摘 要

《夏洛的网》是由EB怀特撰写的儿童题材的小说，它讲述的是一只小猪在朋友的帮助下寻求生存的故事。本文着重分析此小说中体现出的贪婪，自私，以及韦伯对生命的渴望来探索小说中的人性。希望通过对这篇小说的的分析和学习，我们能够更加了解人性，在小孩子人生价值观的培养上也能起到一定的作用。此外，也希望读者能对这本小说有更深层次的理解。

关键词:《夏洛的网》；人性; 贪婪；自私；对生命的渴望

Contents

1. Introduction.........................................................................................1
2. Demonstration.....................................................................................2

2.1 Greed....................................................................................................2

2.1.1 Greed in Charlotte’s Web.................................................................. 2

2.1.2 Analysis of greed based on this novel...............................................3

2.2 Selfishness............................................................................................4

2.2.1 Selfish Temple-ton.............................................................................5

2.2.2 Comparative analysis approach on this novel...................................6

2.3 Strong desire for life.............................................................................7

2.3.1 Desire for life in this novel................................................................6

2.3.2 Analysis of the strong desire for life in this novel...............................7

1. Conclusion............................................................................................8

Work Cited..............................................................................................10

Bibliography............................................................................................11

A Study on The Human Nature Reflected in The Charlotte’s Web

1. Introduction

E.B.White (July 11, 1899- October 1, 1985) is an American writer. He is a contributor to The New Yorker magazine and a co-author of the English language style guide The Elements of Style. He also wrote books for children, including Stuart Little(1945), Charlotte’s Web(1952), and Trumpet of the Swan(1970).

Charlotte’s Web is a novella, and it tells us a story about a pig seeking survival with the help of his friends. The protagonists of this story are almost little animals, and study on human nature from them seems quite fallacious. However, the writer uses symbolic images to express the theme of this novel. He gives the human mind to those little animals, and helps us to discover and study on human nature reflected in Charlotte’s Web

The study on human nature is beyond account and crosses all times and all lands. Wise and capable individuals both at home and abroad mainly consider that greed, selfishness and strong desire for life are the essence of human nature.

Though Charlotte’s Web is a children’ s literature, it has a huge influence on the education of adults, which were ignored in the past. In the past 60 years, this novel has been widely spread and translated around the world for it owns a different kind perspective of literature maybe one of the reasons why this novel shares popularity. In 1973, Charlotte’s Web was adapted into movie and then it is known to every family in a short time.There’s no denying that Charlotte’s Web became the favorite fairy tales of one generation. This novel was recognized as a milestone of modern fairy tales by the literati, it’s also regarded as one of the most precious wealth of children literature.

This thesis consists of three chapters. The first part is a brief introduction about the writer and novel, and the content and structure of this thesis are also included. The second part is the demonstration which perceives into human nature reflected in the Charlotte’s Web from three aspects, greed, selfishness and animal’s strong desire for life. The third part comes to the conclusion that the human nature can be reflected in the Charlotte’s Web, and we should have a deep understanding on human nature and education of children.

2 .Demonstration

2.1 Greed

According to the "General Balance Theory", the behavior of people originates from the pattern of existence. Based on this, the individual's behavior route is divided into "demand direction" and "fame direction". The so-called demand oriented is that personal behavior oriented is directly in order to meet the demand for greed. Fame orientation is everything in pursuit of fame and wealth maximization for personal behavior oriented（Yebin, 86) . On this view, we can safely draw the conclusion that person's goal behaviors are all in order to purse fame and fortune or to meet the needs of. Namely, greed is one of human nature and it controls the behavior of each of us.

2.1.1 Greed in Charlotte’s Web