EAC273: Character Analysis of Charlotte's Web and Hana's Suitcase

This essay provides a detailed character analysis of Wilbur from E.B. White's *Charlotte's Web* and Hana Bradyova from Karen Levine's *Hana's Suitcase: A True Story*. The paper examines how Wilbur, a vulnerable piglet, undergoes a transformation from a dependent runt to a caring character, highlighting his relationship with Charlotte and his understanding of life. It contrasts this with Hana, a young Jewish girl whose life was tragically cut short during the Holocaust, representing the innocence and loss of childhood. The analysis explores the characters' roles in their respective stories, their impact on the themes of the narratives, and their overall contribution to the genre of children's literature. The essay emphasizes the contrasting experiences and character arcs of these two figures, offering a comparative perspective on their significance within their literary contexts.

Running head: ENGLISH ESSAY
ENGLISH ESSAY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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ENGLISH ESSAY
The paper seeks to delve into the depth of character analysis of two very different
characters both belonging to children literature. The paper focuses on the two specific
characters from E. B. Whites’ Charlotte’s Web and Karen Levine’s Hana’s Suitcase: A true
Story. The objective of the paper is to find out how the characters are associated to the themes
of the stories and how these characters go through certain changes. The character analysis
shows the impact of their characters on the plot of the respective stories. The paper therefore
tries to portray the purpose of the existence of the characters in both the stories from the
category of children literature.
Wilbur is shown to have been saved from premature and unfortunate death by the
Fern. Wilbur was a vulnerable runt that was nurtured by the Fern till he was at the age of five
weeks. The baby runt was taken care by the Fern like a mother would have done with him.
Since the runt was found by the Fern at a very tender age the motherly nature of the Fern was
bestowed upon him due to his childhood being at safe hands of the Fern (ZHAO, Lin and
Liangqiu 670). He has been pampered and joyous when he was under the shelter of affection
of the Fern. He has been shown to be an energetic kid to get excited about swimming and
playing in the pram. However, he felt extremely miserable when he had been separated from
the Fern. Wilbur is certainly very sensitive because he has been portrayed as a character who
has always been im search of love and affection.
Wilbur is a simple runt with simplicity imbedded in his mind and has never cared for
anything more but his livelihood. His demands are minimalistic and he seems to be innocent
and ignorant of multiple things. When he met Charlotte in the barn for the first time he was
scared of the bloodthirsty nature of the latter (Wenjia and Yuying 32). He was so innocent
that he did not understand why Charlotte had to showcase her killing spree time and again
initially but he comprehended the worth of survival instinct and the worth of it gradually.
Wilbur knows to acknowledge little efforts and therefore knows to recognize things that

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taught him how kind and affectionate Charlotte had been. He was open to learn new things
from Charlotte and enriched himself with her knowledge and insight. He also learnt what
situation meant.
Wilbur undergoes a journey of transformation from an ordeal to an understanding
being who put a lot of effort in learning to create a web like Charlotte in the beginning while
he realized that he was not meant for this job. Therefore he decided to quit trying in that field
and constantly depended on her to grow up as a better being (Meyers 100). He was not
dishonest and courageous enough to accept his mistakes. He decided to take care of the egg
sac of Charlotte because he knew that was the best thing he could offer. He is a round
character to perceive every emotion and emerge as an understanding fellow out of it.
Karen Levine in the account of Hana’s Suitcase: A True Story focuses on a
nonfictional character that is indicative of the title, namely Hana Bradyova (Levine). She was
a small Jewish girl who had been victimized in the time of Holocaust. It is true that this piece
of literature reflects so much of sensitivity and deals with hardcore melancholy that it seems
to be too much to fit into the category of children’s literature. A story that belongs to this
category is not expected to show death and vulnerability of human emotion with brute and
lack of mercy from one human race to the other.
The character of Hana Bradyova is representative of all those little boys and girls who
have been subjected to the grotesque nature of Holocaust. She is like “Bruno” from The Boy
in the Striped Pyjamas or the little boy from Life is Beautiful. Hana was born in Prague,
Czechoslovakia and her life terminated at the age of thirteen in the German gas chamber of
its respective concentration camp near Auschwitz near the territory of Poland. Hana is seven
years old while the story beings. Hana has all the characteristics of a little girl, contented and

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lively. She is energetic and full of energy (Quirk). She is jovial and loves to engage herself in
playing with her brother who had survived the aftermath of Holocaust as discovered later.
Hana, like all other little girls of her age was busy in doing things and learning
multiple activities. She had her own dream of making something good out of herself. Hana
and George were brought up in a beautiful land that was surrounded by green meadows and
they used to stay in a land of beauty contributing to her dreams (Taylor). She always wanted
to be a teacher when she would grow up. She had this vigor wish to perform on her favorite
piano. She was jolly and very popular amongst the children of her age. That she always
wanted to take part in school plays made her an extrovert character. She and her brother were
the heart of the family. There was no such development in her character traits because she did
not get enough time to go through any transformation rather her character did not demand her
to change at this age. She was killed before she reached the age of understanding the context
of the ongoing war against humanity (Cloonan, Louise, and Hutchison).
Therefore it can be concluded that the paper has chosen two characters from two
different story and developed how these two characters are contributing to the themes of the
respective story. The former is just a sidekick while the latter is the protagonist of the story
and both of them have their individual addition to the story to enrich the essence of them.

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References
Wenjia, Z. H. O. U., and L. I. Yuying. "A Case Study on Ren Rongrong’s Translation of Charlotte’s
Web from the Perspective of Translational Poetics." Higher Education of Social Science 17.1 (2019):
31-35.
Meyers, Jeffrey. "Robert Lowell: Trapped in Charlotte’s Web." Writers and Their Mothers. Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham, 2018. 97-111.
ZHAO, Yushan, Lin XU, and Liangqiu LÜ. "The Application of Gestalt Simplicity Principle in
Translation of Charlotte’s Web." Studies in Literature and Language 12.1 (2016): 14-18.
Zhou, Wenjia, and Yuying Li. "On Children’s Literature Translation from the Perspective of
Manipulation Theory—A Case Study of the Ren Rongrong’s Chinese Translation of Charlotte’s
Web." Theory and Practice in Language Studies 9.6 (2019): 666-671.
Levine, Karen. Hana's Suitcase: The Quest to Solve a Holocaust Mystery. Crown Books for Young
Readers, 2016.
Quirk, Linda. "The Adventures of Miss Petitfour by A. Michaels." The Deakin Review of Children's
Literature 6.3 (2017).
Taylor, C. J. "Sherrill Grace, Landscapes of War and Memory: The Two World Wars in Canadian
Literature and the Arts 1977-2007." Manitoba History 82 (2016): 50-52.
Cloonan, Anne, Louise Paatsch, and Kirsten Hutchison. "Renewing Literature Circles: Pedagogies for
Curated Multimodal Responses." The Reading Teacher (2019).