Charlotte's Web — Chapter 5

About This Passage

E.B. White closes Chapter 5 by letting Wilbur's doubt stand in full (the stacked adjectives 'fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty') and then intervening in his own voice as narrator to overrule it. This is the moment the novel declares what kind of story it intends to be: one in which surface impressions are wrong and faithfulness is already a settled fact — we are only waiting for the plot to reveal what the narrator already knows.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 5 as three layered movements: Wilbur's restless night of expectancy, his public search at dawn, and the actual meeting with Charlotte. Then identify which moment is the chapter's true center and defend your choice.

Discussion Questions

1. E.B. White opens Chapter 5 with the sentence 'Wilbur's stomach was empty and his mind was full.' What is the rhetorical effect of this chiastic balance, and how does it prepare the reader for the chapter's central concern with different kinds of hunger?
2. Charlotte offers two distinct defenses for her trapping — personal necessity ('I have to live, don't I?') and ecological function ('bugs would increase and multiply and get so numerous that they'd destroy the earth'). Which defense carries more moral weight, and does Wilbur's reversal — 'Perhaps your web is a good thing after all' — show genuine conviction or polite surrender?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide