Because of Winn-Dixie — Chapter 4

About This Passage

Notice how this passage begins with a plan ('I wanted to know those ten things inside and out') and ends with a plea ('not let her get away from me again'). The two things shouldn't fit together — a plan is calm, a plea is desperate — but DiCamillo puts them in the same small passage because that is how grief actually works in a child. One minute you are making a list; the next you are holding on for dear life. Notice also how the three phrases at the end ('grab her,' 'hold on to her tight,' 'not let her get away from me again') build up in a row. This is called the tricolon — three related phrases in a row, each one making the feeling bigger. Writers from ancient Rome to today use the tricolon when they need a feeling to land with force. Copying this passage teaches children how plain words, stacked three at a time, can carry a grown-up sort of grief.

Narration Prompt

Retell the chapter. Of the 10 things the preacher tells Opal, which do you think is the most important one — and why?

Discussion Questions

1. The preacher tells Opal that her mama could 'stick a tire in the ground and grow a car.' This is a funny, crazy image — mother as a gardener of the impossible. Why do you think the preacher chose this way of describing her? What does the image tell us about HOW he thinks of her, not just WHAT he thinks of her?
2. Number 8 is that Opal's mama 'hated being a preacher's wife.' This is the first hint the book gives us about WHY the mother may have left. Does the chapter want us to blame her for leaving, or to understand her, or something in between? What in the chapter makes you think so?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide