Monday, September 22, 2003

Wonder why I didn’t write anything this weekend? I wanted to save my energy for an analysis I had to write. Charlotte’s Web. This is for my “Children’s Literature” class.

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“Well, I’ve got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, bloodthirsty — everything I don’t like. How can I learn to like her, even though she’s pretty and, of course, clever?”

Those were Wilbur’s thoughts on Charlotte, his new acquaintance. Instants before meeting her, he had felt lonely, and had implored for a friend. However, as desperate as he was, he could not conceive that he could come to like as a friend someone who stood for things he was against. On her defense, her fierceness, brutality, and blood-thirst aside, Charlotte was more than pretty and clever. She was loving and caring. She was willing to perform the utmost sacrifices for a friend. Wilbur had asked for a friend, but he received more than that — way more. He had in Charlotte a motherly friend. One who entertained him when he was bored, and brought him comfort when he was afraid.

For his part, Wilbur’s question had been answered. He had asked, “How can I learn to like her […] ?” Through her frequent manifestation of love, Charlotte was able to turn Wilbur into the son she had never had. Charlotte shared stories with him before he went to sleep. When she was done telling him a story, he would ask her to sing. Regardless of how tired she felt at that point, she would sing to him. Ironically, as tired as she was, it’s he who would fall asleep first, leaving her singing to a pig that was no longer listening; a pig that she loved; a pig that loved her.

It became most evident that Wilbur loved Charlotte when, as she agonized, he made it his purpose in life to take care of her magnum opus –“the finest thing I have ever made” — her egg sac. To him, “nothing else mattered.” He took care of it as Charlotte had taken care of him. He had returned the favor. And when her babies were born, he told them how great her mother was, and how grateful he was to her, for in simply having entered his life, she had ridden him of his loneliness, and in caring for him, she managed to save his life. Moreover, she had turned him into a pig that ceased to care only for himself. When she was dying, he said to her what the old Wilbur would never have said; “I would gladly give my life for you.”

From the beginning, Wilbur was set to be a demoralized being. He was born a runt, and almost lost his life as a result. When he was already grown, he still had to deal with how lowly he perceived himself. To Charlotte, he was “some pig”, “terrific”, “radiant”, and “humble”. To himself, he was none of that, but he tried to live up to Charlotte’s expectations. When it had been suggested that the next word to be written on a web would be “Terrific”, Wilbur hopelessly said, “But I’m not terrific, Charlotte. I’m just about average for a pig.” Because Charlotte persevered in using pleasant adjectives to describe him, he eventually felt that he was indeed “some pig”, “terrific”, “radiant”, and “humble”. In the end he learned that in addition to all that, he was a fortunate pig, for having had Charlotte as his friend.

In addition to his self-perception, Wilbur had as an antagonist Templeton the rat. In fact, nobody got along with the rat. He did good things for others, but only if doing those things benefited him personally. Even though he had been rewarded for each good deed he had performed, he still reproached to others that he felt used by them. He said that others came to him when they needed things, but nobody would come when he was in need. He would bring that up when he was asked to do a task. Sometimes, because he was busy reproaching, he would almost fail in fulfilling the task. However, the moment when Templeton came off as being the antagonist in the story was when he said to Wilbur that the winning pig had been chosen, to relax already because he stood no chance of winning anymore. He added that Zuckerman would “take the knife to you, my boy,” once he changed his mind about him. This made Wilbur cry.

Two themes found in the story are the power of friendship and self-sacrifice. Wilbur the pig was destined to die sooner or later. However, it was his great fortune that when he asked for a friend, Charlotte emerged. Wilbur placed his trust on her, and she did not let him down. She saved his life, and put hers on pause to accomplish that. She even placed her magnus opus at risk — by going to the fair with Wilbur — all to make sure that he would be all right. When Wilbur had accomplished victory at the fair, she rejoiced in it because she felt that Wilbur’s life had officially been saved, although at that very moment her own life was fading. She placed her worries aside and joined Wilbur in his joy.

Wilbur sacrificed himself for Charlotte, too. As much as Wilbur loved to eat, when Templeton indirectly saved Charlotte’s life, Wilbur gave Templeton a whole noodle as a reward — normally he would have given him half of it. When Wilbur needed Templeton to fetch him Charlotte’s sac of eggs, seeing that Templeton was taking too long to fetch it, Wilbur did the unthinkable; he promised Templeton that from that point on he would let him eat first from his plate, and would not touch the plate until he had eaten all he could eat, if he would bring him that sac of eggs. Furthermore, when Templeton brought it to him, such was Wilbur’s interest in the safety of the sac of eggs, that he said, “Thank you, Templeton. I will never forget this as long as I live.” He did not put much thought into the fact that he had just relinquished his right to eating a full meal, for the rest of his life. He cared more for taking care of the eggs that his best friend would have loved to see hatched. It’s hard to imagine that Wilbur and Charlotte could have had better friends than each other.

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