Charlotte's Web — Chapter 8

About This Passage

This passage closes the chapter on a deliberate disagreement: Mrs. Arable declares what she takes to be common sense — animals don't talk — and Mr. Arable answers with a grin and a quiet doubt. The author refuses to resolve which parent is right, and pathfinders can study how E. B. White uses a single grin to tip the chapter's balance away from certainty and toward wonder.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 8 in order. Begin at the Arable breakfast table, show how Mrs. Arable's concern rises through Fern's calm account of the barn, and end with Mr. Arable's parting line about sharp ears.

Discussion Questions

1. The text says Mrs. Arable was gazing at her daughter with a queer, worried look even before Fern has said anything obviously strange — only that the goose told Templeton about an unhatched egg. What does this choice of timing tell us about how Mrs. Arable's worry works, and how does it prepare us for the whispered conversation at the end of the chapter?
2. Fern recites Charlotte's entire speech to the goslings by memory, preserving precise words like gratified and unremitting. What does this feat of memory reveal about how Fern listens in the barn, and how does it contrast with the way grown-ups usually expect a child to listen?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide