CHARLOTTE'S WEBSITE

The Arable family is a farm family that raises and sells animals. One day, John Arable attempts to slaughter the runt of a litter of 11 piglets that were born the night before, but his daughter Fern pleads for the piglet's life, and John gives him to her. Naming him Wilbur, Fern treats him as a pet, and the two become incredibly close. Eventually, Wilbur is no longer small, and so John decides to sell him, to Fern's dismay. Wilbur is given to Fern's maternal uncle-by-marriage, Homer Zuckerman, allowing her to periodically visit him. From here on, the various farm animals are depicted as anthropomorphic. In Zuckerman's barnyard, Wilbur yearns for Fern and is met with varying reactions from the other animals, with some, such as the motherly goose, showing him compassion, and others, such as the head ram, treating him with scorn. One day, the ram offhandedly tells Wilbur that Zuckerman is raising him for slaughter and consumption, leaving him distraught. As he mourns his fate, a barn spider named Charlotte, whose web sits in a doorway overlooking his pigpen, comforts him. She promises to find a way to save his life and takes on a motherly role for him. Meanwhile, Fern often listens in on the animals' conversations, to her mother's concern. As summer passes, Charlotte comes up with a plan to save Wilbur. Reasoning that Zuckerman would not kill a famous pig, she weaves words and short phrases in praise of Wilbur into her web, the first phrase being "Some Pig". This turns Wilbur, and the barn as a whole, into a tourist attraction because many people believe the web to be a miracle. After the excitement dies down, the phrase gets destroyed. On the goose's suggestion, Charlotte weaves the word "Terrific" into her web, beginning the cycle anew. Although Zuckerman is pleased with Wilbur's fame, his plan to slaughter him stays firm. In another effort to maintain the public's interest in him, Charlotte tells Templeton, a gluttonous rat that lives under Wilbur's trough and holds a contentious relationship with the other animals, to get another word for the web. Templeton finds a laundry detergent ad with the word "Radiant", which Charlotte then weaves into her web. As a result of this latest round of fame, Zuckerman enters Wilbur in the county fair, and Charlotte and Templeton accompany him. The Arables also go to the fair, but Fern, despite still cherishing Wilbur, has matured, and instead spends time with her childhood sweetheart, Henry Fussy. Charlotte weaves another word brought by Templeton, "Humble", into the web she spins at Wilbur's stall at the fair. Wilbur fails to win first prize, but is awarded a special prize by the judges. Charlotte, who has laid an egg sac at the fair, hears the presentation of the award over the public address system and realizes that the prize means Zuckerman will cherish Wilbur for as long as he lives and will never slaughter him. However, Charlotte, being a barn spider with a naturally short lifespan, is already dying of natural causes by the time the award is announced. Knowing that she has saved Wilbur, and satisfied with the outcome of her life, she decides not to return to the barn with Wilbur and Templeton. She gives them her final request to have her egg sac taken back to the barn, and then dies alone at the fairgrounds. Wilbur waits out the winter, during which Charlotte's children hatch. Most of them fly away, to Wilbur's dismay, but three choose to remain. Future descendants of Charlotte keep Wilbur company for many years, though he always holds Charlotte in more esteem than them all.

THE ASTRAL TRAVELERS