A Swiftly Tilting Planet how a family like that could have produced someone like Calvin. As Calvin says in A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...

: "I love them all, and they don't give a hoot about me." When invited to the Murry house, Calvin intuits that "For the first time in my life I'm going home!"

Being poor, the O'Keefes are unable to afford new clothes to accommodate Calvin's growth spurts, and he often wears clothes that are too short for him. Calvin has told Meg that one point in seventh grade he had to make do with women's shoes that were much too small for him. The school principal, Mr. Jenkins, bought him new ones, carefully scuffing them first to make them appear used. Later Calvin earned enough money in summer jobs to buy his own shoes and other necessities.

Mrs. Whatsit says that Calvin's great gift is "to communicate with all kinds of people." Calvin communicates best with Meg, and is able to share a telepathic
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...

 link with her, called "kything
Kything
Kything is from an old Scottish word, "kythe," meaning "to make visible." Madeleine L'Engle used it to describe a fictional type of communication, in a sense like telepathy, found in several of the books in her Time Quartet...

". Even as early as their first adventure together, they form a close attachment, according to L'Engle: "Meg couldn't have rescued herself if she hadn't had the love of Calvin behind her."

As an adult, Calvin O'Keefe is a marine biologist
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...

, famous for his work on regeneration
Regeneration (biology)
In biology, regeneration is the process of renewal, restoration, and growth that makes genomes, cells, organs, organisms, and ecosystems resilient to natural fluctuations or events that cause disturbance or damage. Every species is capable of regeneration, from bacteria to humans. At its most...

 in starfish
Sea star
Starfish or sea stars are echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. The names "starfish" and "sea star" essentially refer to members of the class Asteroidea...

 and other animals as well as his environmental
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

 work. He is married to Meg, and the father of seven children: Polyhymnia
Polly O'Keefe
Polyhymnia O'Keefe is the protagonist of the Madeleine L'Engle novels A House Like a Lotus and An Acceptable Time, and a major character in two previous books, The Arm of the Starfish and Dragons in the Waters. The eldest daughter of Meg Murry O'Keefe and Dr...

 (better known as Poly or Polly), Charles, Alexander (initially called Sandy, later nicknamed Xan), Dennys (Den), Peggy (presumably short for Margaret), Johnny and Mary (nicknamed Rosy). Calvin is described as "a loving father but not over-protective", who "treats his children with respect." Calvin works on the remote fictional island of Gaea off the coast of Portugal for several years before moving the family to fictional Benne Seed Island off the coast of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

.

History

A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...

(1962
1962 in literature
The year 1962 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 7 - In an article in the New York Times Book Review, Gore Vidal calls Evelyn Waugh "our time's first satirist."...

, ISBN 0-374-38613-7) — In his first appearance, Calvin travels to other planets such as Uriel with Meg and Charles Wallace Murry
Charles Wallace Murry
Charles Wallace Murry is a major character in Madeleine L'Engle's young adult science fiction novels A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, sometimes referred to as the Time Trilogy...

 to help rescue Meg's father, Alex Murry, from IT on the planet Camazotz
Camazotz
In Maya mythology, Camazotz was a bat god. Camazotz means "death bat" in the K'iche' language. In Mesoamerica the bat was associated with night, death, and sacrifice.-Etymology:...

. He does his best to protect Meg and Charles Wallace, but is unable to keep them from harm. He uses his communication skills to talk with several people on Camazotz, and almost manages to talk Charles Wallace out of IT's mental domination. On the planet Ixchel
Ixchel
Ixchel or Ix Chel is the 16th-century name of the aged jaguar goddess of midwifery and medicine in the ancient Maya culture. She corresponds, more or less, to Toci Yoalticitl ‘Our Grandmother the Nocturnal Physician’, an Aztec earth goddess inhabiting the sweatbath, and is related to another...

, Aunt Beast and the other sightless, tentacled creatures are better able to communicate with Calvin than with Mr. Murry. Before Meg goes to save Charles Wallace, Calvin kisses her, much to her surprise and sastisfaction.

A Wind in the Door
A Wind in the Door
A Wind in the Door is a young adult science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is a companion book to A Wrinkle in Time, and part of the Time Quartet .-Plot summary:...

(1973
1973 in literature
The year 1973 in literature involved several significant events and the writing of many notable books.-Events:*September 25 - The funeral of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda becomes a focus for protests against the new government of Augusto Pinochet...

