Wednesday, September 22, 2010
we're all a family
Charlotte's web is a very peculiar yet wonderful book. They're are so many themes and amazing bits of writers craft that it is hard to pick just one, but I think I have decided on the write one for this entry. I am almost done with the book and I had this odd thought come over me. Family. At first I wondered what this thought meant so I connected some annotations, and then it came to me. Every single animal on Mr. Zuckermans farm, from pig to spider, goose to rat. It was amazing when this thought came to me, so I made a little chart, and I came up with this I guess you could say, family tree. Wilbur and Charlotte are one family, Wilbur is the son and Charlotte, the single mother. The Goose, Gander, and seven baby geese are, let's say, Charlotte's sister and brother in law, and the baby geese are Wilbur's cousins. The Goat is the single uncle, who is harsh on everyone, because he is old and unhappy. The Lambs are the sort of almost forgotten family members, who are just there, but scarcely talk. And then the wonderfully rude and self centered rat, Templeton is the strange friend of the family, who just shows up for a holiday dinner sometimes. It may seem irrelevant to the story, but after I looked at the barn this way, it just seems so snug and friendly, and great. It makes me sad when I think Charlotte's gonna die, because I know from experience that it takes a lot out of a family, when someone in it dies. It is a little bit different because I don't know any humans who give birth to hundreds of babies after they die, but still, death. Good luck to the Zuckerman Barn family. Many happy returns.
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i agree that the barn is a very family-ish place. when charlottes dies she does take a lot out of the family, but its replaced with three new family members in her children. then wilbur becomes a sort of father figure, watching the children. this connects to the idea of a circle of life and how a family is always changing, people are dying and new people are born to take their place.
ReplyDeleteTheo. This blog post made me think about how we are all connected in some way even if we aren't close family. I liked the part where you explained the fammly tree, I never thought about it in that way. I can understand how you think Charlotte is the mother, but I thiknk she's the baby sitter and Fern WAS the mother to WIlbure.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think you can work on is going into a deeper into the meaning of your blog post. It just satyed on the "surface of the water" I guess you could say.