Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White with pictures by Garth Williams is a classic children’s book, originally published in 1952. This book contains only a few illustrations inside the book, but I would not consider this a picture book.
Charlotte’s Web is about a lucky pig, who was saved by a little girl, named Fern, who stopped her father from killing him. Fern named the tiny pig, Wilbur, and raised him until he was large enough to live outside.
Eventually, Fern’s father made her sell Wilbur to her uncle. Wilbur was a lonely pig. The other animals didn’t like him. He made friends with the spider, Charlotte. To save Wilbur from being slaughtered, Charlotte spun words into her web to make Wilbur special from all other pigs. The town’s folk believed supernatural forces wrote the words into Charlotte’s web on behalf of Wilbur.
In comparison to the animation I watched as a child many years ago, reading the book, Charlotte’s Web, was a far better experience. In the book, the other animals were so hostile to Wilbur. I don’t remember the other animals being hostile toward Wilbur in the cartoon. I have never watched the live action movie with Dakota Fanning. Another detail I noticed in the book is that Fern can understand the animals talk to each other, but she did not engage in their conversations. I thought that was strange for E.B. White to let a human understand the conversations of animals and yet, he did not let Fern and the animals speak to each other.
The theme of Charlotte’s Web is about death. Everyone must die. We can face death without fear if we are leaving something of ourselves behind in the world for others to remember us by. We can accomplish great things, putting our mark on society. Having children is considered an accomplishment as well.
Wilbur was afraid of dying; Charlotte was not. Wilbur focused on prolonging his life; Charlotte focused on her accomplishments. Actually, Charlotte’s web prolonged Wilbur’s life, but her labors could not prolong her own. Charlotte knew eventually she would die, but her children will be born and outlive her. Charlotte faced death without fear, because she focused on her accomplishments such as writing words into her web to the astonishment of the town’s folk, saving or prolonging Wilbur’s life, and bearing children.
Wilbur is a very lucky pig to have Fern and Charlotte in his life, working to keep him from slaughter. While the story focuses on saving Wilbur’s life, neither Wilbur nor myself as a reader ever considered how unlucky all other pigs were. First, Wilbur was saved from slaughter as a tiny piglet by Fern. Second, Wilbur was saved by Charlotte’s wisdom and labors to deceive the town’s folk into believing the words in her web were supernatural miracles. Wilbur is lucky that he will die a natural death in old age, which is a desire of most human beings, rather than a violent death.
I tried to read Charlotte’s Web to a six-year-old girl. She whined. She fell asleep. She rejected the book, because it did not have pictures. Ultimately, I just read it to myself. Even though I have seen a cartoon of Charlotte’s Web as a child, I have never had to read it for school. Only get this book if your child is developmentally ready to read books without pictures. She was probably scared by all of the words and lack of colorful pictures. I guess I will have to wait until a school teacher forces her to read books without pictures in order to try this book on her again.
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. white is an easy book to read as an adult. You can read it within one day, depending on your schedule. I thought this would be a good starter book for a six-year-old girl, but she was not interested in it at all. I have known the story of Charlotte’s Web since I was a child and never had to think about death. As a child, I just thought it was an imaginative story about a pig and a spider. If a reader doesn’t read to analyze the story, then one would miss the themes about death entirely. Charlotte’s Web deals with death gently for both children and adults.
Reference
White, E.B. Charlotte’s Web. New York: Harper, 2012.
Links:
Charlotte’s Web on Harper Collins Site
Charlotte’s Web on Barnes and Noble
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