, ISBN 0-374-38443-6) — Calvin is described as a senior in high school and class president. He arrives at the wall behind Meg's house just when she is panicked and needs his comforting presence, and later helps Meg save Charles Wallace's life from the Echthroi
Echthroi
Echthroi is a Greek word meaning "The Enemy" . The singular form of the word, Echthros , is used in many versions and translations of the Bible for enemy...

 in a mitochondrion
Mitochondrion
In cell biology, a mitochondrion is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. These organelles range from 0.5 to 1.0 micrometers in diameter...

 called Yadah.

Many Waters
Many Waters
Many Waters is a 1986 novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the author's Time Quartet . The title is taken from the Song of Solomon 8:7: "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it...

(1986
1986 in literature
The year 1986 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Michael Grade. Controller of BBC One, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.-New books:*Kingsley Amis - The Old Devils...

, ISBN 0-374-34796-4) — The third book in the series chronologically, the last title to be published in the original Time Quartet
Time Quartet
The Time Quartet/Quintet is a fantasy/science fiction series of five young adult novels written by Madeleine L'Engle.Those novels are:*A Wrinkle in Time , , ISBN 0-374-38613-7*A Wind in the Door , ISBN 0-374-38443-6...

 focuses on different characters. Calvin does not appear in the book, but is said to be in graduate school, at the approximate age of nineteen.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
A Swiftly Tilting Planet is a 1978 science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the Time Quartet. In it, Charles Wallace Murry, an advanced and perceptive child in A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, has grown into adolescence...

(1978
1978 in literature
The year 1978 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, a humorous award given annually to books with unusual titles is created. The first winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude...

, ISBN 0-374-37362-0) — Although he does not appear directly, much is revealed about Calvin and his family. He is absent from Meg's side at Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...

, but she is married to him and pregnant with their first child, Polyhymnia. They live in a furnished apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...

 near the hospital where Calvin works, but frequently visit Meg's parents on weekends. Now both an M.D. and a Ph.D., Calvin is in London at the time of the novel, presenting a paper "on the immunological system
Immunology
Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. It deals with the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and diseases; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders ; the...

 of chordates." Sandy Murry
Sandy and Dennys Murry
Alexander "Sandy" Murry and Dennys Murry are fictional identical twins in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet. They play only minor roles in three of the books but are the protagonists of Many Waters...

 calls this "a tremendous honor," but Meg is uneasy about not having Calvin around at a moment of crisis. Calvin does call the Murry home, however, and tells Meg that he loves her. When Charles Wallace travels in time, he learns that Calvin's mother, Branwen, was once a loving child called Beezie (full name Branwen Zillah Maddox). She became hardened and apathetic
Apathy
Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical or physical life.They may lack a sense of purpose or meaning in...

 after her grandmother died and her brother, Chuck Maddox, was beaten to the point of brain damage while trying to protect his grandmother from their stepfather. Now old before her time, and with her heart giving out, "Mom" O'Keefe gives Charles Wallace the rune he uses to change history and prevent nuclear war
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...

.

The Arm of the Starfish
The Arm of the Starfish
The Arm of the Starfish is a young adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1965. It is the first novel featuring Polly O'Keefe and the O'Keefe family, a generation after the events of A Wrinkle in Time...

(1965
1965 in literature
The year 1965 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Lloyd Alexander - The Black Cauldron*J. G. Ballard - The Drought*Ray Bradbury - The Vintage Bradbury*John Brunner...

, ISBN 0-374-30396-7) — In the first of the O'Keefe novels, published concurrently with the Time Quartet, Dr. Calvin O'Keefe is a well-known marine biologist whose intern for the summer is Adam Eddington
Adam Eddington
Adam Eddington III is a major character in three young adult novels by Madeleine L'Engle. A marine biology student, he is the protagonist of The Arm of the Starfish , and a reluctant love interest for Vicky Austin in A Ring of Endless Light , a relationship that continues in Troubling a Star...

. Calvin has discovered a way to help mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s regenerate tissue the way starfish do, and is justifiably concerned that ruthless men such as Typhon Cutter are willing to go to great lengths—including kidnapping Poly and misleading Adam about Calvin's motives—to misuse and gain from his research.

