Within Charlotte’s Web
A Literacy Memoir
Source: Garth Williams. Cover Illustration. Charlotte’s Web, Written by E. B. White, HarperCollins Publishers, 1952.
Literacy narratives and memoirs provide an excellent opportunity for students to engage in self-reflection on their own literacy journeys. What I like about these types of assignments is it provides me with insight into my students’ past experiences with reading and writing, particularly the emotions connected to those activities. Not only will this kind of assignment help you gauge your students’ comfort with literacy, but it will also reveal ways you might engage your students more effectively.
Below is a literacy narrative I wrote for a course on Nonfiction Writing for Children, Adolescents, and Families taught by the marvelous Dr. Toran Isom. The assignment was to write about a memorable book or reading experience from childhood. What are some ways you could adapt this assignment into a lesson plan suitable for your own courses?
My Literacy Journey with Charlotte's Web
We all have that one pivotal book we remember reading over and over as a child. The kind of book that changes your perspective about the world and life in general. For me, that book is E. B. White's Charlotte's Web.
Mine was a childhood filled with literature. From an early age, my mom instilled within me the power of books. The first authors I remember reading on my own were Dr. Seuss and Beatrice Potter. Later, it was R. L. Stein's Goosebumps and shortly there after, the harder stuff like Stephen King. So I find it rather ironic that while my literary tastes have always leaned more toward science fiction and horror, the book that has stuck with me all these years later is surprisingly from neither genre.
As a kid, what I liked about Charlotte's Web mostly related to the 1973 animated film. As a young artist and writer, there were a lot of things about the film, and later the book, that appealed to me. First, I loved the character design and voice acting for Charlotte in the film. I also liked that she was a writer and she used her writing skills to save her friend from a terrible fate. When I got older, I decided I wanted to read the actual book to see how different it was from the film. The 1973 film is a pretty faithful adaptation of the novel, but there was something about reading the story that was different from seeing the film. It made the experience more visceral, personal.
In retrospect, I can see how the themes of Charlotte's Web not only resonated with me as a child, but also helped to solidify my own personal values. The most obvious motifs being protection of the underdog and overcoming adversity through ingenuity. It is the idea that the underdog is worth rooting for and risking everything to save. While Wilber might be the protagonist of the story, Charlotte is clearly its hero. It is Charlotte’s actions that ultimately move the story forward, yet she never seeks her own glorification in the act of saving Wilbur. It is a powerful concept, that idea of that kind of sacrifice without recognition. It says something about her character and it was something I felt drawn to as a child. This very idea of a character going to such great lengths for no great acknowledgements or praise, but for the pure wish to help someone she cared for. It reminds me of a superhero that takes on the burdens of the world not for themselves, but for the greater good of humanity.
Similarly, this was my first real exposure to a leading cast of strong female characters. As a child raised on fairytales, most female characters were either cast as the damsel in distress or the wicked villainess. Charlotte's Web was vastly different in that it has two female characters driving the story forward with their actions. There is no denying that Charlotte is the one orchestrating the miracles behind the scenes. The same can be said of Fern and her first rescue of the young pig. It is through the actions of the female characters that Wilbur ultimately finds salvation in the end, despite eventually being abandoned by them—first by Fern who grows up and moves on and later by Charlotte who comes to the end of her life.
Finally, this was one of the first books I read as a child that actually dealt with and addressed the concepts of death and dying. The novel is permeated with this idea from the moment Fern saves Wilbur from being killed by her father, through Wilbur’s repeated struggles to prevent his fated slaughter, and concludes with Charlotte’s death at the county fair. I think it was a positive outlook on a natural occurrence that many children do not understand and are not naturally exposed to.