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Copywork
About This Passage
This three-sentence passage compresses a major emotional movement into minimal prose, and it is worth studying because it demonstrates one of DiCamillo's signature techniques: the use of dialect slip to mark intimacy. The second sentence ('I read it loud enough to keep her ghosts away') frames the reading as a spiritual practice — a form of exorcism against the accumulated weight of Gloria's past. The third sentence ('Gloria listened to it good') uses Gloria's grammar ('listened to it good' rather than the more standard 'listened to it well'). Opal's narration has not generally slipped into dialect, and the slip here is significant. It tells us that Opal has been spending enough time with Gloria to pick up her speech patterns — the mark of real friendship across age. DiCamillo lets the slip happen without commentary, trusting the reader to notice. The passage is also a small demonstration of reciprocity: one sentence for what Opal does, one sentence for what Gloria does. The reading is not a one-way gift; it is a mutual act. Both parties contribute: Opal gives the reading, Gloria gives the listening, and the listening is as active as the reading. Copying this passage teaches a writer how a single dialect slip can render a whole relationship, and how a small sentence about listening ('listened to it good') can carry as much weight as a longer sentence about reading.
And so I read the first chapter of Gone with the Wind out loud to Gloria Dump. I read it loud enough to keep her ghosts away. And Gloria listened to it good.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize the chapter in no more than four sentences. Then identify the craft technique DiCamillo uses to mark the intimacy of the Opal-Gloria friendship in this chapter.
Discussion Questions
- DiCamillo frames Opal's reading as 'loud enough to keep her ghosts away.' Analyze this framing as a craft move. Is DiCamillo making a serious claim about reading as spiritual practice — the idea that sustained attention to beautiful language can push back against the weight of bad memories? And does the claim have roots in the monastic traditions of chanting the psalms as a form of exorcism?
- The phrase 'Gloria listened to it good' is in Gloria's dialect, not Opal's. The dialect has slipped into Opal's narration. Is DiCamillo making a claim that intimate friendships across difference produce real linguistic convergence — that we start to sound like the people we love?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
a craft technique in which a narrator's voice briefly picks up another character's speech patterns, usually as a sign of intimacy or emotional proximity
Item 2
the quality of a relationship in which each party contributes actively — both sides do work, and the work of each is necessary to the whole
Item 3
a regular activity performed for its effect on the soul or spirit rather than for its practical output — prayer, meditation, and in some traditions, reading aloud
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Critical Thinking
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