BookReport~Charlotte's Web

Charlotte’s Web —— A Fantasy About

Friendship、Love And Growing

Brief introduction to the writer:

E. B. White, the writer of Charlotte’s Web, was born in Mount

Vernon, New York and graduated from Cornell University. His

writings appeared in The New Yorker magazines for many years.

And Charlotte's Web is one of his award-winning children's

novel. His third book for children, The Trumpet of The Swan,

also won several awards. And in 1973 he was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Summary of the book:

As we can see from my title, the story in Charlotte’s Web is not

a real story. It is a fantasy! This fantasy begins when Mr. Arable

is going to kill a small pig which is saved by the daughter of Mr.

Arable Fern later. After saving this little pig, Fern begins to

treats the little pig as a friend and she even gives him a name

“Wilbur”. When Wilbur lives with Fern for several weeks,

Fern’s father, Mr. Arable, sells him to Fern’s uncle Mr.

Zuckerman. From then on, Wilbur begins his life in the barn of Mr. Zuckerman. Though Fern comes to visit Wilbur almost

every day, Wilbur feels very lonely in this big barn and he wants

to make new friends. Then on a very usual morning, Wilbur

wakes up very early and makes his first friend, and she is

Charlotte, the gray spider. When the oldest sheep in the barn

tells Wilbur a bad news that he will be killed when the real cold

weather sets in, Wilbur’s life becomes more difficult. He’s

scared everyday. And then he turns to Charlotte for help. Thanks

to intelligence of Charlotte and the assistance of the gluttonous

rat Templeton, Wilbur finally escapes his fate to be killed and he

also wins the special award in the fair. But unfortunately,

Charlotte dies in the fair. To repay Charlotte, Wilbur brings the

sac of eggs she had laid at the fair before dying with him when

he is coming home. When Charlotte's eggs hatch at Zuckerman's

farm, most of them leave to make their own lives elsewhere,

except for three: Joy, Aranea, and Nellie, who remain there as

friends to Wilbur.

Comments:

The American writer Eudora Welty has ever said in the New

York Times that what this book was about was friendship on earth, affection and protection, adventure and miracle, life and

earth, trust and treachery, pleasure and pain, and the passing of

time. Apparently, the author was not simply telling a fairy tale to

us but reflecting something special to us such as one of the three

most important relationships—friendship. And E. B. White did

not use a story directly concerned about human beings to talk

about the importance and beauty of friendship but to make a

fantasy about animals to convey us the true meaning of

friendship. I think this kind of writing skill can easily catch the

readers’ attention and reflect the aim of the book more strongly.

Take me as an example, when I finished the reading, the first

word came to my mind is “friendship”. Actually, through an

interesting story, the aim of the book will be more easily learned

and memorized.

Apart from some comments on the main writing skill of this

book, I also have something to say about the two main

characters: Wilbur and Charlotte. From the writer’s description

about them, I came to know that Wilbur is a pig who loves life

and likes to make friends. Though when he hears about the bad

news that he will be killed, he appears as a timid baby, he still

enjoys his life and he never gives up the belief that Charlotte can

protect him. And from the process when Charlotte are saving Wilbur’s life and also helping him get the special award in the

fair, I learned that Charlotte is a very intelligent 、beautiful、strong-minded spider who extremely cherishes the friendship

between Wilbur and herself. Maybe as a friend, you will think

that it is always Charlotte that gives Wilbur help but Wilbur

seems not to help Charlotte with anything except for bringing

her sac home, and I will totally agree with you if I am still at the

beginning of my completion of reading. But since I have already

thought much about the aim of this book, I have to say you are

wrong. Actually, I think Wilbur adds something meaningful to

Charlotte’s life. Both of them grow more mature in the process

of asking for help from friends and helping friends. Let’s think

about that: when making friends with others, if we’re always

thinking about that we should get repaid for what we have done

for our friends, what will happen? Before giving it an answer, I

want to discuss something about the situation first. In my

opinion, when a friend ask you for help, it means that he or she

regards you as his or her support and you will protect them no