Why Didn’t ‘Charlotte’s Web’ Make Everyone Vegan?
How a book about a pig who’s desperate to live manages to justify eating pigs
“Where’s Papa going with that ax?”
Many “kids” books star animal characters, but, from it’s first sentence, Charlotte’s Web stands out. Author E.B. White, a small farm owner himself, didn’t shy away from the deaths his talking animals faced at the hands of humans. Death and the threat of it are all over this book. The story revolves around a pig avoiding slaughter, and it ends with a notoriously tear-jerking death. We are clearly meant to care a lot for Wilbur and his animal friends. So why didn’t Charlotte’s Web make more of us think twice about eating animals?
If it’s been a while, or if you’ve never read it at all, you’ll probably be surprised by how morbid Charlotte’s Web is. It opens with Fern, a young girl, begging her dad not to kill the runt of the litter. “It’s unfair! The pig couldn’t help being small, could it? If I had been small at birth would you have killed me?” Her dad gives in. Fern names the pig Wilbur, and he eventually finds a home at her uncle’s farm. Almost immediately, a cranky old sheep shares some startling news. “They’re going to kill you. Turn you into smokes bacon and ham…Almost all young pigs get murdered by the farmer as soon as the real cold weather…
