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Copywork
About This Passage
Charlotte's exposition of her rhetorical theory. The passage compresses the entire chapter's implicit claim about language — that words do not merely describe, they steer perception — and it does so in the mundane register of farm talk, which is exactly the kind of stylistic collision E.B. White cultivates throughout.
Couldn't be worse. We don't want Zuckerman to think Wilbur is crunchy. He might start thinking about crisp, crunchy bacon and tasty ham. That would put ideas into his head. We must advertise Wilbur's ...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell the chapter as an essay of approximately ten sentences, tracing the movement from Charlotte's solitary nighttime craftsmanship through the collective human reaction to Wilbur's acrobatic audition, the bedtime stories, and the final lullaby. Pay attention to how E.B. White modulates mood across the chapter.
Discussion Questions
- Charlotte's weaving monologue — 'Attach! Descend! Pay out line!' — reads like a training drill or a ship's command sequence. Examine how E.B. White's choice to let us hear the LABOR of the miracle reframes our theological or metaphysical understanding of what a 'miracle' is in this novel.
- The three words Templeton retrieves from the dump — 'Crunchy,' 'Pre-shrunk,' 'With New Radiant Action' — are all commercial refuse. Analyze what E.B. White is arguing about the relationship between advertising and moral vocabulary in mid-twentieth-century American life.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
To present in a manner intended to attract attention or promote favorable reception; to make public in a calculated way.
Item 2
Marked by moral elevation, magnanimity of character, or lofty bearing worthy of respect.
Item 3
Emitting light or heat; figuratively, expressing great joy, hope, or health through one's appearance.
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Critical Thinking
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