E.B. White & Karen Levine: Character Roles in Children's Literature

This essay undertakes a comparative analysis of characters from E.B. White's *Charlotte's Web* and Karen Levine's *Hana's Suitcase: A True Story*, as per the EAC273 assignment brief. The analysis focuses on the character of Charlotte from *Charlotte's Web*, examining her development, purpose, and impact on the themes of friendship, loyalty, and self-sacrifice. The essay also explores the character of Fumiko Ishioka from *Hana's Suitcase*, highlighting her role in uncovering Hana's story and the impact of her work on promoting tolerance and understanding. The essay delves into the character's traits, their significance within their respective narratives, and their contribution to the overall thematic concerns of the texts, drawing upon textual evidence to support the claims made. The essay also examines how the characters face conflicts and challenges, contributing to the development of themes. The essay fulfills the requirements of the assignment, demonstrating critical thinking skills and grammatical accuracy.

Running head: E.B WHITE’S CHARLOTTE’S WEB AND KAEEN KAVINE’S HANA’S SUITCASE
E.B WHITE’S CHARLOTTE’S WEB AND KAEEN KAVINE’S HANA’S SUITCASE
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1E.B WHITE’S CHARLOTTE’S WEB AND KAEEN KAVINE’S HANA’S SUITCASE
The character who is being chosen From the E.B White’s Charlotte’s Web is the
character of Charlotte. The novel was published on the 15th of October, 1192 by Harper and
Brothers. The novel is written in the style of the dry, low key manner of White ( Rickard). It is
considered to be a classic novel of the children’s literature which is being enjoyed both by the
adults as well as by the children. The novel is about the bonding and the relationship of
friendship that is being shared between the pig, whose name is Wilbur and a barn spider whose
name is Charlotte. At the beginning of the novel, we get the impression about charlotte that just
like the nature of the other spider, Charlotte is creepy who webs his web (Yu). However, the
impression that the reader has about the character tends to change after reading the novel. The
best friend of Charlotte is Wilbur and they live together on the farm which is being owned by the
Zuckerman family. In the very first meeting of charlotte and Wilbur, charlotte tells Wilbur tells
him the way how she kills and even eats the flies. This gives the impression that she is very
much brutal, fierce, scheming and even very much thirsty to suck blood. However, the narrator
of the novel tells us that the impression is very much wrong because by the end we get to know
that she has a very kind heart and she proves herself to be very much loyal and true by the very
end (McMaster). It is the nature of the spider to be wise and clever so that they are able to catch
the bugs. Similarly, she understands the fact she needs a very good plan to save Wilbur the pig
from getting slaughtered like the other pigs during the time of the winter. She thinks that just the
way she can fool the bugs, she will be able to fool the man. She makes the plan that she will be
using adjectives like terrific and radiant to describe Wilbur the pig (Clark). This will make
everyone believe that Wilbur the pig as a very special kind of an animal and will therefore not
kill him. The plan of Charlotte becomes successful and everybody thinks that it is a miracle and
ultimately Wilbur do not looses his life but on the contrary wins a prize at the country fair. On

2E.B WHITE’S CHARLOTTE’S WEB AND KAEEN KAVINE’S HANA’S SUITCASE
the other hand, one of the other characteristics of Charlotte is that she is very true friend. As a
friend, she is very much determined to save Wilbur, her friend. At the end of the novel, she
proves herself to be loyal and even shouts on others when they try to hurt the feelings of Wilbur.
She is the one who encourages him constantly. She makes sure that she goes to the country fair
for Wilbur if he needs her for any help. On the other hand, it must be remembered that Charlotte
is very much hard-working as in order to make beautiful webs, she works very hard day and
night (ROUGEUX). She even stays up late at night in order to web a beautiful web. Apart from
this, charlotte is very much wise and clever. She makes wise decisions about life and even of the
animals that stay around her. It is she who tends to warn the animals who stay on the farm about
the dangers of the egg which are rotten. She understands that the rotten smell will be causing a
bad smell leading to a disastrous effect in the farm if the eggs break. It is through her cleaver
and wise nature that she plans and helps his friend Wilbur from getting slaughtered respectively.
One of the most important characters in Hana’s Suitcase: A true story is that of Fumiko
Ishioka. The story Hana’s suitcase: A True story tends to alternate between two accounts. The
first one is being set in the contemporary part of Tokyo where many students ranging from the
age group of eight to eighteen forms a group at the center for Holocaust education which is being
run by the Fumiko Ishioka (Quirk). On the other hand, the second part of the story is being set in
the tie period of 1930’ Czechoslovakia which is marked by the life of Hana. It is through huge
hard work and stubbornness, Fumiko Ishiko managed to uncover the story that tends to lie about
the owner of the suitcase that is being loaned to her by the Auschwitz Museum. She searches for
clues that lie across Europe and North America in order to find out about the identity of Hana
and to understand what had actually happened to her (Hall). She finds out that Hana had a very
happy life in the town of Czech which was being destroyed by the invasion of the Nazis. It is

