The Not So Subtle Portrayal of Supernatural Elements in E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web and Louis Sachar’s Holes Anonymous College

In children’s literature, supernatural elements can be found throughout many novels and short stories. The definition of supernatural according to merriam-webster is “attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature” (Webster). In E.B White’s Charlotte’s Web and Louis Sachar’s Holes, nature is the catalyst to all the events that take place throughout the two novels. Nature and the supernatural are often in correlation with one another since many things in the world are still unexplained and may never fully be explained. Humans have an innate sense of wonder and awe and often times seek the answers to such unexplainable supernatural occurrences. In Charlotte’s Web, the supernatural events that take place and portrayed mysticism of nature are the basis of the entire stories plot while in Holes, the supernatural elements of history, fate, and nature are the backbone to the events that unfold in the novel.

In E.B White’s Charlotte’s Web, elements of the supernatural can be found throughout the plot of the novel. The entire concept of this novel is based upon the supernatural ideas of talking animals, the “miracle” of words appearing in a spider’s web, and the sense of wonder at the beauty found in the...