Fern and Innocence

Fern isn’t made to imperfect. She isn’t deep enough to be imperfect. But she is the shifter. Fern is mad to be an innocent 8 year old, who is in love with the simplicity of life and the wonders of being alive. But she isn’t that deep. She’s a “what you see is what you get” kind of character.

         

However, if you dig deeper, fern is indecisive. She doesn’t realize what she does to Wilbur because of her innocence, but it tortures him. She loves him so much. She saves his LIFE. She does everything for him and then leaves him. Then she comes back, and leaves him again for Henry.  

The one thing about shifters is that they never lose one thing, and for fern, it’s that she never stops loving Wilbur. I don’t think she ever forgets him either, the pig who showed her life.

I also though about Templeton in the same way. That he was the shifter not fern. He does shift, Wilbur to laziness. But in the end, food always ALWAYS wins him over. I believe that he is not the shifter, because in the end, the subject he was shifting on, he always went one way. Fern didn’t exactly have a goal. She never stopped loving Wilbur but she definitely left him. I feel like they almost do have a romantic relationship. In the eyes of an 8 year old I think she also thinks so. But then she meets Henry Fussy and learns what “love is”.

There’s always a reason why the shifter can’t make up their mind. We have to assume that fern doesn’t come for a reason. She has school, or is away or sick or something. The author doesn’t tell us though. There is kind of a fear to the knowledge that maybe fern didn’t come because she just didn’t want to. That fern actually abandoned Wilbur. I think that’s what Wilbur feared the most. That he was just dropped. For no good reason. 

Death - what we must accept

 Charlottes Web

            Charlotte knows that she must die. Every animal every being, knows it must die. To an animal like us, who live for 80 plus years, a one year life, seems very sad and pathetic. However to a spider like charlotte, this is the norm. This is accepted. Even when charlotte is inches from dying she patiently explains to Wilbur what is going to happen. If charlotte spent every minute of her life, worrying about her death… she might as well have keeled over from the start. But charlottes so much wiser then that. She accepts her death, and in doing so, she leads the best life possible.

            When you find out that charlotte is going to die, your reactions are similar to Wilbur’s. Frantic, panicking, hopeless. But we have to remember that to charlotte, this is a life. She has lived it. It’s been a year. Its time for her to die.

            One day my mother brought home a necklace with beads around a cord. Every bead was a tiny skull. I was concerned it would bring us bad luck. Make something terrible happen to us. We looked it up online and found that it wasn’t a calling of death, but an acceptance of death. Form that day forth, I though of death that way.

            This thing we call “death”, this passing, this losing, this ending. What is it really? It is the mark of completion of ones life. Charlotte did her duty. She saved someone, some pig. Her life was not worthless, and thus she dies peacefully.

            It is only death that comes to soon, by gun or accident or illness, which I think we have a right to grieve for. Sure, let’s be sad, let’s wish whoever was still here… but if it’s their time it’s their time, and you have to get over it.

            I think the knowledge that you could have prevented something and it happened anyways is what really gets us. The fact that every thing could have been different. Wilbur slowly realizes that he couldn’t do anything for charlotte, and pretending to do so, was lying. He helped the only way he could, by making sure that her life lived on in her kids. I wonder if it replaced charlotte at all. I wonder if anything is replaceable.

            The real issue with death is this constant fear of the unknown. If our parents would tell us that when we die, there’s a meadow that we all live in, and play in, we would all feel better. Heck, if they could tell us anything, we would all feel better.

Everything Is Connected

Charlotte’s Web – page 75 – Templeton is connected to Wilbur.

            “Then he remembered that the rat had been useful in saving Charlotte’s life, and that Charlotte was trying to save his life”. This is Wilbur’s train of though as he is eating his lunch. Templeton, Charlotte, Wilbur; all while eating food which is necessary to survive. Templeton is always doing chores for charlotte and I always wonder why, but then I always remind myself that Templeton needs Wilbur to survive. If Wilbur’s gone, then Wilbur’s food is gone. Templeton wouldn’t have much to eat.

            Templeton isn’t a good rat. He never looks out for anyone but himself, he’s lazy, and he is kind of creepy. The thing that intrigues me the most, however, is that he never admits he’s wrong. He may agree with the opposite ideas, but he won’t expose himself to the weakness that being wrong brings.

            Being a rat, I guess he decides to do whats right a little cleverer then average. He indirectly helps Wilbur by helping Charlotte, and in the long run, helps himself. This is what I mean; everything Templeton does is connected to whatever Charlotte does which affects what Wilbur does. It goes past that too, Wilbur to Fern, Fern to her mother, her mother to her father, on and on and on.

            It is mind blowing to think about how almost everything you do is connecting to something else. For example you could really hate this blog, and not continue reading it, and in doing so find some other, better blog and read that or you could really love this blog, become obsessed, never do anything else but read it, and eventually lose all sleep.

            This stretches from the confines of the book, where every character intertwines, to what you do with your day, to how that affects others. There really isn’t an end to it, which is what makes it so interesting! And even when it ends, it always connects back to the beginning.

            After Wilbur says “Then he remembered that the rat had been useful in saving Charlotte’s life, and that Charlotte was trying to save his life” he says “so he left the whole noodle instead of half”. This is actually really sad. Wilbur was only thinking about one point, but he didn’t realize how much Templeton was doing for him. It’s really an unjust reward, a noodle. Yet, the sad thing is, is that most of us never get recognition, let alone a reward for the good (or bad) effects we have on people’s life and world. Don’t we deserve more?

            I know that through out the book, Templeton helps Charlotte save Wilbur, and is always complaining about it. Yet, you have to think about it, he must feel very under-appreciated. All anyone ever talks about him, is what a horrible rat he is, when in truth, he is a helpful one. I think Templeton learned that you can look out for yourself, and help others at the same time. It’s a little over done, but I think it’s a really important balance to strike and understand, and Templeton has achieved that.