Transforming humility

Young Fern Arable’s delight in watching a litter of newborn piglets turns to dismay when she sees that her father (Kevin Anderson) is about to dispatch the runt with an axe. She protests, vehemently declaring that ‘this is unfair and unjust!’ Her father relents and allows her to keep the piglet which she names Wilbur. It’s the start of a beautiful friendship. Or that’s how Fern (Dakota Fanning) sees it anyway. Her mother (Essie Davis) becomes less sure as the piglet grows and takes up more and more space in the farmhouse kitchen. Once again Wilbur faces becoming bacon, but a compromise is reached: Wilbur can go to live in Uncle Homer Zuckerman’s barn over the road where Fern can visit him every day. But Fern’s mother is increasingly troubled by the girl’s obsession with the pig and the other animals in the barn, and she finally goes to talk to Doctor Dorian (Beau Bridges) who tells her, ‘There’s a name for her condition. It’s called ‘childhood phase’, and sadly it’s something she’ll grow out of.’

Friendship

Wilbur (Dominic Scott Kay) himself is lonely in his new home since the other animals don’t make him very welcome. He wants to be reassured that they’re all friends, but is not convinced by Samuel the sheep’s (John Cleese) response that they have been together in the barn for years, saying, ‘I’m not sure being in the same place is the same as being friends.’ Wilbur is soon befriended by a spider, Charlotte A. Cavatica (Julia Roberts). The other animals – especially Ike the horse (Robert Redford) find her repellent – but to Wilbur she is beautiful because she is prepared to be his friend.

Friendship is, of course, one of the central themes of Charlotte’s Web. Mrs Arable’s concern over her daughter’s friendship with a pig eventually turns to relief and anticipation as Fern begins a friendship with a boy. The animals in the barn are united as a result of Charlotte’s attempts to save Wilbur’s bacon; they become true friends as a result of being privy to the friendship between the pig and the spider. In some ways, the friendship between Wilbur and Charlotte seems to be one-way: Wilbur doesn’t want to be lonely and he doesn’t want to die, and Charlotte meets those needs. Comparing Charlotte’s Web author E.B. White’s three children’s books, Stephen Greydanus notes:

. . . if Stuart [Little] lacked motivations for his actions, Wilbur has the opposite problem: He has definite motivations, but doesn’t do anything about them. Instead, he depends entirely on others — Fern, Charlotte, even Templeton the rat — to do what needs doing. As a protagonist, Wilbur comes off rather weak, passive, and, alas, uninteresting, right to the end. Charlotte celebrates his supposed virtues in her web, but the only one that rings remotely true is ‘humble.’ The others are pure PR spin.

In the latest film version, Wilbur is, as it were, beefed up somewhat as a protagonist. His loneliness is shown as being closely related to his devotion to his one real friend, Fern, and he shows real determination to escape back to her by repeatedly head-butting a fence plank. But of course, he’s lost once he’s out in the fields and is easily lured back to the barn by a bucket of slops. There is something self-centred about what he does, but the young are always self-centred to some extent – it’s something they have to learn to grow out of. Charlotte doesn’t see their friendship as being one way. Right from the beginning, Wilbur takes an interest in her and treats her with respect when no other animal in the barn would do so. When Wilbur protests that it is Charlotte who has done everything, she retorts, ‘Don’t you know what you’ve already done? You made me your friend, and in doing so you made me beautiful in the eyes of everyone in that barn.’

Good friendships are never one-way. Even Templeton (Steve Buscemi), the proudly self-centred rat, recognises this. At first he helps Charlotte and Wilbur because of what he will get out of it, but gradually he becomes willing to even risk his life for the sake of the pig. His cynical attitude distances him from the others, but towards the end, he feels he is being taken advantage of and complains, ‘Has it occurred to you that even a rat could do with some appreciation? Dare I say love?’

Humility

Templeton is not remotely characterised by humility, but Wilbur certainly is. After Charlotte spins ‘Humble’ in her web, he asks her, ‘Are you sure it’s the right word? I don’t think I deserve any of the words you’ve written.’ ‘Then it’s exactly the right word,’ Charlotte replies. The fact that he is humble suggests that he is not as self-centred as he might appear at first sight (at least in the book). Those who are humble do not think about themselves all the time; they give as well as receive. He takes an interest in others, he finds things to appreciate about them and is unstinting in his praise, but is also prepared to be truthful. Humility is the quality which makes Wilbur a good friend whom Charlotte values enormously.

It is nevertheless true that Wilbur’s initial goals are escaping loneliness and avoiding becoming smoked ham. Once he has a new friend, the second goal dominates, of course. It is no reflection on his humility that he doesn’t want to die (a storyline about him willingly sacrificing himself for Fern’s Sunday lunch may not have been too popular) – he loves life. However, he is incapable of doing anything actively to pursue this goal, so he is, as Stephen Greydanus says, a rather passive protagonist. The hero of the story is Charlotte: in some respects it is her story rather than Wilbur’s. She sees qualities in the young pig which no one else, including Wilbur himself, has noticed. She gives unstintingly of her time and energy to construct webs which spell these qualities out for everyone else. The reactions of the Zuckermans to what they see in the webs suggest that Charlotte is initially praising Wilbur for his physical qualities, not his moral ones. But these aren’t enough to save him: fine looking pigs can make good pork. What saves Wilbur is not any of Charlotte’s words themselves, but the fact that she has helped human beings to look beyond her and even beyond the pig to see something greater. As Homer Zuckerman reflects, ‘There's no denying that our own little Wilbur, this pig, is part of something bigger than all of us. And life on that farm's just a whole lot better with him in it. He really is some pig.’ It isn’t spelt out how life on the farm is better with Wilbur there, but it is clear that Charlotte has brought salvation to Wilbur by enabling good relationships and by helping people to look again at the world in which they live.

Miracles

This new appreciation of the world begins when everybody thinks that the words ‘SOME PIG’ in a spider’s web is a miracle – though they are more impressed by the pig than the ability of a spider to write. Mrs Arable voices her doubts that it is a miracle to the doctor. ‘You don’t think it is?’ he asks. ‘The web itself is a miracle, don’t you agree? Can you spin a web?’ Mrs Arable replies that she can crochet a doily. The doctor points out that she was taught to and continues, ‘Nobody teaches a spider how to spin a web. That’s a miracle.’ Homer comes to the same understanding when he refers to the events as, ‘A miracle in a time when we don’t see too many miraculous things. Or maybe we do. Maybe they’re all around us and we just don’t know where to look.’

The realisation that the world is an extraordinary place – a miraculous place – changes the entire community of Somerset County, as the final voiceover reflects: ‘It’s as if they all knew they lived in a special place. And it made them feel a little more special.’ As a result they become kinder and more appreciative. It is not at all clear why this should be so, but references to the miraculous hint at the existence of a miracle maker behind it all. There is nothing miraculous, nothing special if there is nothing other than natural processes of cause and effect working themselves out. But if, behind these processes, stands a creator who made it work this way, who gave his creation the capacity to be extraordinary, then to appreciate that fact should indeed be a transforming realisation.

Even more transforming is the discovery of the value of humility. It is a fundamental characteristic of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who, ‘Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross’ (Philippians 2:6-8, NLT). The apostle Paul wrote that, ‘God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important’ (1 Corinthians 1:27-28, NLT). It’s a lesson that is clear in Charlotte’s Web. As the narrator concludes, the transformation happens ‘all because someone stops to see the grace, the humility and the beauty of the humblest creature. That is the gift of friendship.’

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