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Copywork
About This Passage
This brief exchange between Opal and Gloria is one of the most quietly important conversations in the book. Notice the sentence structure. Gloria offers wisdom; Opal rejects it; Gloria offers it again, this time as a possibility rather than a claim. Gloria does not argue. She does not insist. She makes her observation, lets Opal disagree, and then offers her observation again in a slightly different form. This is the rhetorical structure of patient wisdom — saying the truth twice, gently, and letting the listener take what they can take. Notice also the dialect: 'them two boys' is Gloria's voice, not Opal's. The dialect marks the wisdom as belonging to Gloria's specific way of being in the world. Copying this passage teaches a writer how to render a wise person's persistence without making them sound preachy.
I think they're just trying to make friends with you in a roundabout way. Well, I don't want to be their friend, I said. It might be fun having them two boys for friends.
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell the chapter, paying attention to the rhythm of Opal's daily routine. Why does DiCamillo dedicate a whole chapter to showing us what Opal does every day?
Discussion Questions
- DiCamillo dedicates an entire chapter to Opal's daily routine — sweeping the pet store, listening to Otis, visiting the library, eating peanut butter sandwiches at Gloria's. The chapter has very little plot. Why does DiCamillo spend so much narrative space on routine? What is she signaling about Opal's emotional state?
- Gloria's observation that the Dewberry boys may be trying to make friends 'in a roundabout way' is one of the most quietly wise lines in the book. Opal rejects it immediately. Is Gloria right? And if she is, why does Opal — who has shown such social sensitivity in earlier chapters — fail to see what Gloria sees?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
a regular pattern of daily activities, often functioning as the emotional architecture of a person's life
Item 2
indirect — taking the long way around something instead of going straight at it; a phrase often used to describe people who cannot say what they mean directly
Item 3
the practice of continuing to make a point gently after the listener has rejected it once — a form of wisdom that respects the listener's freedom to reject
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Critical Thinking
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