3E.B WHITE’S CHARLOTTE’S WEB AND KAEEN KAVINE’S HANA’S SUITCASE
through her quest for knowledge that she manages to go to Canada and find out about the
surviving brother of Hana Brady, who is actually the owner of the suitcase. Various numbers of
objects were being obtained in the Tokyo Holocaust Center (Levine). However, the suitcase
where the name of Hana and the date of birth was being mentioned attracted the attention of the
children the most. Apart from this, the word orphan was also mentioned in the suitcase. The
children and newsletters were forming a small group called the “Small wings” were being
circulated in the other parts of Japan in order to find out about Hana. After sending the suitcase
to Tokyo, it was being understood that Hana was unjustly captured in the Theresienstadt camp.
Some drawings that were being made by Hana there was also obtained by Fumiko there.
However, the children belonging to the Tokyo Center was very much interested to know more
about Hana and even see her picture. Fumiko, in order to find more about Hana, went to the
Terezin Museum by herself and found out that she was not the only child who was being unjustly
imprisoned in the camp (Weinstein). It was also being discovered that Hana had died but her
brother is still alive. On knowing that Hana has died unjustly, Fumiko wanted to make her story
known to the world. The address of the Hanas’s brother was being identified through the boy
who used to share the bunk with him. On coming back to Tokyo, she wrote the letter to George
about the work she is doing and about the identification of the children with Hana. After getting
the letter, George responded immediately, provided her with the photograph of Hana and with
the information of their life before the starting of the war. On visiting the Tokyo Center, George
was extremely overwhelmed. He felt that though Hana had died, it is through the hard work of
Fumiko, she has become a teacher as she can teach the various children in japan about tolerance,
compassion and respect. He felt that through the hard work of Fumiko, Hrana was being
honored. It is through Fumiko that the life that is being led by Hana was being discovered

4E.B WHITE’S CHARLOTTE’S WEB AND KAEEN KAVINE’S HANA’S SUITCASE
(Kertzer). The work of Fumiko has ultimately stimulated the imagination of a various number of
children across the world. It is because of her work; she even received an honorary Ph.D. in
education by the York University in Toronto. Presently, Fumiko keeps on traveling throughout
the world to talk to the children and even the adults about the need to learn from that of the past
and the present.

5E.B WHITE’S CHARLOTTE’S WEB AND KAEEN KAVINE’S HANA’S SUITCASE
References
Clark, Nicole. "A Boy, a Mouse, and a Spider: The Story of EB White." Children's Book and
Media Review 39.4 (2018): 65.
Hall, Shyima. Hidden girl: The true story of a modern-day child slave. Simon and Schuster,
2014.
Kertzer, Adrienne. "Overwhelmed by Memory." Canadian Literature 221 (2014): 163.
Levine, Karen. Hana's Suitcase: The Quest to Solve a Holocaust Mystery. Crown Books for
Young Readers, 2016.
McMaster, Juliet. "White's Wilbur and Whiteley's Peter Paul Rubens." Journal of Juvenilia
Studies 2.1 (2019): 46-54.
Quirk, Linda. "Hana’s Suitcase Anniversary Album by K. Levine." The Deakin Review of
Children's Literature 3.1 (2013).
Rickard, Laura. "Charlotte's Web." (2013).
ROUGEUX, BΥ NATALIE C. "Oh, what a tangled web we weave when." Federal
lawyer (2014).
Weinstein, Larry. Inside Hana's Suitcase. Alliance Films, 2013.
Yu, Chen-Wei. "Reading Children and Animal-Human Relations in Charlotte’s Web and The
One and Only Ivan."