Because of Winn-Dixie — Chapter 1

About This Passage

The opening of Because of Winn-Dixie is one of the cleanest first paragraphs in contemporary American children's literature, and it is worth studying not because it is elaborate but because it is astonishingly efficient. In seventy-odd words, DiCamillo gives us: the narrator's full name (exotic, burdened, almost a sentence in itself); the narrator's relationship to authority (father is 'the preacher,' a title that will haunt every later reference); the practical details of the errand (specific items, grocery-list texture that grounds us in reality); the structural promise of the book (something small was asked and something large was returned); the voice (a Southern child speaking directly to a reader she assumes is patient); and the ethical posture (a matter-of-fact willingness to tell the truth about what happened, no matter how strange). The sentence that introduces the manager is even more instructive. Notice the dash-like rhythm of 'This is what happened:' — a formal colon, as though Opal were about to testify in court. Notice the physical verbs ('screaming and waving his arms around') that refuse to editorialize. And notice the word 'bumped,' which is much smaller and more childish than what the scene actually depicts — a signal that Opal is going to underplay emotional intensity throughout the whole book, and that the reader will have to do the work of hearing what she is not quite saying. This is the Southern storytelling tradition of Welty, O'Connor, and Harper Lee compressed into a style accessible to a child.

Narration Prompt

Summarize the chapter in no more than five sentences, then identify what the chapter is fundamentally ABOUT — not what happens in it, but what it inquires into — and justify your reading.

Discussion Questions

1. Consider DiCamillo's decision to open with the line 'My name is India Opal Buloni' rather than, for example, 'It was the beginning of the hottest summer I can remember' or 'I was ten years old when I got my dog.' What is the opening sentence doing for the voice, the thematic stakes, and the reader's position that alternative openings would not do? What does a name do when it is the very first word?
2. The chapter stages a moment that is almost impossible to write well — a child speaking up to an angry adult on behalf of a weak third party. In lesser fiction this is called a 'Mary Sue' moment: the child is improbably brave and everything works out. DiCamillo avoids this effect. What specific craft choices does she make to keep the scene from feeling like wish fulfillment? And is there a standard by which she doesn't entirely avoid it — a standard by which the scene IS a little wishful?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide