‘Charlotte’s Web made me sad.
Well duh, the spider dies at the end, doesn’t she? Wilbur loses his closest friend. Isn’t that sad? Yes, it is. Especially if you are in fourth grade and have never read the book before. But if you are an adult, and reading it for the second time, the spiders death doesn’t seem that sad anymore. The cycle of life and death is more a part of life now.
I recently read ‘Charlotte’s Web to my fourth grade classroom. (if might be too young for them, but they asked for it, so whatever.) They loved it, and were rightly sad over the spiders death. As we came to the close of the book, I became melancholy for a completely different reason.
The book is mostly about the shenanigans of Wilbur and Charlotte, but throughout it all is the young girl Fern, the small observer of it all. She is the catalyst of the entire story, but then drifts to the wayside when Charlotte takes center stage. Through the book, Fern watches the animals, taking part in small ways. But towards the end, she drifts away from the world of animals and into the world of crushes and romance.
It made me sad. In a way, she was growing up, leaving behind her childhood and stepping into young adulthood. To grow up is often to leave something behind. I wish she didn’t leave her animal friends behind as she got older. But then again, when we get new interests, old ones become crowded out. Sometimes this is a good thing as we are slowly making way for better things. Childhood hobbies become, or make way for, adult passions.
But it is still a little sad, to leave behind the books we once loved, the hobbies that used to absorb us, and the stuffed animals we once told all of our secrets to.
‘Charlotte’s Web’ made me melancholy for childhood. When animals spoke and trees whispered secrets. Which, in a way, I am grateful for. I am thankful for a good childhood that I am able to miss, and look back on with happiness. What a gift I have been given, that I can miss my childhood. I can take that gift, and tuck it into my heart as I move forward in this wild ride of adult life.
Shaina Merrick
The Beauty of a Story 