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What does the CENTRAL Central Intelligence building symbolize in A Wrinkle in Time?
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The CENTRAL Central Intelligence building symbolizes oppressive mind control and the dehumanization of individuality on Camazotz. It represents the totalitarian control exerted by IT, enforcing conformity and suppressing differences. The building's intimidating architecture reflects its role in conditioning individuals to think and act uniformly. The narrative critiques such control, advocating for the celebration of differences as true equality, and illustrating this through Meg's journey to accept her uniqueness and resist CENTRAL's influence.
The CENTRAL Central building represents the total control the machine government of IT has over individuals on the planet Camazotz. We learn there has been peace and high industrial output on the planet for centuries due to the control of CENTRAL Central intelligence. The price is total, mindless, soul-crushing conformity to a single will.
The building itself is intimidating. It is taller than the Empire State Building and just as wide as it is tall, making it an enormous building. It has only one set of bronze doors that are at least two stories high.
Inside, it continues to be intimidating, which makes the children increasingly uneasy. The building has sickly greenish marble walls, and one can feel the pull and rhythm of IT. The children see the little boy they had encountered earlier who was not bouncing a ball properly. He is in a room being conditioned to do...
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so correctly at CENTRAL Central through electric shocks. All in all, the building symbolizes soulless, cruel mind control and dehumanization.
CENTRAL Central Intelligence symbolizes any entity (person, government, organization) that tries to control the individual’s thoughts and decisions. In the town, everyone is identical, down to their very actions. Their greatest fear is to be different, to stand out in any way. But as Meg says, “Like and equal are not the same.” One can still be equal to others who are different. CENTRAL Central Intelligence, however, states that to be equal, all must be like everyone else. Written at a time during the Cold War when communist countries taught the members of their societies to be “identical,” A Wrinkle in Time is standing against this. The message given to Americans at that time (and since) is that we must glory in our differences. Being tolerant of others is the basis for equality. This is what Meg must accept, pushing through her insecurity about her own differences. Once she realizes this, she breaks the power of the CENTRAL Central Intelligence and escapes from Camazotz, rescuing her father and Charles Wallace at the same time.