Review of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

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Review of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

‘Charlotte's Web' by E. B. White was first published by Hamish Hamilton in 1952. It is a classic children's novel which won the 1970 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (Amazon). It is beautifully written with a great mix of seriousness, excitement and comedy. Even though this book is now over fifty years old it is still a wonderful book for children as its main themes of friendship and hope will always be current.

The story is about Wilbur, a runty farm yard pig, who is saved from death by Mr Arable's eight year old daughter, Fern. Fern cares for and loves Wilbur as if he is a pet but eventually has to ironically send him to suffer another fate of death on Mr. Zukerman's farm. Fern remains a main character who is considered to be a little bit crazy as she spends all her spare time sitting in the barn at Zukerman's and talking to the animals but, the main plot follows the exploits of Charlotte A. Cavatica, a large grey spider, to prevent Wilbur becoming Christmas dinner. Charlotte becomes Wilbur's best friend when Fern stops spending so much time at the barn and, through writing messages on her web manages to save his life too.

The main theme in ‘Charlotte's Web' is friendship. First we see the friendship of Fern and Wilbur, then the strong bond between Wilbur and Charlotte that never waivers from the day they meet. Charlotte becomes Wilbur's friend when nobody else on the farm will be. She is the heroin in the story, working hard to save her friend from his fate but, ironically dying after she has achieved this. Wilbur repays Charlotte by taking her nest of eggs back to the barn when she is dying so that he can look after her children and he is repaid by every year having a new ...

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... simplistic way through the eyes of the innocent.

Bibliography

White, E. B., (1952), Charlotte's Web, Hamish Hamilton

Amazon.com, online

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0064400557/ref=dp_proddesc_0/102-7436490-3490534?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155 [cited 06/06/05]

Amazon.com, online

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0064400557/102-7436490-3490534?v=glance [cited 06/06/05]

Hartman, H, (2005) online, http://www.factmonster.com/spot/charlotte1.html, [cited 06/06/05]

References

Hartman, H, (2005) online, http://www.factmonster.com/spot/charlotte1.html, [cited 06/06/05]

Amazon online, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0064400557/ref=dp_proddesc_0/102-7436490-3490534?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155 [cited 06/06/05]

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