Charlotte's Web

E. B. White

3 ideas

1. A spider saves a pig with words

   Wilbur, a runt pig raised by Fern and then sold to her uncle Homer Zuckerman, learns he will be slaughtered at Christmas. The barn spider Charlotte weaves 'Some Pig,' 'Terrific,' 'Radiant,' and 'Humble' into her web, drawing crowds and convincing the farmer the pig is extraordinary, and Wilbur wins a special prize at the county fair that secures his life. Charlotte, having laid her egg sac, dies alone at the fairgrounds, and Wilbur carries her eggs home, where her offspring hatch and three stay with him in the barn.

2. Death as the ordinary end of a life

   Charlotte's death is narrated in a single plain paragraph without melodrama, framed as the natural close of a spider's season after her work and her egg sac are finished. Treating death as expected and complete rather than tragic lets grief coexist with continuity: the loss is real, but her children and Wilbur's memory carry on.

3. Friendship as mutual gift, not trade

   When Wilbur asks why she helped him, Charlotte says he has been her friend, which is a tremendous thing, and that helping him perhaps lifted up her life a trifle. Her labor is not a repayment, yet she counts his friendship as something he has already given her, and after her death Wilbur cares for her children.

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