Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

First published: 1952; illustrated

Type of work: Fantasy/Moral tale

Themes: Death, friendship, animals, nature, and coming-of-age

Time of work: The mid-twentieth century

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: Mr. Zuckerman’s farm, somewhere in the United States

Principal Characters:

• Wilbur, a spring pig who, from inauspicious beginnings, achieves a notoriety that saves his life
• Charlotte A. Cavatica, a wise, gentle-voiced, and gifted spider who saves Wilbur by writing about him in her web
• Fern Arable, an eight-year-old girl who raises Wilbur until he is sent to her uncle’s farm
• Templeton, a self-centered rat who lives in Zuckerman’s barn
• Homer L. Zuckerman, Fern’s uncle

The Story

How does one measure a character’s worth? When Fern discovers that her father plans to kill a newborn pig merely because he is smaller and weaker than the rest, she protests so strongly that her father relents and gives her the piglet to raise. She names him Wilbur. She bottle-feeds him, rides him around in her doll buggy, and rushes home from school each day so she can play with him. At five weeks old, however, Wilbur is too big to keep, and Fern’s father insists he be sold. Wilbur is sent to Fern’s Uncle Zuckerman’s farm, where she visits him frequently, sitting faithfully in the barn, observing the animals, and listening to them talk.

Despite Fern’s visits and a new collection of barnmates, Wilbur is lonely. One night, while Wilbur is crying himself to sleep, a voice from up in the eaves announces its owner would like to be Wilbur’s friend. The next day, he discovers the voice belongs to a spider named Charlotte. Charlotte initially strikes Wilbur as horrifying and bloodthirsty; she traps flies in her web, binds them so they cannot move, and then drinks their blood. He wonders how he can grow to like such a friend. Yet what was true for the runt Wilbur may also be true for Charlotte: First impressions can be a misleading guide to character.

Summer comes; the goose has her goslings, and Wilbur finds through conversation with Charlotte that she is a wise and warm companion. When he learns that his fate is to be slaughtered at Christmastime, he becomes so hysterical that Charlotte resolves to save him. One night while the others are asleep, Charlotte clears a hole in her web and begins launching her plan. The next morning, written into the middle of her dew-soaked web is a message: “SOME PIG!” The Zuckermans are dumbfounded. The minister declares it a miracle. People from all over the countryside descend on Zuckerman’s farm to see the wonderful pig.

Only Mrs. Zuckerman notes it is more likely that they have a special spider on their hands than a special pig. Wilbur, for his part, tries his best to look as worthy as possible so that he can justify his friend’s extravagant praise. With the reluctant aid of Templeton the rat, who brings back from the dump scraps of paper from which Charlotte can glean new words, over the next few weeks Charlotte spins the words “terrific” and “radiant” into her web. Summer ends, and Mr. Zuckerman decides to take Wilbur to the county fair.

In the days before the fair, Wilbur notices that Charlotte’s health seems to be declining. Charlotte informs him that she is preparing for her greatest creation, the building of an egg sac, from which hundreds of baby spiders will be launched next spring, offspring that she will never be able to see, since she will be dead before they hatch. Charlotte accompanies Wilbur to the fair and weaves the word “humble” above his stall, the culminating adjective, for Wilbur, like Charlotte, is an admirable character because he is neither arrogant nor self-seeking. Though smaller than the first-prize pig next door, humble Wilbur is awarded a special prize; a long life for him is assured. Charlotte spins her egg sac at the fair but is too ill to make the trip back home. Wilbur carries the egg sac back to Zuckerman’s barn, and the next spring her children are born. Three remain in the eaves of the barn to become Wilbur’s new friends, though none will ever replace Charlotte in his heart.

Through Charlotte’s efforts, Wilbur finds both life and self-esteem. True character cannot be measured in notoriety or prizes. Far more valuable than his medal and all his fame was having a genuine friend like Charlotte and being a genuine friend as well.

Context

Author of more than seventeen books of prose and poetry, E. B. White is perhaps best known for his wry and witty essays appearing in The New Yorker magazine. He wrote only three children’s books, but his contribution to children’s literature is considered significant. Both Stuart Little (1945) and Charlotte’s Web are recognized as masterpieces, earning for him the 1970 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal. His third children’s book, The Trumpet of the Swan (1970), though not as strong as the other two, is also highly esteemed.

In the tradition of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Ugly Duckling,” all of the central characters in White’s three children’s books begin life at a disadvantage, as outcasts, somehow different from the others, with a handicap to overcome. Stuart Little is born to human parents but has the size and features of a mouse; Wilbur is the runt of his litter; Louis the swan is born without a voice. Like the ugly duckling whose beauty is revealed over time, each of these characters emerges as admirable over the course of the story. Each story is a moral tale, directing the reader to look beyond initial appearances when making judgments about character.

All three books share an element of fantasy mingled with reality, where much of the story functions according to the laws of realism but with a slight, yet fantastic, difference. The human and animal worlds either mirror each other or converge, with animals talking and displaying human characteristics, or vice versa. Stuart, though human, looks like a mouse and falls in love with a bird; Charlotte is a spider who can write, and Louis the swan plays the trumpet and talks, via chalk and a slate, to humans. Through his careful eye for detail and his fine ear for character-revealing dialogue, White succeeds in making his fantastic characters seem believable, so that the reader can easily suspend disbelief and enter their worlds. In Charlotte’s Web, “reality” is perhaps least violated, with animals remaining truest to their animal natures, possibly because the story takes place in a setting White knew and loved so well, the rural farm.