#fern arable

Piglet

Fern Mertens (Adventure Times)

Fern Arable (Charlotte's Web) - she's the little girl, not the piglet

Fearne Calloway (Critical Role)

Fern the Green Fairy (Rainbow Magic)

Fern (Disney Fairies)

Fern Arable (Charlotte's Web)

Note: This is about the book character only, not her portrayal in Hanna-Barbera's animated film or by Dakota Fanning in the 2006 live-action film.

*Through most of the book, she prefers animals to people. The only other child she plays with is her brother Avery; she doesn't seem to have any close friends. Instead, she's content to spend hours sitting quietly in the barn cellar and watching Wilbur in his pigpen. Obviously, being a loner and having a hyperfixation (animals) are two classic ASD traits, and a special affinity with animals is common for people on the spectrum too, especially children.

*Her mother is so concerned about her spending so much time alone in the barn instead of with other children, and how sincerely she seems to believe that the animals talk, that she consults the family doctor about her. The doctor is unconcerned, but it still shows that her behavior isn't "normal."

*Her uncle, Mr. Zuckerman, calls her "a queer child."

*Her fixation on Wilber and the other animals distracts her from practical things: for example, when she daydreams about him in class and accidentally answers "Wilbur" when the teacher asks her to name the capital of Pennsylvania.

*Yet she's intelligent for her age, with a more advanced vocabulary than the average eight-year-old (e.g. "injustice," "aloft," "sociable").

*At the same time, she's very sensitive and doesn't always think rationally or regulate her emotions very well. ("Fern, you will have to learn to control yourself," her father says.) She cries easily throughout the book, and at the beginning, she sees no difference between euthanizing a weak, undersized piglet and killing a human baby.

*When the rotten goose egg breaks, she reacts to the horrible smell by screaming and then starting to cry. A bit of an overblown reaction, unless she's hypersensitive to smell, as many people on the autism spectrum are.

*She sometimes doesn't seem to "read the room" very well. For example, at the fair, when Wilbur doesn't win first prize and the adults are all disappointed and sad, she interrupts the moment to ask for money to ride the Ferris wheel again.

*She understands the animals' speech when none of the other human characters can. When she tries to tell her parents about it, her mother thinks she's just making it up. While understanding animal language isn't an average autistic trait, it's still relatable to those of us whose perceptions and abilities are different than most other people's and tend to be misunderstood.

*In the end, as she develops a crush on Henry Fussy, she loses interest in the animals and stops visiting the barn, because she's "growing up" and wants to avoid "childish things." This might reflect that some children on the spectrum, especially girls, become more social and learn to "mask" as they get older.