For people who grow up on farms, the killing of animals for profit or food is normal, commonplace, expected. For the rest of us, it is hard to deal with the reality of eating an animal we’ve met, petted, and perhaps even named. This may make us hypocritical but it is true.
For many people this realization that the meat we eat actually came from a living breathing animal came the first time we read Charlotte’s Web. Charlotte’s Web is one of the finest and most popular children’s books ever written. It concentrates on the friendships between Wilbur the pig raised to become bacon and both Fern, a human girl who saved his life and Charlotte, a spider who ends up making the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that Wilbur lives to a ripe old age.
At heart a tale of friendship, trust, and unconditional love, Charlotte’s Web also deals with the realities of farm life and what that entails. It also examines the roles of different people (or in this case animals) in a society and the need to accept different personalities and types of people into a group.
The relationship between Wilbur and Charlotte is one of the most well developed and touching friendships in any children’s book I’ve ever read (or in most books aimed at adults for that matter). If you haven’t read Charlotte’s Web, I strongly recommend it.