Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White and E. White

1830 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on New historicism

In the past, while reading Charlotte’s Web to each of my 3 children, I more less thought of it as a text that centered around teaching emotions and feelings of empathy, life and death coping mechanisms as well as unimaginable friendships between two extremely dissimilar creatures. What I find very interesting is the complexities of applying multiple theories to this particular text for it being a children’s/young reader’s genre. I will take a look at three literary theories, New Historicism, Deconstruction and Reception/Reader response and how we can apply them to the story. I am really in shock of the different levels I keep seeing being brought forward after my studies. I would like to read it again in its entirety after this class and really formulate a more diverse understanding in applying more theories. I do know that now, when I read a text it will become easier for me to comprehend and explain deeper meaning and ambiguities, as my youngest is still interested in me reading to him and does ask many questions the texts raises, Mostly from the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series at this point, in regards to bodily functions, but I am prepared more so now than before in how to engage reader responses and other approaches that he and I can explore together with a better grasp on where an author is coming from and see stories in a whole new light. White was born in Mount Vernon, New York, on July 11,1899 and died on October 1, 1985 at 86 years of age, in his rural farm town environment of North Brooklyn Maine; where it “is of central importance to the creation of Charlotte's Web, a book that is, among other things, a celebration of the seasons in a rural life.” (Cech 1983 web n. pag) White’s career started 1927, he joined... ... middle of paper ... ...tical Perspectives. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford-St. Martins, 2010. 418-19. Print. Neumeyer, Peter F. "E (lwyn) B (rooks) White." American Writers for Children, 1900-1960. Ed. John Cech. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 22. Literature Resource Center. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. Rice, Philip, and Patricia Waugh. “Hayden White, Jacques Derrida, Harold Bloom, Terry Eagleton.” Modern Literary Theory: A Reader. 4th ed. London: Arnold, 2001. Print. Schama, Chloe. "Smithsonian.com." Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian, 3 June 2011. Web. 03 Dec. 2013 Siegle, Kristi. "Introduction to Modern Literary Theory." Introduction to Modern Literary Theory. Dr. Kristi Siegel, Jan. 2006. Web. 07 Dec. 2013. http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm#poststruct White, E. B., Garth Williams, and Edith Goodkind Rosenwald. Charlotte's Web. New York: Harper, 1952. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Free Essays - The Web of Life in All the King's Men

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jack and the Judge, here is where we mainly see the web at work.  Jack, at the request of Willie, went to dig up dirt on the Judge.  Jack finds so many things out and as he exposes it everything goes wrong, the spider got him.  When Jack reveals his findings to Judge Irwin, his father, he ends up killing himself before Jack has a chance to talk to him father to son.  Although, for the most part, Jack's goal as stated at the beginning of the book was that he was to pursue truth and knowledge, he needed to leave this alone because it was a pursuit of knowledge, but it had no positive motive behind it, and, as we have encountered in previous books throughout the year and throughout this one, truth is not always a good and noble thing.  In this case the truth led to what destroyed the Judge and Jack was pursuing the truth.

    Read More

  • Gary Paulsen: A Life of Adventure and Survival

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Web. The Web. 13 May 2014. McCormick, Annie. A. “Brian’s Winter.”

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Countee Leroy Cullen's Incident

    1295 Words  | 3 Pages

    Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. 163-67. Print.

    Read More

  • Charlotte's Web

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    Charlotte’s Web is a perfect example of Logos. The text of this story is laid out in the best way possible. It has the proper structure that brings the whole movie together. It has a starting point and the main objective of the movie, which is to save Wilbur from becoming the Christmas ham. There’s a middle, or the body of the story, where we see how the characters go about trying to save Wilbur. Then we have a conclusion, or and ending, which is that Wilbur is saved, gets to see the winter, and doesn’t become the Christmas ham. Therefore this movie is laid out like this essay is as it has all the same characteristics. The logical way this movie is laid out is great. It shows that after each word the Charlotte writes in the web the farmer is getting closer and closer to not killing Wilbur.

