Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White - Free Book Summary
Introduction to Charlotte’s Web Charlotte’s Web is widely considered a true humanistic children’s classic. E.B. White’s story is set in a Midwest country farm in the first half of the twentieth century. Meet Fern Arable, an imaginative, conscientious eight-year-old farm girl, Wilbur, a small loveable pig, Charlotte, a large, intellectual, congenial spider, and Templeton, a gluttonous, lazy yet clever rat. You’re sure to fall in love. "Dear Ruth, Many Thanks for this wonderful book summary :)" Fern watched one morning as her father left the house with an ax in hand. The evening before, a new litter of pigs had been born, and one of them was a runt—a small weakling piglet who could never mean anything to the farm but trouble. But now Fern tearfully begged for him to spare the animal. “…it’s unfair,” she cried. “The pig couldn’t help being born small, could it? If I had been very small at birth, would you have killed me?” Somehow, her father was touched by Fern’s pleading and agreed to let the girl take care of the pig. She named him Wilbur, lovingly fed him from a bottle, and strolled him around with her dolls. Each morning he would walk her to the bus stop for school. Life seemed flawless. When Wilbur was five weeks old, Mr. Arable, however, decided that he had become too big for Fern to take care of. They arranged to sell him to Fern’s uncle and aunt, Homer and Edith Zuckerman, and Fern visited him almost every day. But Fern was not able to come every single afternoon, and one day Wilbur admitted that he desperately needed a friend. But when he asked the other farm animals, they all refused. The goose couldn’t move from the eggs she was sitting on; the lamb cruelly informed Wilbur that “pigs mean less than nothing to me”; and even Templeton, the fat, self-indulged, grumpy rat wouldn’t frolic, skip, or jump with Wilbur, who threw himself down in the manure and sobbed. That night Wilbur heard a tiny voice. “Do you want a friend, Wilbur?” it said. “I’ll be a friend to you… I like you.” Wilbur spun around to see who was speaking, but could see no one. The voice instructed him to go to sleep; in the morning, it would reveal its source. Sure enough, at daybreak, Wilbur’s new friend introduced herself. “Salutations!” said a large gray spider hanging from the top of a big web stretched across the corner of the doorway above Wilbur’s pen. “My name is Charlotte, Charlotte A. Cavatica. But just call me Charlotte.” At first Wilbur was a bit reluctant to make fast friends with the spider, but agreed after getting to know Charlotte better and learning that her bug-eating was instinctive for survival. This free book summary of Charlotte’s Web is complimentary from the www.free-book-summary.com website. Want to say Thanks? Tell about the book summary to your friends, link to it from your blog, or include a link to it in a book report forum. Cheers! Summer arrived, and Wilbur began to grow bigger and bigger. Life was good again—until one hot afternoon when the nosey old sheep informed Wilbur that Farmer Zuckerman planned to fatten him up so they could kill him come Christmas time. “They’re going to turn you into smoked bacon and ham,” said the sheep. At that Wilbur burst into tears and began to race around. “I don’t want to die!” he yelled. “Save me!” Then Charlotte spoke up; soothingly she promised Wilbur that somehow she would find a way to save him from this terrible fate. Day after day Charlotte waited for an idea to come to her—and finally it came: “Why, how perfectly simple! The way to save Wilbur’s life is to play a trick on Zuckerman. If I can fool a bug, I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs.” Charlotte worked throughout most of that night. The next morning, Lurvy, the farm’s hired hand, noticed a delicately woven spider web in the corner, each thin strand decorated with tiny beads of water from the morning dew. Then he saw something in the center of the web—a message clearly woven in block letters: “SOME PIG,” it read. Lurvy’s initial reaction, of course, was that he was seeing things. He took a closer look. Then, somewhat dazed, he walked back down to the house to get Mr. Zuckerman. “There can be no mistake about it,” Zuckerman exclaimed when he saw the web. “A miracle has happened…right on our farm, and we have no ordinary pig.” Word of the wondrous event quickly spread, and people came from miles around to witness the mystical message. Mrs. Zuckerman was the only one to wonder if the spider who had written the message might not be even more extraordinary than the pig. A few days later, Charlotte called a meeting for all the animals, to gather suggestions for a new message to weave into her web. Finally, the goose nominated the word “Terrific,” and everyone agreed to it—everyone, that is, except Wilbur. “I’m not terrific,” he said bluntly. Charlotte, however, replied, “That doesn’t make a bit of difference. Not a bit. People believe almost anything they see in print.” So that evening, Charlotte started work on her second web. By morning, the word TERRIFIC was neatly woven into the web above Wilbur’s door. Once again, Mr. Zuckerman called it a miracle, and soon people who had first journeyed to see “SOME PIG” returned to read that the pig was also “TERRIFIC.” Now they had a large crate built with gold letters on the side saying “Zuckerman’s Famous Pig.” In September, Wilbur would journey to the County Fair. Meanwhile, Charlotte was working hard to come up with another word to add to Wilbur’s miracle. She struck a deal with Templeton, informing him that since the pig’s food was Templeton’s main source, Wilbur’s destiny and his own were closely linked. Templeton agreed to look for magazines and other sources of words in the dump, where he spent a lot of time. After several trips, he finally came back with a piece of cardboard in his teeth from an old package of soap flakes; “With New Radiant Action,” it read. After watching Wilbur run around and do a back flip with a half