每年的感恩节，母亲都会从《夏洛特的网》（Charlotte’s Web）摘取部分章节阅读，每次都会感动的流泪。而我从来都不是一个轻易感动流泪的人。但，作品的结尾处，简简单单的几句话却比任何其他文学作品感情来的更加炽烈：“燕子飞走了还会回来，老鼠依然是最亲近的伙伴，绵羊还是之前的绵羊，最钟爱的蜘蛛们，农场粪便的气味以及周围所有所有值得感恩的事物”。记得儿时的感恩节，一大家子人围坐在一起不是祈祷上帝保佑，而是以一颗虔诚的心诵读散文来传播感恩之心。（注：当时社会提倡“世俗人文主义”，倡导人性自由，通过个人意志行事）犹太教处于风雨飘摇期，在我的家庭里，文学是真实存在的宗教价值观。因此，我的家人，无论是作家，律师还是心理学家都对它有着浓厚的兴趣，他们有的自创作品，有的翻译著名外文作品。也许在这种浓厚的文学氛围里，我也被熏陶着渐渐对语言、文字产生了兴趣。
故事中讲述的“Charlotte”，就是作者E. B. White笔下的一号角色。其利用聪明才智充分的展示出了文字的魅力。她用自己编织的网告诉人们Wilbur是一头与众不同的猪（some pig）。奇迹出现了，曾经最普通平凡的动物真的就变成了Charlotte网中的那个猪。她用简单的几个字就描绘出了一头了不起的、闪耀的、平易近人的猪。而聪明的Charlotte利用人们易受骗的心理获得了最终的成功，解救了自己的好友。要知道，白纸黑字能起到事半功倍的效果。当附近居住的农民都跑过来目睹这头惊人的猪的时候，它没有让朋友失望，而那帮农民也不是傻子，当Wilbur在乡村大赛中获胜后，它成名了，终于躲过了杀身之祸。因为Charlotte的一句话，Wilbur的命运即发生了逆转。这位造诣深厚的作家通过一系列的文字打造了一出新的时代：本着语言文字创新的传统。可以追溯到《创世纪》，作品中，整个宇宙都真实存在；又如《新约》里的语言与神明，“In the beginning there was the Word . . . and the Word was God”(John, 1-1)。
Charlotte不是女神，她只是一只蜘蛛，在她拼出最后一口气产下孩子后就死了。但是从用词来说，虽说作者引用了很多拟人手法描写，但是，更有神化的效果。她是简单的化身，但简单中又透着不俗。在整篇小说里，Charlotte只用了5个单词，但是却达到了惊人的效果。
像Charlotte一样，我也是文字爱好者。我对周边的很多事物都充满热情，而这种热情主要集中于文字中：政治、历史、英语、辩论、志愿者活动、法国。对于一件事情而言，理解现实的意义胜过亲身经历。
E.B.以一句优美简单的宣言结束了全文，“不是每一个人都可以实现好朋友与优秀作家的双重角色。Charlotte做到了”。我只希望有一天，我也可以做到Charlotte。
ESSAY赏析
广泛里透着个性是这篇ESSAY的成功之处。首先，作者描写一家人共度感恩节的场面，给读者感动的部分。紧接着，作者将话题直接引至大家耳熟能详的一本畅销书《夏洛特的网》。经过一段简洁的描述后，作者将画面又切换到自身。作者巧妙的将作品与现实生活相结合，显示出了小家庭带给人们的那份对信仰的激情。
一般在ESSAY里摘取故事的时候，一定要仔细切忌故事情节盖过人物及主题的描写。因为根据规定，ESSAY有严格的字数限定，多大空间只能写一定数量的文字，一旦过程描写太多，结尾部分的分量就会降低，造成头重脚轻。直观感觉，结尾总结部分笔墨偏多，中间分析内容较少。作者应该着重告诉读者如何对文字产生的兴趣，这样可以让读者更加了解其选择这个话题的缘由。
当然，这些都是次要的。重要的是作者不仅希望成为一名才情卓著的作家，更希望成为像文中Charlotte那样有义气有担当的好朋友。
—Alix Olian
注释：《夏洛的网》是一位美国作家E·B·怀特在1952年所写的儿童文学。故事讲述了一只叫做夏洛特的蜘蛛和一只叫韦伯的猪的友谊。
原文参考
Every year at Thanksgiving, my mother reads the same passage from Charlotte’s Web, and every year it makes her cry. I am not predisposed to crying. However, the ending of Charlotte’s Web, with its simple declarative sentences describing “the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything,” conjures up more emotion in me than practically any other work of literature. It is inextricably linked with memories of childhood Thanksgivings, when my extended family, with its secular humanist bent, gave thanks through prose rather than through prayer. While Judaism holds some sway, Literature is the true religion of choice at my family functions. My relatives, a bunch of writers, lawyers, and psychoanalysts, are all creators or interpreters of words, so perhaps it was inevitable that I am captivated by language myself.
Charlotte, E. B. White’s arachnid heroine, is fully aware of the power of words. She uses her web to proclaim Wilbur, “Some Pig,” and, miraculously, the previously unremarkable animal becomes just that. Similarly, she manages to make her friend “terrific,” “radiant,” and even “humble” through the words of her web. While the self-effacing Charlotte attributes the success of her ploy to man’s gullibility, claiming, “People believe almost anything they see in print,” there is clearly more at work than simple deception. When farmers from miles around gather to gawk at the seemingly phenomenal pig, they are not truly being fooled, for Wilbur successively takes on each of the attributes that are ascribed to him in the spider’s web. Life conforms to Charlotte’s writing. The consummate author, she uses her words to forge a new reality. She belongs to a tradition of creation through language that stretches back as far as the Book of Genesis, in which the entire universe is brought into existence through the utterance of words, or the New Testament, where language and deity are explicitly equated: “In the beginning there was the Word . . . and the Word was God” (John, 1-1).
Charlotte is no goddess. She is only a spider, who dies alone in her final act of creation. But through her use of language, she becomes not only anthropomorphic, but theomorphic as well. She is a model of simple and efficient style. Over the course of the novel, Charlotte writes only five words, but succeeds in fundamentally altering reality.
Like Charlotte, I am a lover of words. Nearly every passion I have—politics, history, English, debate, Model UN, French—is centered on the word. Words are the means by which humans categorize and take possession of the world, and relate to one another. Words allow me to comprehend reality instead of merely experiencing it.
E. B. White ends his novel with a beautifully simple pronouncement: “It is not often someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.” I can only hope that one day someone will say the same thing about me.
COMMENTARY
Personal yet universal—that is the reason this essay works so well. First, the applicant begins with an anecdote about his family that draws the reader in on an emotional level. Then he transitions to a topic that most readers are familiar with: the popular book Charlotte’s Web. After a brief analysis of the story, the writer concludes by venturing back into the personal realm. He does a good job of intertwining the book and its contents into the larger importance of words in his life, and his ability to recognize how a small family activity ties into a larger passion is impressive.
When writing an essay referencing a story, one must be careful not to let plot summary overshadow the personal connection to the text and its themes. Maximum word counts only allow for so much space, and a summary can quickly become unwieldy. From a purely visual perspective, the essay looks heavier in the summary-laden first half than in the more analytical second section. A few more sentences about how the applicant is a lover of words would have allowed the reader a longer look into why he chose to discuss this text in his essay.
Those two alterations, however, are minor in nature. The most important thing that this applicant does in this essay is show that he aspires to be not only a smart and capable writer, but also a person with whom another student would want to live and be friends.
—Alix Olian