    Read More

  • Should The Book The Hunger Games Be On The Banned Books List?

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    After hearing a brief description of the story you might think that there aren’t many good things about they story. However, this is false, there are many good things in this book that makes it a good read. First being that it is a very intriguing book. This is good for teenage readers because often times they don’t willingly want to read, and this story will force the teenage or any reader to continue the book and continue reading the series. Secondly, this is a “good” book because it has a good balance of violence. This is a good thing because it provides readers with an exciting read. We hear and even see violence in our everyday life and I believe that it is something teenagers should be exposed to. This book gives children an insig...

    Read More

  • Charlotte P. Gilman and why she wrote "The Yellow Wall-Paper

    1404 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of which was her aunt, Harriet Beecher Stowe a famed novelist. This is when she began to love reading and all sorts of genres. One of her favorite would have been fiction because of her vivid imagination; however her mother would later forbid her to read fiction novels. That would change again because her mother would start reading those novels and would find themselves reading to each other. Because of her joy for reading, Charlotte was a very intellectual...

    Read More

  • Oedipus as Scapegoat in Oedipus the King

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    Guerin, Wilford L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1979.

    Read More

  • The Wielding Women of The Great Gatsby

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fiction Studies 49.3 (Fall 2003): 443-468. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 176. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

    Read More

  • A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Rapunzel

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 125-156.

    Read More

  • Charlotte's Web

    742 Words  | 2 Pages

    Charlotte's Web Charlotte's Web is a moving story about farm animals. Many writers use abstract and abstruse diction to interpret a particular idea, but E. B. White is different from white. The language used, the style, and the plots. this book is very humorous and I find it so impressive. The author E. B. White, excels in creating animal characters that can talk and feel normally like humans as a simple farm was depicted as a lively family.

    Read More

  • Comparing Wind In The Willows And The Secret Garden

    225 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden nature and its fantastical elements are crucial in making their novels the iconic children literary tales they are presently. However due to these fantastical elements both authors criticized for their romanticized view of nature and idealized depictions of childhood within nature. Scholarly critics Jacqueline Rose and Humphrey Carpenter argue that in creating idealistic narrative worlds both authors lose their ability to represent childhood in a realistic way and instead let their works become escape outlets rather than true depictions of childhood. In doing so these books are no longer true children’s literature, but simply ideals born out of an authors

    Read More

  • Written Critique on Corduroy and Winn-Dixie

    1542 Words  | 4 Pages

    This paper focuses on two books, the picture book and realistic novel. I am hopeful while doing a critical analysis of these two books that it would help me to create an effective mini library in my future classroom. I would like to use it as a helpful tool to teach children how to compare the differences and similarities of the two genres and many more. I have chosen Corduroy as my picture book and Because of Winn-Dixie as my realistic novel to write on this written critique because it signifies the moral lessons about family importance and friendship.

    Read More

  • Charlotte's Web

    1408 Words  | 3 Pages

    As we ponder over our reading experiences as children, almost every American will remember reading Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. How we read as children and how we read as adults is not at all the same. One might state children read for the pleasure of the story and adults simply read too much into the given text. However, one must realize the images being portrayed to our children. How could a story about a pig and a spider relay unwanted messages to our children? It is important to remark how social guidelines are presented in this text. The most obvious is the assignment of gender roles to the characters Not only does this affect the human characters in the story, but it also affects the farm life. The other social guideline found in this text is the barnyard society. This society can in turn represent our human society. These two guidelines of society are taught unknowingly to our children through this story. What is perhaps the most surprising is how little attitudes have changed. This book was originally published in 1952 and these stereotypes still exist in our society forty five years later.

    Read More

  • Survival of the Fittest

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    Quarterly 69.2 (Spring 1990): 233-251. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 133. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

    Read More

  • The Sociological Criticism of Alice Walker

    1447 Words  | 3 Pages

    Web. The Web. The Web. " Alice Walker (1944-). " Contemporary Literary Criticism.

    Read More

More about Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White and E. White

Open Document