Because of Winn-Dixie — Chapter 13

About This Passage

This is the moral center of the entire book. Notice how short the two sentences are. Gloria is not giving a long sermon — she is delivering a hard truth in the simplest possible words. Notice also the dialect: 'the things they done' and 'you got to' are Gloria's way of speaking, not standard English. The dialect is not a flaw; it is the medium through which Gloria's hard-won wisdom is delivered. The most important word in the whole passage is 'now,' which tells Opal to look at the present, not the past. Copying this passage teaches a writer how a few small words can carry the whole moral weight of a book.

Narration Prompt

Retell the chapter. Then explain what Gloria's bottle tree means. Why does she keep bottles for the bad things she has done?

Discussion Questions

1. Gloria calls her tree a 'mistake tree.' She says the bottles keep the ghosts of her mistakes away. But the bottles also REMIND her of the mistakes every time she walks by. So which is the tree doing — keeping the mistakes away, or keeping them present? Could it be both?
2. Gloria says she once drank 'whiskey and beer and wine.' She admits she had a problem with alcohol. Why does she tell Opal something so personal so soon after meeting her? What does it cost Gloria to be this honest, and what does the honesty give Opal?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide