Analyzing Education and Entertainment in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web

This essay analyzes the significance of education and entertainment in E.B. White's children's book, Charlotte's Web. The author argues that the book's illustrations and storytelling techniques effectively blend educational elements with entertainment, making it appealing to children. The essay highlights how the straightforward language, captivating illustrations, and themes of friendship and innocence contribute to children's learning and cognitive development. It discusses the importance of visual elements, like the cover illustration and other images, in capturing children's attention and aiding their understanding of the story. The essay emphasizes the role of storytelling in conveying important life lessons, such as the value of friendship, compassion, and social engagement. The author also references the book's portrayal of family and the emotional impact of the story, which reinforces the idea that children's books should introduce them to normative emotions. The essay concludes by reiterating the importance of incorporating entertaining factors into children's education to make the learning process more engaging and effective. The essay also references the importance of loving and caring for animals.

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Importance of education and entertainment in the Charlotte’s Web
The following essay will brief upon the significance of the Children’s Literature to
distinguish between the aspects of education and entertainment. This close relationship between
education and entertainment has always been present because the IQ level of children is not
adequately developed and so, the education of children can be made better through the stories
that will attract them. The connection between the minds of children and culture can be made
swiftly with entertaining stories.
Thesis statement, The Children’s book Charlotte’s Web has provided the children with the
scope for new levels of learning through beautiful illustrations and storytelling capacities that
aim at education and development.
Illustrations with beautiful images are crucial elements of structuring the Children
literature books. Children are not quite accustomed to the jugglery of words and phrases that are
often used by the novelists. The book Charlotte’s Web has been written by E.B. White in the
year 1952. Garth Williams had done the page illustrations of this book. The language of the book
is straightforward and lucid that is identifiably helpful for children to understand. In the novel,
the image of swinging on a rope gives the idea of a rhythmic touch to the story (Johnson, 44).
The entertaining illustrations attract the attention of the children reading the book. They would

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not have been able to understand the meanings of all the words in the book but could
comprehend the storyline by seeing the allegorical interpretations. The illustration of Charlotte
and the pig in her lap present in the cover page of the book is indeed very captivating for
children, enabling the little children within the age group of 0 to 5 to learn to love the small
animals
The perceptions of stories depend on storytelling capacities. It is all about how well they
can entertain the children and makes it attractive to them. The theme of innocence and death has
also been portrayed in the book. However, some children have already lost their parents or
lovable pets at a very early age. So, these children have experienced the loss of demise. The
friendship between these creatures has been depicted in the story. Due to the presence of these
elements, the story can be called a fable. The storyteller has presented the plot beautifully, and
children could understand the messages of Charlotte in her web when she tries very hard to save
the life of Wilbur from the hands of the farmer (Wolf, 38). Such a tale, therefore, enables the
children reading the novel to to understand the value of friendship and thereby help each other
during difficult times. This point is useful for the essay since the love and understanding between
human being and animals builds up a society where everyone can learn to live in harmony.
There is an illustration in the book where the mother is taking care of both Charlotte and the pig
in the baby cot. This signifies the fact that the pets are considered to be family members and they
should be treated with the same dignity as the human members.
Storytelling capacity of the author involves the usage of emotional materials that makes
Children’s books more entertaining. It is true that the sensitive materials are abundantly present
in the books written for children (Wolf, 38). So, it can be said that the main purpose of the
Children’s book authors is to introduce the children with normative emotions that are integral for

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life. When children will learn about the bond of friendship between Wilbur and Charlotte, they
will also learn about the art of making friends and helping each other (Ceraldi, 78). This virtue of
fellow feeling will thus gradually develop among little children that will help them to be kind to
each other as well. The illustrations of capturing the photo of the pig are an essential element in
the book where the characters appear to be very happy. The visit to the fair or a gathering in the
illustrations will teach the children to engage in social activities and mix with people.
The importance of stories has always been immense in the learning process of children.
Their cognitive power of understanding is much less than that of adults. It might be so because
children are sometimes unable to make quick judgments while the adults can do so. In this
aspect, the figures in Children's books are very inspiring for them. Critics have viewed this as a
cognitive action when children become very close with a specific colour, a cartoon character or a
story (Wolf, 38). The stereotypical nature of both and girls sometimes develop from instincts, but
this should not be the only basis for the judgment of their characteristic features.
On a concluding note, it has to be mentioned that the education of children must
accompany entertaining factors like oral learning, page illustrations on books and many others.
These elements will in turn, aid the children to gather knowledge and life-skills. It will also make
their learning process less monotonous and tedious. The illustrations in the book have enhanced
the character of fellow feeling within the children and taught them the importance of loving and
caring for animals.

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Works Cited
Ceraldi, Gabrielle. "Advertising the self, The culture of personality in EB white's charlotte's
web." Jeunesse, Young People, Texts, Cultures 6.1 (2014), 77-94.
Frank, Helen. Cultural Encounters in Translated Children's Literature. Routledge, 2014.
Galda, Lee, Lauren A. Liang, and Bernice E. Cullinan. Literature and the child. Cengage
Learning, 2016.
Johnson, Rebecca A. "Trends in Children's Literature and the Social Implications." (2014).
Levy, Michael, and Farah Mendlesohn. Children's Fantasy Literature. Cambridge University
Press, 2016.
Nikolajeva, Maria. "Recent trends in children's literature research, Return to the
body." International Research in Children's Literature 9.2 (2016), 132-145.
White, Elwyn Brooks. Charlotte's web/druk 6. Lemniscaat Publishers, 1999.
Wolf, Shelby A. Interpreting literature with children. Routledge, 2014.