StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Critical response paper:charlotte's web - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Stories and poems bring us together and lead us to embrace our common humanity. I think that this is a good and useful point, but I wonder if there are some…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.5% of users find it useful
Critical response paper:charlottes web
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Critical response paper:charlotte's web"

CHARLOTTES WEB Prof. One of the great things about these three stories is that they show there are universal themes found in all cultures.Stories and poems bring us together and lead us to embrace our common humanity. I think that this is a good and useful point, but I wonder if there are some things about different cultures that literature can’t communicate. In some cultures there are words for things that there aren’t in our language. Some cultures have many different words for the same sort of thing with many different aspects.

It seems to be that literature can show us very broad universal themes, but it might have trouble showing what we have in common in a nitty-gritty kind of way. One of the solutions to this are different types of characters. Throughout all cultures, characters exist. There are many ways we come to know characters. Sometimes from how they describe themselves, how they appear, sometimes from how others describe them or treat them. In Charlottes Web two characters that contrast well and bring out a great deal of each others qualities are Wilbur, the pig, and Templeton, the rat.

Every story needs a fully-formed hero with which readers can both relate to and sympathize with. They need a character that people will cheer for and hope for. A good example of this is Wilbur, the kind-hearted and life-loving pig. Wilbur is a character who almost everyone loves. He does not have a malicious bone in his body and is loyal and kind to his friends. He is well-developed character with many traits that are relatable. The reader senses Wilburs fear at being killed by the farmer. It is an emotional expression that brings us closer to the character.

This universal emotion is used to universalize Wilburs experience and make the reader understand who is as a character. His relationship with Charlotte is also useful in this respect. We see how much Charlotte cares for Wilbur and we see the qualities she likes in him. This allows us to feel more for him. Characters are sometimes defined by their friendships and relationships within a story. Wilbur is a good example of this. Just like every story needs a hero, each story needs a villain. A good villain helps to draw out the good qualities in a hero.

They also help the reader decide which side theyre really on. In Charlottes Web, Templeton is a good example of a villainous character. He is also a static character: he does not grow throughout the course of the book and his personality and way of looking at the world does not develop. Static characters are rarely heroes, because the point of a story is to see how the good characters change and learn throughout the plot. As the textbook says, “Character on the fringe rarely change” (87).

Templeton starts as a greedy and selfish character and does not much develop beyond this. He is viewed by the other characters as a bit of a tool because his behaviour is so consistent. He is easily manipulated because he only thinks in one-dimension: himself. He is not sympathetic and no one likes him. Charlottes Web has many useful examples of different characters with different qualities. They are individuals who change or remain the same throughout the book. Even though they are animals they teach us something about what is it to be a good human.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Critical response paper:charlotte's web Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1571282-critical-response-papercharlottes-web
(Critical Response paper:charlotte'S Web Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1571282-critical-response-papercharlottes-web.
“Critical Response paper:charlotte'S Web Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1571282-critical-response-papercharlottes-web.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Critical response paper:charlotte's web

Critical reponse to a news event

critical response to a News Event The article by Fogg in the Guardian addresses the issue of the housing benefits to large families, which have parents that lack employment.... He also wonders why such insignificant issues are featured in the news, since such families do not add value to the economy of their country (Fogg web).... In this essay, I will therefore, give a critical explanation of the author's argument, and counter that basing on my own convictions about the whole issue....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Paper

US Airways

Offering a response to the challenges in a flexible management age is the way to handle these challenges.... In this report, the US Airlines Group is visited in a perspective that highlights its challenges as posed by the industry, in order for the discussion of possible management decision making to deal with them....
12 Pages (3000 words) Research Paper

Response paper

Also format of the response category should be made consistently all throughout the questionnaire; if the researcher opted to use check boxes or line before the choices then it should be consistent.... Designing a research questionnaire follows a series of revisions and validations by the author to firmly assess the strength of every question and to be certain that every questions relates to the topic being studied and would not mislead participant's answers away from the… The student cited steps to be able to come up a highly qualified research questionnaire and is deemed right for putting first in the list to make a clearly defined topic of the study to avoid confusion to be able to have clear participant's Research Questionnaire: Formulating Outcome Reliability Research Questionnaire: Formulating Outcome Reliability Designing a research questionnaire follows a series of revisions and validations by the author to firmly assess the strength of every question and to be certain that every questions relates to the topic being studied and would not mislead participant's answers away from the data the researcher want to gather....
1 Pages (250 words) Research Paper

Critical Dysfunction in The Yellow Wallpaper

This paper concerns the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” that undergoes some critical dysfunctionality due to the condescending attitude of her dominating husband and the society at large.... By noting her sentiments and breakthroughs, she finds a reprieve in the “dead paper and a great relief to my mind” (Gilman1)....
2 Pages (500 words) Term Paper

American Women's Literature of the 19th Century

This report is a discussion about the life of American women in the 19th century with the help of all the supporting documents.... The discussion highlights the most important aspects of the American Women's Literature with a generalized discussion, spread across the timeframe of the 19th century....
10 Pages (2500 words) Term Paper

Gang Violence in Charlotte

The paper "Gang Violence in Charlotte" will provide a research proposal that outlines the various approaches that will be employed in examining the scale of gang violence in Charlotte North Carolina.... The United State has experienced an upsurge in gang activity over the past couple years....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper

Human Relationships from the Qualities of Pigs

In the paper “Human Relationships from the Qualities of Pigs” the author discusses the representation of the pig in the literature, which is used to create specific attributes that allow the plot to move forward and to create a stronger sense of what is occurring.... hellip; The author states that the pig is able to become a metaphor of the human elements and attributes that are a part of the human....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper

Facebook Is Using You

The table below gives the details of the web brand and the number of unique visitors that the brand received in 2011.... While the popularity of social networking is on the rise, web-based email is on the decline.... These are some of the critical issues facing most users and would be probed into, in this research paper....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us