KidLit Forum

Charlotte's Web is a story about a little girl Fern who saves a runt from death. Fern names the piglet Wilbur and looks after him like a baby. It is sold to her uncle, where he finds a friend, Charlotte. Charlotte tries to save Wilbur from his destiny of being killed at Christmastime. Charlotte writes on her web SOME PIG, after that TERRIFIC and finally RADIANT, in order to save Wilbur's life.
Finally Charlotte dies but three of Charlotte's children stay in the barn with Wilbur.
In Charlotte's Web, I could find the human part of an animal. Even if Charlotte is a spider and she kills bugs in order to eat them, she is a very clever, loyal and sensitive animal, she helps her best friend to survive, that's an admirable gesture.

In Charlotte's Web we are dealing with two types of characters: humans and animals so, we can talk about two types of friendship: the friendship between a human and an animal- Charlotte's and Wilbur friendship and an inter-species friendship, between Wilbur and Charlotte.
Fern's relation with Wilbur started like a lesson of life as she took the responsibility of taking care of the piglet, but their relationship turned into a ever lasting friendship. Then, there is Charlotte's, Wilbur special friend which in spite of its humble size is capable of good deeds. Her hard work and perseverance saved Wilbur's life.
My first thought after reading Charlotte's Web was that this story is a valuable lesson about life, friendship and perseverance. We can learn that hard work always pays off and true friendship never dies.

Charlotte is a very intelligent spider and she realizes the ease with which she can manipulate her readers with propaganda. Because of her, people start to really see that Wilbur is 'Terrific', 'Radiant' and 'Humble'.
A very common and very sad human weakness is only being capable of seeing what is on the surface. Charlotte will of course play to this as she knows the humans will only be able to read her writing one dimensional and this, ironically enough, is what saves Wilbur.
"People believe almost anything they see in print."

"It's unfair...The pig couldn't help being born small, could it? If I had been very small at birth, would you have killed me?"
Fern's argument here is shockingly clear. It is true that it is not the piglet's fault that it is small and by comparing the piglet with herself, she forces her father to switch his perspective. Of course, he wouldn't have killed Fern if she was small. This refreshing argument anticipates a very important theme in the novel. Fern opens her father’s eyes here as he is forced to actually look and think about what he is doing. Later on in the novel, Charlotte's creativity will force people to think differently about nature. How easily man can be blinded by what is right in front of him.

"Oh no...I don't understand it. But for that matter I don't understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle."
Dr Dorian points out here that miracles are taking place every day but we are too blind to notice them. Dr Dorian makes the very sensible point that no one really knows how a spider figures out how to build a web but every spider does. Only when the adults realize that there is something magical going on, they actually acknowledge the miracle in front of them. Since Dr Dorian is aware of how miraculous nature is, the writing in the web is just another example of this trust in nature.

"After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to life up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that."
Here Charlotte captures the tone of the whole novel. She is completely unsentimental about life and death but she acknowledges that dedicating your time to a worthy cause while you are alive makes life worth living. Charlotte shows us the benefits of loving and also reveals that life without love can be empty. Although she knows that she will die, she can die proud that she changed Wilbur's life and this represents an achievement greater than anyone else’s in the novel. She accepts her place in nature and that she, like everyone else, must die and make room for new creatures that will have their own opportunities to shape the world.

In ''Charlotte's Web'' by E.B. White we can observe that the unusual friendship between Fern, a little girl, and Wilbur, a pig that is treated as a little child, is reluctantly accepted by her parents who considered that a pig is usually a trouble. Her exaggerated care and attachment to a domestic animal is unbelievable, for example :
'' If she took her doll for a walk in the doll carriage, Wilbur followed along. Sometimes, on these journeys, Wilbur would get tired, and Fern would pick him up and put him in the carriage alongside the doll. He liked this. And if he was very tired, he would close his eyes and go to sleep under the doll's blanket. He looked cutewhen his eyes were closed, because his lashes were so long. The doll would close her eyes, too, and Fern would wheel the carriage very slowly and smoothly so as not to wake her infants'' .
Also, the new friendship between Wilbur and a spider, called Charlotte, seems again hard to be trusted, because as we know there are major differencies between these species. Even Wilbur was not so excited about this new friend mostly because of its physical appearance :
'' Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty - everything I don't like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever? Wilbur was merely suffering the doubts and fears that often go with finding a new friend. In good time he was to discover that he was mistaken about Charlotte. Underneath her rather bold and cruel exterior, she had a kind heart, and she was to prove loyal and true to the very end''.( Maria Bondea)

As Adina said above, another interesting fact about "Charlotte's Web" is the lesson of loyalty which is very important not only for young readers but for adults, too. Charlotte is loyal to Wilbur and Wilbur to Charlotte. This is a dominant characteristic of both throughout the story. The idea of being able to stand for and by someone is extremely important and these two friends prove this though they are animals...