Photosynthesis and Surviving in a Thin Atmosphere:

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Photosynthesis and Surviving in a Thin Atmosphere

• Why do Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace breath
  through flowers as they travel to see the Black
  Thing?

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Flowers on Uriel, the third planet of the star
Malak in the spiral nebula Messier 101
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Flowers on Uriel

• Mrs. Whatsit changes forms to take the children
  high above the planet Uriel to see the Black
  Thing. On their way, they stop in a beautiful
  garden and a creature brings the children each a
  flower. Meg realizes it is not one flowers but,
  hundreds of tiny flowerets forming a kind of
  hollow bell (68). When they are above the
  clouds and the mountains, Meg begins to gasp for
  breath and Mrs. Whatsit tells the children to
  breath through the flowers so they will have
  enough oxygen. The flowers make it possible for
  the children to breath in a very thin atmosphere.
  This is a critical point in the story because
  the children learn what it is they and Megs
  father are fighting against.

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Plants on Earth
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Plants on Earth

• On Earth, people need oxygen masks to breath
  when they reach an altitude high above the
  ground. However, plants play an important part
  in making sure humans have enough oxygen to
  breath when we are on the ground. In the process
  of photosynthesis, the plant takes in water
  through its roots and carbon dioxide from the
  air. Then, the plant uses chlorophyll and
  sunlight to change the water and carbon dioxide
  into oxygen and glucose (sugar). The sugar is
  food for the plant but the plant does not need
  the oxygen so it releases it into the air and we
  use it to breath (Photosynthesis).

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Oxygen for Life Plants on Earth and in Science
Fiction

• The flowers from Uriel contain elements of fact
  and fiction. Madeleine LEngle may have used the
  factual process of photosynthesis as an
  inspiration for the fictional flowers that allow
  the children to breath in the very thin
  atmosphere. All of the plants on Earth work
  together to make our supply of oxygen but one
  flower in space would not provide enough oxygen
  for us to breath.
• By having the children use the flowers in this
  way, Ms. LEngle reminds us that we depend on
  plants for our survival. We can not allow plants
  and trees to be cut down or die from pollution or
  disease because it will harm us, too. Pollution
  and cutting down large forests without replanting
  them may contribute to the shadow that hangs
  over our planet.

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Works Cited

• LEngle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. New York
  Dell Publishing, 1962.
• Photosynthesis Alien Explorer. 2003. Three
  Teachers Software. 21 Feb. 2004.
  http//www.alienexplorer.com/ecology/e66.html