Charlotte's Web: Cognitive Development, Morality, and Children's Lit

My niece, age 11, agreed to read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White with me and to serve as my informant for this project (Shapiro, "Personal Interview"). She is extremely bright, with an IQ over 140, and has already completed the seventh grade, having skipped second grade in elementary school. I mention this not to boast, but because she may be more advanced in her thinking and vocabulary skills than some other 9–11-year-old informants — arguably positioned somewhere between Piaget's third (ages 7–11) and fourth (ages 11–15) stages of development: the Concrete Operational and Formal Operational stages, respectively. She told me this was actually her second exposure to Charlotte's Web, though her first time reading the book on her own. Her third-grade teacher had read it aloud to the class, but she said she did not remember many details — just "the baby pig and a huge spider." After finishing the book on her own with me, she told me she had noticed many different things than when simply hearing it read aloud.

In order to ensure that my informant would read all of Charlotte's Web carefully and be able to answer my questions in sufficient detail, I promised to take her ice skating — her favorite pastime — if she did so. She agreed easily to all my terms, and in the end she did a very good job of answering all my questions. She did occasionally attempt to elicit help from me; I have indicated the places within her answers where she did so. I resisted all impulses to coach her, and if she was too persistent in asking for help or reassurance, I simply moved on to the next question. I do not know whether her answers are typical of the 9–11 age group, but they were definitely very interesting.

I tape-recorded the interview for accuracy rather than attempting to transcribe everything by hand. In most places I quote her responses directly. In other places — where she gave longer or more rambling answers, or where she hesitated and I paused the recorder to give her more time to think — I summarize her comments as accurately as possible.

My informant described five characters from Charlotte's Web — Fern, Mr. Arable, Wilbur, Charlotte, and Templeton — as follows:

"Fern was a very kind girl. She knew her father was being cruel when he was going to kill the little baby pig just because he was too small, so she stopped him when he wanted to kill Wilbur. She knew it was wrong for her father to kill Wilbur just because he was the runt. Fern's father, Mr. Arable, seemed mean at first when he wasn't going to let Fern keep the pig, but then he changed his mind. Wilbur was more like a person. It was funny when Fern put him in a baby carriage with her doll and wheeled them around. I liked that funny little picture."

"Also, Wilbur was smart. He loved Fern and she loved him so much. They were so close all the time. It seemed like Wilbur and Fern were really in tune with each other — like, they understood each other, even after Wilbur got sold to Fern's uncle for six dollars and they put him in the barn. Fern started visiting Wilbur all the time, and she saw the other animals in her uncle's barn. The funniest animal was Templeton the rat — the way he talked, and what the other animals said about him, like how he was selfish. But he didn't seem that bad. He got newspaper clippings so Charlotte could make words, and he bit Wilbur on the tail to wake him up at the fair when he fainted."

I then asked: "Why do you think they said those things about Templeton, and then he acted differently from how they described him?"

She answered: "I don't know. Maybe because they needed a rat — because a rat does certain things, like hunting for stuff they needed. He kept saying he didn't care about Wilbur, but I think he did."

About Charlotte's death, she said: "Charlotte's death was really sad. It was like she gave her whole life to Wilbur. She really helped him out, and then she just died. You knew she was dying because she said so, so you had time to get used to it. Maybe she used up all her strength saving Wilbur, or it was just her time to die. I'm not really sure."

I next asked: "What did you think when Wilbur offered to take care of Charlotte's egg sac and raise her 514 baby spiders? Was that a good or a bad idea?"

She answered: "I thought it was nice — to pay her back, you know, because she saved him. Then she could die and not worry about her babies, because Wilbur was taking care of them. I thought it was a good idea. The only thing was, I couldn't figure out how he was going to keep track of them. But then they flew away, or they made up balloons or something."

I then asked: "Why do you think Fern was the only one who could hear the animals talking, and everyone thought she was just making it up?"

She replied: "I think it was just a stage she was going through."

I asked: "Could it have been anything else?"

She replied: "I dunno. I think she was probably just imagining it. Like the guy who made the story up. Because she never told anyone anything they couldn't see for themselves — like when the geese were born, they were already born."

I said: "OK, but what if she really did hear them talking? Just pretend it's true."

She replied: "OK. Then it's a telepathy. She just knows what they think? Is that right? [I did not respond to her request for help.] She didn't really butt in or make them do stuff she wanted — like pet them, or whatever. I don't think she even petted Wilbur. Yeah, her uncle said you can't touch Wilbur anymore, you can just look at him. But they knew she wouldn't hurt them. Sometimes when my cat sneaks out and gets in a fight, I'm usually right that he needs to go to the vet, because I always pet him and he sleeps with me. That's probably not the right answer, is it? [I did not answer.]"

I then asked: "Was Charlotte a good friend?"

