An Analysis Of E. B. White’s Juvenile Literary Works As Bildungsroman

Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web and The Trumpet of the Swan are the juvenile literature by Elwyn Brooks White, a famous contemporary American writer. With his original language appeal, the delicate emotions and the profound educational significance, these three works have become the literary classics loved by both young people and adults. Charlotte’s Web, the most popular story has been issued 5 million copies with over 20 languages translations so far.All of these three stories narrate the growing process of the protagonists from the adolescence to the complete transformation. Focusing closely on the textual study, this paper explores the Bildungsroman characteristics and the special literary qualities that are reflected in Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web and The Trumpet of the Swan from the perspective of Bildungsroman. In addition, this paper also analyses the features of American Bildungsroman that are reflected in these three literary works’ and the causes for the features.In the first place, this thesis summarizes the characteristics of Bildungsroman respectively from the perspectives of the content, ethic-orientation and structural-pattern. Then it expresses the characteristics of Bildungsroman that are embodied in White’s three works. Firstly, they correspond to the features of characters and plots in Bildungsroman with regard to the content. Secondly, the stories conform to the educational significance of Bildungsroman in the respect of ethic-orientation. Thirdly, the structures of these three stories are based on the structural pattern of Bildungsroman, which reflects structural characteristic of Bildungsroman in terms of structure. Moreover, the thesis summarizes the features of White’s Bildungsromans which are also his contributions to the development of American Bildungsroman. In the end, this thesis discusses the development from the perspectives of both the social background and his personality.The thesis probes into the literary qualities that are revealed in Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web and The Trumpet of the Swan from the perspectives of content, ethic-orientation and structure by means of analyzing the text in detail. Also it interprets the writer’s innovations on American Bildungsroman and studies the development at the same time.