Because of Winn-Dixie — Chapter 13

About This Passage

This passage delivers the moral center of the entire book in three sentences, and the delivery is worth studying because it is the opposite of preachy. Notice how Gloria does not lecture. She offers the principle, then she immediately applies it to a specific person Opal is worried about. The application is what makes the principle land. A principle alone is abstract; a principle in use is teaching. Notice also the small word 'now' that appears twice — first as the standard ('what they are doing now') and then as the specific moment ('what you know about him right now'). The word 'now' is the load-bearing word in Gloria's whole ethics. It refuses to let the past be the only window onto a person. The dialect — 'they used to do,' 'you got to,' 'them animals' — is essential to the delivery. In standard English, the same sentences would sound like a moral lesson. In Gloria's voice, they sound like a person telling another person something hard she has had to figure out for herself. Copying this passage teaches a writer how to deliver moral content through specific application rather than through abstract principle.

Narration Prompt

Retell the chapter. Then identify the moment Gloria stops being a friend and starts being a teacher. What signal does DiCamillo give us that the conversation has shifted?

Discussion Questions

1. Gloria's tree is described as having 'whiskey bottles and beer bottles and wine bottles all tied on with string.' The list is specific and unflinching. Why does DiCamillo refuse to soften the description? What would change if the bottles were more abstract or less specific?
2. Gloria tells Opal that some of her mistakes were the result of drinking, but some would have happened with or without alcohol. This is a sophisticated moral self-assessment. Why does Gloria refuse to blame everything on the drinking, and what does the refusal tell us about how she has come to terms with her own past?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide