Preview
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Before taking up the questions, trace the chapter's arc in your own words: the shape of Fern's daily care for Wilbur, the move from kitchen box to woodshed to the yard under the apple tree, the doll-carriage and brook episodes, and how the five-week mark turns care into a sale — ending with where Wilbur sleeps on the chapter's last page.
Discussion Questions
- Fern ties a bib on Wilbur, wheels him in the doll carriage, and lets him sleep under the doll's blanket as one of 'her infants,' while Mr. Arable speaks of a 'spring pig' that is 'now big enough to sell.' Why do these two ways of seeing the same animal coexist peacefully for five weeks, and what finally forces them into open conflict? Weigh the chapter's details of Fern's feeding routine against Mr. Arable's words about Wilbur's appetite and the ten brothers and sisters already sold.
- When Fern asks, 'Won't he be cold at night?', Mr. Arable does not offer comfort; he says, 'You watch and see what he does,' and Wilbur's straw tunnel does the answering. Why does a demonstration settle Fern's worry when her father's plain 'No' alone evidently would not, and what does that exchange suggest about the different kinds of knowledge each of them brings to the apple-tree yard? Use the scene's details, including the words 'enchanted' and 'relieved.'
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Critical Thinking
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