Charlotte's Web: The book that made me cry as a child

Charlotte's web was a book most people read as children, and since I don't know what else to do this post on, why not do it on one of the only books that made me cry.

The story, if you forgot, is about a pig named Wilbur, a little girl named Fern, and a spider named Charlotte. Wilbur, a small and weak pig, is about to get slaughtered by Fern's dad, but Fern convinces her dad to let her adopt the pig. Wilbur then gets moved to a different barn, where he mainly doesn't get along with the other animals, until he finds a spider there called Charlotte. Fern meanwhile frequently visits the animals and watches them talk to each other. It was mostly peaceful until Wilbur was once again going to be slaughtered. Charlotte decides to help Wilbur by weaving a web with words in it. This shocked Fern's family, who then make Wilbur into a farm attraction thing for many people to see. Charlotte continues writing words within her spider webs until Fern's family enters Wilbur into the county fair competition. Charlotte comes along with Wilbur, and he ends up winning a special award instead of first place. Charlotte, however, is dying and only has a few moments left. Being satisfied that Wilbur will not get slaughtered anytime soon, Charlotte stays at the fair to die in peace, leaving her spider children to Wilbur.

As a child, this book made me cry when Charlotte decided to stay behind and die alone. The exact movie scene also made me cry. I might not get that emotional anymore, but I still think that important animal deaths are always tragic, unlike most books I read that make me not care about the characters that much. The use of farm animals in this story makes me feel more connected to the characters, as I live near the country. It is also an easy to read book for children as it was one of my first books I read with real chapters in it. Honestly a great and sad story.

Gemma Musgrave

Comments

  1. Olive Jan Mathewson-SmithNovember 11, 2024 at 11:34 AM

    I hear you. Some childhood books just struck little olives heartstrings a little to hard

    ReplyDelete
  2. JamesonNovember 11, 2024 at 1:11 PM

    The younger me really felt this one, both in the movie and in the book. Do you feel like the movie did the book justice?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sarah T.November 11, 2024 at 1:11 PM

    Hi, I also read and watched Charlotte's Web as a kid. I agree that the scene where Charlotte dies made me really sad. This was one of the first books I read with talking animals, and although some parts made me sad, I really liked this book!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jakub TinocoNovember 11, 2024 at 1:20 PM

    I completely agree that that exact scene was so sad! The amount of emotion and sentiment revolving that scene in addition to the story behind it really gave it another level of sentimentality, in addition to the fact of how young so many of us were when we either read the book or watched the movie and connected or felt those emotions for the first times. Great review, really takes me back!

    ReplyDelete

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