Charlotte's Web | Social Sensitivity

Charlotte's Web Social Sensitivity

For all its innocence and simple delight, Charlotte's Web judiciously addresses the serious subject of death.

Wilbur is threatened with murder throughout the book, of course, but in the end, when Charlotte's life is spent, the reality of death hits hardest. Yet here White makes his strongest statement about selflessness. Charlotte expends her last ounce of strength writing a final web message, the one that assures Wilbur that he will live. But he feels abandoned, lost without Charlotte, and his grief is both real and affecting. It is eased, however, by his mission. He persuades Templeton to bring Charlotte's egg sac down from the rafters at the fair, and then carries it back to the barn, cares for it, and welcomes the hatchling spiders when they emerge the next spring. His actions give Charlotte a kind of immortality, since her descendants live and flourish in the barn, and...
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