Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
This four-sentence closing passage is the quiet climax of the chapter. E.B. White could have ended at the rescue, but instead he ends at the naming — and he places the naming not at home but on a school bus, then allows the name to intrude on a geography lesson. The passage rewards copying for three reasons: (1) precise diction — 'selecting,' 'whispered,' and 'dreamily' each do work a more common word could not do; (2) the pair of dialogue tags ('she whispered to herself' / 'replied Fern dreamily') model how a skilled author varies attribution to control interiority; (3) the joke of the final line ('Wilbur' as the answer to 'the capital of Pennsylvania') carries the chapter's whole thematic weight without a single adjective of feeling.
By the time the bus reached school, Fern had named her pet, selecting the most beautiful name she could think of. "Its name is Wilbur," she whispered to herself. She was still thinking about the pig w...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize Chapter 1 of Charlotte's Web, then explain what you think E.B. White most wanted the reader to notice or feel. What specific techniques did the author use to achieve that effect?
Discussion Questions
- The chapter's first spoken words are Fern's — 'Where's Papa going with that axe?' — and its last spoken word is also Fern's — 'Wilbur.' Between these two utterances the runt is saved and renamed. What is E.B. White signaling about the nature of moral action in this novel by framing it between a child's innocent question and a child's whispered naming?
- Mr. Arable begins the chapter walking to the hog house with an axe and ends it shaking his head at his own 'foolishness.' Yet at no point does he admit Fern was right. What exactly changes in him, and what stays the same? What is the most honest reading of who he is as a moral agent?
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Behavior that lacks good sense or judgment — used here by Mr. Arable as a self-mocking apology to God for an act of love he cannot justify by farm logic.
Item 2
In spite of what has just been said; all the same — a connective word a speaker uses to concede a point while holding a position anyway.
Item 3
At once; without delay — carries a mild adult formality that the author uses for dry comic effect when Mr. Arable announces his 'policy' toward early risers.
+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 6 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free