The Archetype of the Shadow

            In Charlotte’s Web, the shadow isn’t as much of a person as an idea. It is the idea of the end. The ends of relationships and the ends of lives are all crucial parts of the plot. In most books the shadow, in any form, is strongly opposed by most of the character that you are rooting for. While this does apply to Wilber, it does not apply to Charlotte. Charlotte does everything in her power to save Wilber, but when it comes time for her to die, she accepts it, understanding that all things must end. This confused me because even though Wilber wasn’t killed, the shadow still won. Charlotte died and her relationship with Wilber ended.

            Charlotte’s Web is a children’s book. It is supposed to end “happily ever after”. Charlotte’s death was anything but happy. Still, the book does end on a note of happiness. It ends with a beginning. The archetype of the shadow in Charlotte’s Web is the idea of ending. The happiest parts of the book are the beginnings: the births, the life and the new relationships. The problem is that you can’t have one with out the other. Wilber never would have met Charlotte if his time with Fern hadn’t ended.  There is no beginning without an end, and there is no life without death. Charlotte understands this, and while she wishes she could see her daughters hatch, she knows that it is her time to go.

            Having the shadow actually be good is trying to say something. It is saying that we cannot waste our lives trying to stop the end from coming. We must accept endings and know that they lead to beginnings. 

Templeton

Charlotte’s Web, page 46 “Templeton is actually a bad rat”; page 58 “Is Templeton smiling at Wilber fondly, or laughing at him”; page 74 “Maybe he is gloating about this because he wants the other barn animals to like him more”; page 90 “Maybe Templeton is just being mean because he feels left out”; page 98 “I’m not sure weather Templeton is being mean or simply doesn’t get it”; page 159 “See, Templeton can be helpful!”; 167-168 “If all of the animals hadn’t just assumed Templeton didn’t have a kind bone in his body, maybe he would have been nicer to them and more willing to help”. 

When most people read Charlotte’s Web they think of Templeton as a character that changes over the course of the book. That is one way to look at it. I think it is also possible that our perception of Templeton changes. From the beginning of the book Templeton is pegged by the farm animals as an awful, mean, selfish rat. No one wants to even give him a chance. He is first described as having “no friendliness”,  “no conscience” and “no morals”. He doesn’t care about Wilber’s life, Charlotte’s life or anyone else’s in the book. He does however do some things that are instrumental in saving Wilber’s life. Even so, the only time Templeton is offered any kindness throughout the whole book is when Wilber leaves an extra half noodle in his trough for Templeton. This gets to Templeton. He believes he deserves some sort of thank you. When Wilber asks him to get Charlotte’s egg sack, he refuses. He mocks Wilber and reminds him of all the things he did to help him. Finally they strike a deal and Templeton gets the egg sack.

When I first read about Templeton I thought he was mean, annoying and a glutton.  His character fascinated me though because he seemed evil. While the rest of the characters were multidimensional, Templeton was so simple. I kept thinking about the way he was treated by the other animals. I realized that they treated him with indifference and contempt. Even though Templeton was always a glutton and slightly sarcastic, I realized that maybe Templeton hadn’t always been mean. He does do some nice things for Wilber and Charlotte after all. It also seems as though he wants the other animals in the barn to like him even though he tries not to show it. His desire to be liked appears when he tries to brag about saving Charlotte’s life. He wouldn’t brag if he didn’t care what the others in the barn thought. I think it is very possible that when Templeton arrived in the barn, the animals judged him. They assumed that just because he seemed unpleasant on the outside, he wouldn’t be a nice rat. Maybe, Templeton acts like he doesn’t care about the lives of Wilber and Charlotte because he thinks that they will treat him the way the rest of the animals do. Templeton was misrepresented when he was first described in the book. He was described the way the opinionated animals saw him. If he had been described the way he really was we might have formed different opinions about Templeton.

E. B. White is trying to send us a message about life. We can’t take things at face value. They are not always as they appear. People need to really examine what is going on around them and look at different aspects of a situation or a person. If we make a judgment before we know the full story then we haven’t really made a fair judgment. 

Why is Charlotte is sacrificing her own sleep so she can tell a whining pig a story?

Charlotte’s Web, page 102 “So Charlotte, although she, too, was tired, did what Wilber wanted.”

Charlotte has just spent hours working with the exasperatingly unmotivated rat, Templeton. They wake Wilber up just for a minute to find out if he can be “radiant”, so they can put it in the web. When it is time to go back to sleep Wilber can’t, so he asks Charlotte to tell him a story. Even though she is incredibly tired, she submits and ends up telling him two stories and singing him a song.

At first it made absolutely no sense to me why Charlotte wouldn’t simply tell Wilber to go to sleep. After all she has been doing all of this work to help him and he hasn’t once thanked her for it. If I were in her position I would have been pretty upset.  All Wilber seems to care about is his own life. He doesn’t realize that Charlotte is going to die even sooner then he is. I couldn’t understand why Charlotte would spend her whole life trying to save someone else’s.

            I kept thinking about Wilber and Charlotte’s relationship. Then I realized that maybe Charlotte wanted to spend her whole life saving Wilber’s. She knows exactly what she is doing, and she knows she is going to die soon. Maybe, this is her way of doing something important in her life. After all, she could just let Wilber die and spend her whole life in a barn catching flies and mosquitoes, but instead she has chosen to save Wilber and make a small difference in the world. Charlotte knows that her life is short and that she has to make what differences she can. This isn’t just true for Charlotte, but for all farm animals. They know that their life is short and they have to make the best of it.

            E.B. White was trying to say something about life and people. He was saying that we can’t just sit around on our butts and live our lives the way we are expected to. We can have to stand up and go out of our way to make a difference in the world.