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Copywork
About This Passage
Chosen for the way grammar carries the verdict. The paragraph opens in the register of a glossary entry — a spring pig 'simply means' a pig born in springtime — and then the idyll ends in the passive voice: Wilbur 'would have to be sold.' No person condemns him; the construction does. Mr. Arable's reasons follow in flat ledger sentences, and the paragraph closes on the ten brothers and sisters, already sold, stated without comment. This is the chapter's hinge from Fern's mothering to farm economics, and the syntax itself performs the turn.
Wilbur was what farmers call a spring pig, which simply means that he was born in springtime. When he was five weeks old, Mr. Arable said he was now big enough to sell, and would have to be sold. Fern...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Before taking up the questions, retell the chapter's two movements in your own words. First the building of Wilbur's world: the feedings arranged around Fern's school day, the yard under the apple tree, the straw tunnel, the doll carriage, the brook. Then the dismantling: who declares that Wilbur must be sold, what reasons he gives, who proposes the Zuckermans, what price is set, and where Wilbur sleeps when the chapter ends. Keep the proportions honest — the happiness takes most of the chapter, and the sale takes a page.
Discussion Questions
- After five paragraphs of bottle feedings, the straw tunnel, and the doll carriage, White closes Wilbur's happiness with one flat sentence: 'Every day was a happy day, and every night was peaceful.' The very next paragraph announces that Wilbur is big enough to sell. Why might White compress all that contentment into a single quiet sentence just before he ends it? Use the words of that sentence and the details of the spring-pig paragraph that follows to weigh what the placement accomplishes.
- Fern ties a bib on Wilbur, warms his bottle, and wheels him beside the doll as one of 'her infants.' Her father calls the same animal 'a spring pig' and 'a runt' and prices him at six dollars. Why do Fern and Mr. Arable need such different names for the same pig, and what does each way of naming let its speaker do next? Use each one's words and actions from this chapter as your evidence.
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Vocabulary
Item 1
Filled with wonder and delight, as if under a spell. This is Fern's state as she watches Wilbur tunnel into the straw — the word tells us her time with him feels magical rather than ordinary.
Item 2
Showing deep, devoted love, the way a worshipper gazes at what they treasure. Wilbur looks up at Fern this way while she holds his bottle — he is her devoted dependent, not just her pet.
Item 3
The desire for food; how strongly a creature wants to eat. Wilbur's increasing hunger is the first reason Mr. Arable gives for selling him — the growth Fern lovingly fed becomes the argument against keeping him.
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Critical Thinking
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