Charlotte’s Web

About the Book

The book opens with a man named Mr. Arable on his way to kill a pig because he is too little to be of any use to his family. When his daughter named Fern sees him with an axe, and she hears that he is going to kill the pig, she tries to stop him by convincing him she will take care of the pig. Fern names the pig Wilbur and raises him as her own, until he is too big to live in the Arables’ house. The Arables’ send him to live with Fern’s uncle Homer Zuckerman in his barn. While he is living in the barn without Fern, he becomes lonely because he is not friendly with the other animals in the barn. One of the barn animals convinces him to escape, but then he discovers how scary freedom is and decides to stay at the barn without a friend. However, a little voice from afar tells Wilbur that she will be his friend because she has been watching him from afar and she likes him. That little voice he hears is the voice of Charlotte’s, a spider whom he befriends when he is lonely. While the sheep pick on him at the barn, Charlotte sticks up for him.

Charlotte even promises Wilbur to save him from being eaten when he finds out about the Zuckerman’s plan to cook him when he is big enough to eat. With the use of her web, she spins her web to read phrases such as “some pig”, “terrific”, and “radiant”. When the Zuckermans and Arables discover these webs, they decide to enter Wilbur into the fair, and the fact that he wins and award saves him from being slaughtered. During these events, the reader learns that Charlotte’s health is declining from old age, and she dies in the end after having 514 eggs. Fortunately for Wilbur, he will have more friends even after Charlotte dies. After they hatch, all but three of them leave to start a life somewhere else. Wilbur names them Joy, Aranea, and Nellie. Although they become Wilbur’s friends, and their offspring will be friends to Wilbur, no one will replace Charlotte in Wilbur’s heart.

Impact

As a child, I did not read Charlotte’s Web; in fact, I did not read the book until I took my Literature of Childhood class in college. However, I heard a lot about it before reading it, and I knew that Charlotte was going to die because I heard people talk about it all the time as a kid. Even though I was not surprised by anything, I still really enjoyed the book because I think it has a lot to teach people about friendship and impact one can make on another person. I like how one can see how clearly Charlotte and Wilbur make an impact on each other. Charlotte’s kindness clearly had an impact on Wilbur by being his only friend when no one else would; likewise, I think Wilbur made an impact on Charlotte with his youthful spirit. In other words, I think Wilbur made an impact by being so full of life and youthful that it made Charlotte feel young. For example, she pranks Wilbur by having him spin a web, which is not normally characteristic of an older character. His youthful naiveté of asking if he can spin a web makes Charlotte feel childish again by pranking him. I love how Wilbur becomes friends with Charlotte’s three daughters, showing that even some friendships even last after death. Although Charlotte is not with Wilbur anymore, her spirit is still there even through her daughters, indicating that Charlotte and Wilbur’s friendship will last for a long time. It just shows the long-term impact of a friendship. Even if Charlotte’s daughters were not part of the story, Wilbur would live with Charlotte’s kindness in his own identity to memorialize Charlotte.

Values

As I said before, the value that Charlotte’s Web teaches is the immortality of friendship. Friendship lasts even after one person dies through the spirit of offspring or even a simple characteristic of a person that the living friend admired and memorializes in his or her identity. Even though Charlotte dies, Charlotte and Wilbur’s friendship will carry on even after her death through her children. To me, this is what it means to have a “family friend”. A family friend is someone who will be a part of a friendship among a family for a long time. That is what Wilbur is to Charlotte’s family, a family friend. Furthermore, Wilbur will hopefully find Charlotte’s kindness in his daughters and himself because that is the impact Charlotte made while she was living. People will never forget those moments of tender friendship in which they got to know each other, accept who they are, and have amazing experiences together. That is what Charlotte and Wilbur had together, and because their friendship was so pure, it will carry on into generations.

Significance to My Students

The reason Charlotte’s Web is so significant to my students is because it teaches them what friends should do for each other when they are in need. When Wilbur found out he was going to be eaten, Charlotte did whatever she could to prevent him from being killed. Thus, Charlotte’s Web teaches students to be there for each other in the greatest extent possible. In other words, be the best friend they can be to someone to make an impact on that person. Make the friendship matter most so that other people will remember one’s characteristics that really made an impact to that person and contribute to his or her identity. If those friendship are special enough to students, the memories from those friendship may never die and may carry on to generations. Therefore, students should learn the impact a friendship can make on a person and how that friendship never really dies even though one person is gone, whether it is because they have passed away or they are away for a while. Friendship exists even when two people are not around each other. They should never let go of the friendship even though one of the people is not there.