She replied: "Yes. That was what the whole thing was about."

"Why would any spider want to help a pig from the slaughter?" I asked.

She replied: "Because she was a good friend and she felt sorry for Wilbur, so she wanted to help him out."

I asked: "Was Charlotte showing off her intelligence to the other animals?"

She answered: "I don't think she cared what the other animals thought. But you know Templeton? He wanted compliments all the time. Charlotte was just, like, 'OK, I'm gonna save you.'"

I asked: "Did you like this book?"

She said: "Yeah, I thought it was good, except when Charlotte died."

"Would you tell your friends to read it?" She replied: "Yeah, probably, if they haven't read it yet."

"What was your favorite part?" She said she had two favorite parts and a third "sort of favorite" part. Her very favorite part was when Fern first saved Wilbur and bottle-fed him and wheeled him around in a baby carriage. She also loved how Wilbur followed Fern to the bus stop when she went to school and waited for her when she came home, and how they went swimming together in the river along with Fern's brother Avery.

Her second favorite part was the whole section where Charlotte figured out how to save Wilbur, and then when Charlotte spun words into her web and everyone was so impressed with Wilbur — even though he was just the same pig as before.

Her third, "sort of favorite" part was when the Zuckermans and the Arables went to the county fair and Fern got to go on the rides with Avery, buy a snow cone, and ride the Ferris wheel with Henry Fussy.

I then asked: "Say you want to get friends of yours to read it. If some of them don't like reading, how would you talk them into it?"

She said: "That's hard, because if a friend really wanted to read it and then she couldn't, she'd get mad I asked her."

I said: "OK, maybe someone who doesn't have dyslexia but just doesn't read much."

She replied: "I guess I'd just tell them about it and sort of tell them what happens, but I wouldn't tell them everything. I wouldn't tell them the end — you know, how Charlotte dies. I'd tell them how Fern raises this pig. I'd say there's a movie but the book is better, so you should read the book first. Then you could rent the movie. I'd say it's easy to read, and not too long."

Finally, I asked: "What was the moral dilemma of Charlotte's Web?"

She replied: "Wait. Huh?" I asked again: "What was the moral dilemma?" She asked me to explain what a dilemma was. I said a dilemma is when you can go one way or another — the right way, which might be harder and take more effort but help someone, or the wrong way, which may be easier but could let the other person down or leave them in danger.

She saw two dilemmas. The first was when Fern decides to take responsibility for raising the baby pig — because otherwise it would die — and it is still a lot of work and not always fun, but Fern still does it. The second was when Charlotte decided to save Wilbur, though it was a lot of extra work for her, because Wilbur was a friend and "you should try and help your friends out if they have a problem."

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

According to Huitt and Hummel (2003), Jean Piaget, one of the foremost theorists within the field of developmental psychology during the 20th century, "believed that what distinguishes human beings from other animals is our ability to do 'abstract symbolic reasoning.'" Piaget's views are often compared with those of Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), who looked more to social interaction as the primary source of cognition and behavior — a distinction somewhat analogous to the differences between Freud and Erikson in terms of personality development (Huitt & Hummel, "Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development").

Piaget's particular research interest was how children think. "He noticed that young children's answers were qualitatively different than older children's, which suggested to him . . . they thought differently" (Huitt & Hummel). Piaget identified four distinct stages of human development: (1) the Sensorimotor stage (Infancy); (2) the Pre-operational stage (Toddler and Early Childhood); (3) the Concrete Operational stage (Elementary and Early Adolescence); and (4) the Formal Operational stage (Adolescence and Adulthood).

In the third stage, the Concrete Operational Stage, "intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. Operational thinking develops (mental actions that are reversible). Egocentric thought diminishes" (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). During this stage, a child begins to reason logically and to organize thoughts coherently, and egocentric thinking begins to wane. Based on my informant's responses to my interview questions about Charlotte's Web, I would place her either at the end of the Concrete Operational Stage (ages 7–11) or at the beginning of the Formal Operational Stage (ages 11 and beyond), based on her ability to think operationally, engage in non-egocentric thought, and engage in abstract thinking (Huitt & Hummel).

Character Education and Charlotte's Web

Character education — that is, education that stresses both morality and ethics in addition to the usual emphasis on intellectual knowledge — increasingly includes efforts by legislators, teachers, and parents to instill in young people not merely information but also the character traits known to promote success and happiness in life (Brynildssen, 2002). One approach that shows particular promise is the use of children's literature as a pedagogical device ("Character Education through Children's Literature").

In that sense, Charlotte's Web is arguably an appropriate teaching tool. Based at least on my own interview with my eleven-year-old informant, the novel implicitly encourages children to reflect on ethical dilemmas and on the importance and responsibilities of friendship — even when being a true friend means facing hardship, inconvenience, and making difficult sacrifices for others.