History Literature / CharlottesWeb

* LanguageBarrier: Humans and animals can't understand each other's noises. Wilbur the Pig has never seen snow and is distraught to find out he is going to be killed and eaten on Christmas, but the humans never realize the stress and fear they're causing him. Luckily for him, Charlotte the Spider knows English and breaks the language barrier by writing words in her web. Fern is the only human who [[SpeaksFluentAnimal can understand the animals]], but she can't speak to them, nor do most people believe her when she claims the animals talk.

The work is focused on a young pig named Wilbur, who, being the runt of the litter, is about to be slaughtered by farmer John Arable. John's daughter, Fern, manages to save Wilbur and she raises him to be a strong, healthy pig. However, this means that he is sent down to a different farm, where he is being grown to be slaughtered for food. Determined to help, his spider friend Charlotte launches a campaign to save him. Reading the words brought to her on scraps from the rat Templeton, she begins weaving a series of words and phrases into her web, including "Radiant," "Terrific" and "Some Pig." Word spreads of these miraculous messages, but will it be enough to save Wilbur?

--> '''Gander:''' It's my idio-idio-idiosyncracy.

The work is focused on a young pig named Wilbur, who, being the runt of the litter, is about to be slaughtered by John Arable. His owner's daughter, Fern, manages to save him and she raises him to be a strong, healthy pig. However, this means that he is sent down to a different farm, where he is being grown to be slaughtered for food. Determined to help, his spider friend Charlotte launches a campaign to save him. Reading the words brought to her on scraps from the rat Templeton, she begins weaving a series of words and phrases into her web, including "Radiant," "Terrific" and "Some Pig." Word spreads of these miraculous messages, but will it be enough to save Wilbur?

* LanguageBarrier: Humans and animals can't understand each other's noises. Wilbur the Pig has never seen snow and is distraught to find out he is going to be killed and eaten on Christmas, but the humans never realize the stress and fear they're causing him. Luckily for him, Charlotte the Spider knows English and breaks the language barrier by writing words in her web.

* MistakenForInsane: Fern SpeaksFluentAnimal, but her father doesn't realize this, so when she tells him that the animals talk to each other, he thinks she has gone insane.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: Templeton reveals the bad news that Wilbur is going to be killed and served for Christmas dinner, so Charlotte must step up if he wants to see the snow.

* ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare: Overlaps with ValuesDissonance. In both the 1973 version and the book, Wilbur's refusal to eat earns him a spoonful of sulfur and molasses shoved down his throat. An old mountain cure, this "spring tonic" was believed to wake up the blood after the long winter while also serving as a laxative. Sulfur is actually a nutrient for both animals and human beings but normally it's just an ingredient in ordinary food. Dosing a pig in this way rather than just increasing the amount he'd get in his food is dangerous.

* TearsOfJoy: One of Charlotte's daughters names herself Joy when she sees Wilbur trembling with that same emotion.
* ToughLove: In the book, Charlotte is much stricter on Wilbur than either of the movies, and isn't above snapping at him or scolding him -- or anyone else in the barnyard, for that matter. Even in the animated movie, she tricks Templeton into going near a cat simply because he did not feel like attending a meeting about Wilbur.
-->'''Templeton''': [[{{Understatement}} That wasn't nice]], Charlotte!\\
'''Charlotte''': Perhaps the next time I call a meeting, Templeton, you'll see fit to attend!

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: We're never told exactly where the story takes place, but E. B. White based the Zuckerman farm on his own real-life saltwater farm in Brooklin, UsefulNotes/{{Maine}}. The 18th-century farmhouse still stands and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: We're never told exactly where the story takes place, but E. B. White based the Zuckerman farm on his own real-life saltwater farm in Brooklin, UsefulNotes/{{Maine}}.

Not to be confused with ''Film/{{Babe}}'', which also features a pig in a prominent role and many of the same themes, but has no spider character. Also not to be confused with a strain of cannabis called Charlotte's Web.

For the ''Creator/HannaBarbera'' adaptation see ''WesternAnimation/CharlottesWeb''. For the 2006 live-action adaptation, see ''Film/CharlottesWeb''.

* TearsOfJoy: One of Charlotte's daughters' names herself Joy when she sees Wilbur trembling with that same emotion.

* WhatsInItForMe: It's a continued theme that Templeton repeatedly asks this question, and is repeatedly answered with ''very'' strong incentives. One has to wonder why Templeton hasn't learned to expect it. Only twice is Templeton ''not'' threatened -- and those are the two final times, first with promises of miles of food at the fair, and last of all when Wilber promises to let him eat first from his trough for the rest of his life in return for bringing him Charlotte's egg sac.

* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Fern is able to understand what the animals are saying when they talk to each other, although she is not shown speaking to them.

* TearsOfJoy: One of Charlotte's daughters names herself Joy when she sees Wilbur trembling with that same emotion.

* AppetiteEqualsHealth: When Mrs. Arable consults a doctor about her daughter Fern, concerned that her interest in spending time with farm animals rather than other children is unhealthy, one of the first things the doctor asks is whether she is eating well, to which Mrs. Arable replies that she has as large an appetite as ever. Also, when Wilbur is TooUnhappyToBeHungry after he's first sold to the Zuckermans' farm, the humans worry that he might be sick and give him sulfur and molasses as medicine (see ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare below).

The work is focused on a young pig named Wilbur, who, being the runt of the litter, is about to be slaughtered by John Arable. However, his owner's daughter, Fern, manages to save him and she raises him to be a strong, healthy pig. However, this means that he is sent down to a different farm, where he is being grown to be slaughtered for food. Determined to help, his spider friend Charlotte launches a campaign to save him. Reading the words brought to her on scraps from the rat Templeton, she begins weaving a series of words and phrases into her web, including "Radiant," "Terrific" and "Some Pig." Word spreads of these miraculous messages, but will it be enough to save Wilbur?