Charlotte’s Web: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

Wilbur and Charlotte grow closer each day. He even learns to appreciate her diet, as it keeps flies away from him and the other farm animals. As Wilbur’s admiration for Charlotte grows, so does his girth—he becomes larger, gaining weight and sleeping almost all the time. One afternoon, an old sheep makes a comment on Wilbur’s weight, and warns him sadly that Homer, Edith, and Lurvy are fattening him up so they can kill him and “turn [him] into smoked bacon.” Wilbur becomes hysterical, running around the barn screaming about how he doesn’t want to die.

Charlotte urges Wilbur to be quiet. Wilbur asks Charlotte if what the old sheep has said is true. Charlotte, who has not been around very long, says she trusts the old sheep’s word. As Wilbur throws himself on the ground, keening and crying, Charlotte urges the pig to pull himself together—she promises that she will find a way to save him.