Assignment #1: Short Literary Essay
Question #4 on Charlotte’s Web
The child reader of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web learns three lessons from Wilbur, Charlotte, and Templeton. The three lessons are trust from Wilbur, appearances from Templeton, and parental love from Charlotte. The plot involves keeping Wilbur from being sent to the slaughter house. Wilbur is helped by two unlikely friends: a spider and a rat.
The book teaches trust. From Wilbur, the child reader learns about trust and vulnerability. The child reader will identify with Wilbur’s being sent to the slaughter for the child will see in Wilber their inability to sometimes remove themselves from a destructive situation. Children are often at the mercy of adults, and like Wilbur, do not have agency to liberate themselves. Children will instantly delight in Charlotte’s scheme to weave messages in her web to thwart the farmer and the gullible citizens.
Children will gloat in the fact that they know that the messages appearing in the web are not miracles, and they will be satisfied that E.B. White has let them in on the secret world of the farm. Child readers enjoy stories where they know things that the adult characters in the story don’t know. The adults don’t know that Charlotte is a clever, loving mother spider, nor do they know that there is a larger plan to save the life of Wilbur.
The book teaches that people are sometimes not always what they first appear to be. Templeton teaches children not to judge others based on appearance only.Child readers love a side-kick, and Templeton serves as a great example of the reluctant figure who only helps when it satisfies his needs. Children will instantly know that Templeton on the outside appears selfish, but they will eventually warm up to him and realize that he is a good natured-rat on the inside.
The book teaches children to be a parent. The child reader will identify in Charlotte the quintessential mother figure, and they will instantly see in her self-sacrifice the model of what a mother ought to do to protect those she loves. The child reader will be saddened by the fact that Charlotte dies in the end, and they will feel empathy with Wilbur, who cares for her eggs to see all the babies leave. They will feel happiness when Wilbur befriends and becomes caregiver of three of the spider babies.
