Charlotte's Web | Plot Summary

Charlotte's Web Overview

Charlotte's Web is an animal fable that deals with several important aspects of a happy life: friendship, heroism, con stancy, and death. And yet the story treats these topics indirectly. The primary appeal of Charlotte's Web is its charming story. White allows the characters to explore their relationships with each other in such a way that the story's themes grow naturally from these interactions. In the Zuckermans' bam, unbelievable things happen in very believable ways. Animals talk, a spider writes words in its web, and a pig wins fame that can only be described as undying, since he avoids being turned into hams and sausages. Yet all these characters act from perfectly natural motives. Any reader will recognize and, perhaps, identify with Wilbur's fear and loneliness. Charlotte's Web is a work of fantasy that draws much of its strength from White's evocation of the real world of the farmyard.