twist, Charlotte decided that Wilbur was indeed “RADIANT,” and her evening’s activities were cut out for her. On the opening day of the fair, everyone rose bright and early. Mrs. Zuckerman gave Wilbur a buttermilk bath, leaving his skin with the glow of pure white silk. Just before Wilbur was to be loaded into the crate, Charlotte, who had planned to stay home and weave her egg sac, announced that she had decided to go with him after all. When he learned what sort of leftover late-night feasts a rat might find at a fair, Templeton also jumped into the crate. “It’s hard to believe he was the runt of the litter,” said Mr. Arable as Wilbur himself was loaded in. “You’ll get some extra good ham and bacon, Homer, when it comes time to kill that pig.” Clearly, doing well at the fair was Wilbur’s one hope. When they arrived at the fair, Charlotte climbed to a post under the roof of the new pig pen. She noticed a pig on the other side of Wilbur and lowered herself down to get a closer look. This pig, a brooding, enormous animal, much bigger than Wilbur, told Charlotte that she could call him “Uncle.” Throughout the day, Wilbur heard people making favorable remarks about Uncle’s great size. In the meantime, Charlotte was not feeling well. “Bring me… a word!” she told Templeton that evening. “I shall be writing tonight for the last time.” Templeton soon appeared with a newspaper clipping between his teeth. The last word Charlotte would weave for Wilbur was “HUMBLE.” The next morning, Wilbur awoke to find a weaker and somewhat shrunken Charlotte huddled overhead, with a strange object attached next to her on the ceiling. It was her egg sac. Wilbur noticed that the spider seemed downhearted. “I just don’t have much pep anymore,” she said. “I guess I feel sad because I won’t ever see my children.” Before long, the crowds had arrived at the fairgrounds for another day of games, rides, and contests. At Wilbur’s pen, “everyone celebrated to see that the miracle of the web had been repeated. Wilbur gazed up lovingly into their faces. He looked very humble and very grateful. Fern winked at Charlotte.” Suddenly, Avery called everyone’s attention to the blue ribbon hanging from the pen next door. Uncle had already won first prize. The onlookers were deeply disappointed—until an announcement came over the loudspeaker. Mr. Zuckerman was to report to the judges’ booth immediately: a special award was about to be presented. The announcer dramatically recounted the repeated miracle of the web. “From where did this mysterious writing come?” he asked, as Charlotte listened over the loudspeaker. “Not from the spider, we can rest assured of that. Spiders are very clever at weaving their webs, but needless to say spiders cannot write.” At the judges’ booth, Mr. Zuckerman was handed twenty-five dollars and a medal to hang around Wilbur’s neck. Both the Zuckermans and Arables were pleased. Back in the pen, Wilbur and Charlotte, finally alone, talked. “Why did you do all this for me?” Wilbur asked. “I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.” Charlotte, in her usual loving manner, replied, “You have been my friend…” “…But you have saved me, Charlotte,” said Wilbur in awe,”and I would gladly give my life for you—I really would.” Charlotte announced she would not be returning with him to the barn. She was too weak; in a day or two she would be dead. Hearing this, Wilbur threw himself down in agony and sobbed. Then an idea struck him: if Charlotte couldn’t make it back, at least he could take her children with him. He shook the sleepy Templeton—still suffering the effects of an all-night eating spree—and pleaded with him to fetch the egg sac. Of course Templeton was in no hurry to do anyone a favor—until Wilbur promised him that he would always get first pickings at the feed bin. Satisfied, Templeton climbed up, snipped the threads with his sharp ugly teeth, and dropped the sac in front of Wilbur, who gently lapped it up and positioned it on top of his tongue; Charlotte had said the egg sac was strong and waterproof. As the pig was being shoved into the crate, he looked up and gave Charlotte a wink—“and she knew her children were safe.” Smiling, the spider summoned all her strength to wave one of her front legs at her friend. The next day, all alone, Charlotte died. Wilbur watched over the egg sac through the winter. Finally, one fine spring day, hundreds of tiny spiders emerged from the sac, waving their forelegs at him. For several days they crawled around the farm, carrying their tiny draglines behind them. Then, on a warm, slightly windy day, the spiders climbed to the top of the fence and let their spinnerets form balloons. “Good-bye!” they called to Wilbur as they drifted out of sight. Wilbur was frantic. “Come back, children!” he cried. One tiny spider turned to explain: “This is our moment for setting forth. …We are going out in the world to make webs for ourselves.” That afternoon, Wilbur sat staring at the dreary doorway where Charlotte’s web used to be. Suddenly he heard a voice. “Salutations!” it said. There on top of the doorway were three small webs—three of Charlotte’s daughters had decided to stay. Mr. Zuckerman took very good care of Wilbur for the rest of his days. Nobody ever forgot the miracle of the web—and Wilbur never forgot Charlotte. "Ruth, Thanks again for this great book summary. Keep it up!" Charlotte’s Web – Plot Summary Context Charlotte’s Web not only examines the miracle of nature through a child’s imagination, it also portrays the natural cycle of life itself. It’s a book about beginnings and endings, losses and gains, childhood wishes, new friendships, and birth and death. The references to the endless seasons – especially summer passing into fall – mirror those events that children find most significant: the loss of a friend, the death of a pet – all signs pointing to an end of childhood and a journey into the ongoing, infinite cycles of adulthood. The Complete Book White, E.B. Charlotte’s Web (New York 1952)
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