Introduction
Charlotte’s Web is a classic children’s book by E.B. White that aims to teach the concepts of kindness, friendship, and the need to care for animals. Despite its children’s focus, the novel raises important themes such as death and rebirth. Children’s books often depict life unrealistically, but this does not apply to White’s novel. It appears to be a realistic representation of life on the farm as an endless cycle of life, death, and hope for rebirth.
Protagonist Charlotte
Image
The novel’s main character, whose name is placed in the title of the book, is the spider Charlotte, to whom Wilbur is indebted for his salvation. Emphasizing Charlotte’s “bloodthirst” makes the children’s narrative realistic and connects it to the experience of life on the farm (White 34).
Role
By introducing a character such as a spider into the narrative, White is able to incorporate into the text the details of spider life, which he himself observed on the farm (Boonpromkul 3). Charlotte is chosen as the main character to visually demonstrate to the young reader the cycle of life and death, which is the central theme of the entire novel.
The novel’s first visual encounter with death is connected with the image of Charlotte. After meeting Wilbur, she shows him how she kills a fly. “The fly was beating its wings furiously, trying to break loose and free itself” (White 32). Charlotte shows this process with complete dispassion for the victim, which shocks Wilburn. However, she demonstrates that it is necessary for her survival. Charlotte contributes to the cycle of life and death as an important link to give life a new beginning. With this image, White demonstrates the normality of death both in human life in general and on the farm, where animals become a natural part of the food chain.
Climax
The novel’s climax is connected with Charlotte’s character, through which the author demonstrates the inevitability of death for all living things. Charlotte knows her days are numbered, but accepts and understands her inevitable fate. “I’m done for. In a day or two, I’ll be dead,” the spider declares without regret (White 140). White prepares his readers to accept death with gratitude, not with devastation.
Charlotte dies only physically; her children and memories of her will continue to live on the farm. Death comes to all living things, but the good side of death is rebirth. This theme becomes central to White’s work, and the farm, filled with living beings, is suitable for its expression. The cycle of life and death is a typical phenomenon on a farm, which connects the novel with a description of a practically existing order and gives a realistic impression.
Antagonist Mr. Zuckerman
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One of the most pragmatic characters in the novel, Mr. Zuckerman, represents the image of a real farmer. He owns Wilbur and tries to make a profit by owning an animal with unusual abilities. Zuckerman is aware of his charges’ habits and tries to lure the pig with slop when he runs away (White 17).
Role
Zuckerman is a typical farmer who cares about his animals while knowing how to benefit from them. This character is necessary for the author to adhere to the realistic canons of the story. That is why, even when he sees the strangest manifestations of intelligence in his animals, Zuckerman does not attach importance to them. The course of history makes him an antagonist, but in fact, he lives a typical farm life, accepting the cycle of things in nature.
Climax
The climax of Zuckerman’s personality is the day his pig wins the show, and he can profit from it, which demonstrates the greatest pragmatism of the character. The farmer lives according to the established order; he happily feeds his animals, which answer him with “many, many thanks” (White 147). This character is the most connected with reality; he is primarily concerned with material gain since animals are part of his business.
White does not portray this character as completely evil, as would be typical of a children’s fairy tale. On the contrary, Zuckerman is an ordinary person who acts out of understandable motives: to earn money and feed his family (Tuck 631). Zuckerman’s character is a simplified but realistic depiction of a farmer inscribed in the natural hierarchy of “Charlotte’s Web.”
Conclusion
In conclusion, Charlotte’s Web gives children a realistic idea about a farm as an endless life cycle. Through the images of Charlotte and Zuckerman, White shows farming reality as a cycle of life and death, which the characters must treat with understanding. Through a simple childish form, the author teaches a lesson about death as a necessity in the life structure. Since the book is intended for a children’s audience, the ending remains optimistic: death always precedes future rebirth. The simplicity of the attitude towards death and the difficult life of animals make the farm from Charlotte’s Web close to reality.
Works Cited
Boonpromkul, Phacharawan. “Friendship, Humility, and the Complicated Morality of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web.” Manusya: Journal of Humanities, vol. 25, no 1., 2022, pp. 1-18. Web.
Tuck, Nancy. “Animals in Moral Limbo: How Literary Pigs May Help Lab-generated Ones.” Animals, vol. 10, no. 4, 2020, pp. 629-640. Web.
White, Elwyn Brooks. Charlotte’s Web. HarperCollins, 2015.