Pg. 24- "I'm really too young to go out into the world alone" (said by Wilbur) Earlier in the chapter, Wilbur escapes from the barn and is then chased and captured by those who work on the farm.
In all honesty, no, Wilbur is not 'too young to go out into the world alone'.Whether or not Wilbur is a sophisticated, emotional pig or a mere slab of meat, he is a farm animal. Farm animals are kept for the sole purpose of being useful, horses are ridden, chickens' eggs are fried, pigs are slaughtered for their meat. The only reason why the reader may agree with Wilbur is because they've been successfully won over by the charm of the book. They've been sucked into the talking animals and Fern's heroic act of saving a runt. They've abandoned logic and reason, turning to the reality that book has created for them. This is vital to the the success of the book. If the reader refuses to believe in the characters their emotions, this book becomes a dead piece of child-like fiction. I accidentally took a wrong turn a few dozen pages into the book which lead me to believe that the plot was built upon a situation that never should have come to be. I'm reminded that Fern had disrupted the natural route that Wilbur's life should have taken, the route with an axe and farmer waiting at the end. And this observation, inevitably, made me think that the entire book is rather ludicrous and out of place. But if the reader observes the book through Fern's eyes, the terms that Fern created, the characters, the plot, the concepts, all fall perfectly into place. The structure of the book is delicate enough to crumble all at once if not looked at in the right way.
From the beginning of the book, Fern treated Wilbur as a child. He was cradled when feed by bottle, he was looked at with loving eyes if he were to fall asleep in a doll carriage. For Wilbur to have been sold off and to live in a manure pile seemed unbearably cruel. For Wilbur to be killed due to his having had been born a runt seemed nearly inhuman. Of course, Wilbur came to be because Fern's father had raised Wilbur's mother to be sold or slaughtered. Wilbur likes his manure pile because he's a pig and pigs like the warmth that piles of manure provide. Actually, by selling Wilbur, Wilbur came to live in an environment better suited for him. As the book carries on, the reader finds out that Fern's uncle, Mr.Zuckerman, plans to kill Wilbur for a Christmas feast, which, like the selling and the manure pile and the near slaughtering of a runt, seems immoral. When, in actuality, it's logical, moral, and the correct thing to do.
Charlotte's Web is a magnificent example of the way all works of fiction ought to be read. What's particularly special about this book is that is for one second, if one aspect is questioned, a thread is undone and the entire book falls apart nearly instantly. If the reader allows for himself to succumb to the fantasy world of talking animals and the rush to save a pig's life the book will be transformed into a wondrous and, somehow, a somewhat plausible book. But if the reader is stubborn and refuses to hold by Fern's way, then, piece by piece, the book loses its magic and is reduced to the question, ' why did any of this happen in the first place?'. This happened to me. It began with a rather innocent thought, 'why does it seem harsh that Wilbur sleeps in manure?'. This thought lead to the answer, 'because Fern would look down upon a manure pile'. I then thought, 'this entire book is built on Fern's childish standards'. This had a domino effect and I soon found myself thinking that the entire book was somewhat ridiculous and aimed towards and overly-emotional crowd. But, it was this destructive train of thought that helped me realize that the most magnificent of books tend to play by rules of their own, defying all logic and tricking the reader to believe that the world that's been created is superior to their own.
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