A Ring of Endless Light
A Ring of Endless Light
A Ring of Endless Light is a 1980 novel by Madeleine L'Engle. The book tells of a girl named Vicky and her struggle to understand life and significance in the universe as she deals with her dying grandfather, while at the same time finding love....

(1980
1980 in literature
The year 1980 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman to be elected to the Académie française....

 ISBN 0-374-36299-8) — Although this book is part of the Austin family
Vicky Austin
Victoria "Vicky" Austin is one of Madeleine L'Engle's most frequently-used fictional characters, appearing in eight books and referred to in at least one more. She is the main protagonist of the Austin family series of books...

 series, Dr. Calvin O'Keefe is mentioned several times by Adam Eddington, in the context of Adam's experiences with him the previous summer. Similarly, Dr. Austin mentions O'Keefe to Canon Tallis in the previous Austin book, The Young Unicorns
The Young Unicorns
The Young Unicorns is the title of a young adult suspense novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is the third novel about the Austin family, taking place between the events of The Moon by Night and A Ring of Endless Light...

(1968
1968 in literature
The year 1968 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Dean R. Koontz's first novel, Star Quest is published....

, ISBN 0-374-38778-8). However, Calvin himself does not appear in either book. The familiarity Dr. Austin and others display with Calvin O'Keefe's work indicates that he has developed a fairly substantial reputation in the scientific community.

Dragons in the Waters
Dragons in the Waters
Dragons in the Waters is a 1976 young adult murder mystery by Madeleine L'Engle, the second title to feature her character Polly O'Keefe. Its protagonist is thirteen-year-old Simon Bolivar Quentin Phair Renier, an impoverished orphan from an aristocratic Southern family...

(1976
1976 in literature
The year 1976 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Saul Bellow won both the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.-New books:*Kingsley Amis – The Alteration...

, ISBN 0-374-31868-9) — As the focus of the series shifts to Calvin's eldest daughter, Calvin takes Poly
Polly O'Keefe
Polyhymnia O'Keefe is the protagonist of the Madeleine L'Engle novels A House Like a Lotus and An Acceptable Time, and a major character in two previous books, The Arm of the Starfish and Dragons in the Waters. The eldest daughter of Meg Murry O'Keefe and Dr...

 and his eldest son Charles with him by freighter
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

 to Port of Dragons, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, there to study and help preserve the ecology of Dragonlake, home of the fictional Quiztano Indians, from exploitation for its oil reserves. En route he helps to look after 13-year-old Simon Renier, but doesn't quite realize at first that Poly and Charles are right to be concerned for Simon's safety. Calvin is reluctant to call in Canon Tallis
Canon Tallis
Canon John Tallis is a major character in the young adult novels of Madeleine L'Engle, appearing in four books. The character is based on L'Engle's real-life spiritual advisor, Canon Edward Nason West of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City....

 to solve a murder, but is "relieved" when Mr. Theo does so.

A House Like a Lotus
A House Like a Lotus
A House Like a Lotus is a 1984 young adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Its protagonist is sixteen-year-old Polly O'Keefe, whose friend and mentor, Maximiliana Horne, has sent her on a trip to Greece and Cyprus. As she travels, Polly must come to terms with a recent traumatic event involving Max...

(1984
1984 in literature
The year 1984 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The book Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is widely read....

, ISBN 0-374-33385-8) — In the first novel centered entirely on Polly (who has now added a second l to her name) Calvin (like Meg) is unable to get her to tell her parents about a traumatic experience she has evidently had involving her mentor, Maximiliana Horne. He nevertheless allows Polly to travel to Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 and Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

 without them, although her Uncle Sandy is to be with her in Greece.

Television adaptation

Gregory Smith played Calvin O'Keefe in the 2003 television adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time (film)
A Wrinkle in Time is a television film based on the children's fantasy novel of the same name by Madeleine L'Engle.In 2003, a television adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time was produced by multiple Canadian production companies to be distributed in the United States by Disney. The TV movie was directed...

by Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

, directed by John Kent Harrison, with a teleplay
Teleplay
A teleplay is a television play, a comedy or drama written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a television plays from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films...

 by Susan Shilliday. The television Calvin is generally similar to Calvin in the book, except for hair color and lack of freckles.

The film was subsequently released on DVD. The special features included deleted scenes, including one in which Calvin is shown as an intern at the University laboratory
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...

where Meg's father works.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK