Books have always been a huge part of my life. One of the books that have remained in my memory throughout my lifetime is the book "Charlotte's Web." This year, I got the chance to reread it again and rereading it has brought some newfound insight that I haven't gotten before. So I thought I'd share a bit of my insight after reading this book a second time as an adult.
1. Literary merit.
E.B. White’s use of dialogue helps make each character in the story unique and believable. Unique in the sense that each character fulfills a particular role within the story, and believable in the sense that these characters are relatable and can be present in the real world, whether we relate to a particular character or we know someone who are just like that character. For example, the sheep who has a high and mighty attitude and constantly degrades Wilbur can be seen as a verbal bully toward a younger peer. The sheep’s role as being a negative force toward Wilbur adds to his sense of loneliness, thus leading him to become a stronger friend with Charlotte: “‘Certainly not,’ said the lamb. ‘In the first place, I cannot get into your pen, as I am not old enough to jump over the fence. In the second place, I am not interested in pigs. Pigs mean less than nothing to me.’” (28).
Charlotte is portrayed to be intelligent and knowledgeable from the way she speaks, almost like a parent teaching their child about certain aspects of life. In this way, it solves Wilbur’s constant curiosity (we can associate Wilbur with being the child in this analogy): “‘And furthermore,’ said Charlotte, shaking one of her legs, ‘do you realize that if I didn’t catch bugs and eat them, bugs would increase and multiply and get so numerous that they’d destroy the earth, wipe out everything?’” (40).
E.B. White’s ability to make the characters not only believable enough to associate them with people in our lives, but also serve as a progressing force toward the main themes of the story make this book that much more relatable to the reader.
2. The illustrations.
Garth Williams, who was the illustrator for Charlotte’s Web, composed a series of pictures within the book using pencil or graphite. With only a singular color to depict the scenes in the story, the amount of shading and strokes added to the environment, people, and animals creates a rough texture for each of the illustrations, making the farm setting more realistic and livable. Something that I noticed about the illustrations is how each picture is a little bit like a portrait of each character. It captures the essence of their personality as well as portraying the emotion of each character within that particular moment. I think the way that Garth Williams is able to portray the characters so well in this book is his use of expression. There is no better way to depict a character’s personality then to portray them with a certain facial expression, such as Wilbur’s small eyes and soft smile to show his baby-like innocence, or the goose’s eyes looking downward to display its condescending nature; these are things in which Garth Williams utilizes in order to give readers a better depiction of the characters within the story.
3. Personal response.
This was my second time reading "Charlotte’s Web," the first being in elementary school. Reading this book now as an adult opened my eyes to the themes of life, loneliness, and friendship portrayed by E.B. White. From junior high to college, I struggled a lot with the emotions of loneliness. It wasn’t because I didn’t have any friends -- in fact, I had a handful of people whom I shared both joyous, exciting, and frustrating memories with. But as we all know, nothing lasts forever. Most of those friends walk a different path now, and because of that, our friendship with one another faded, just like with Charlotte and Wilbur.
Despite all the fun memories the two characters had with each other, Charlotte realized that it was time for her to go. And then there’s Wilbur, the friend who questions and denies the inevitable truth. It is such a painful experience knowing that I’ve been on both sides, but there is still much beauty in the little time they had together. Here you have two characters that couldn’t be more different, an innocent pig and an intelligent spider who both live very different lives, yet somehow they could end up being such good friends. There are friends in my life who come from a much different background compared to me, but under special circumstances, we ended up being such great friends. This book really spoke to me about my past experiences and relationships with people, and I’m sure anyone whether young or old can relate heavily to this story about bonds.
