Preview
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize the chapter and identify the central tension Kate DiCamillo is dramatizing.
Discussion Questions
- Plato in the Gorgias distinguishes peitho (persuasion) from bia (force) and argues that the better life is built on the first. Mercy resists force (Mr. Watson's pushing) and yields to persuasion (Mrs. Watson's toast offer). Is Kate DiCamillo writing the Gorgias in comic miniature, or is the comic register doing something the philosophical original cannot?
- Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics III distinguishes orexis (appetite) from bouleusis (rational deliberation). Mercy weighs two goods (toast vs. extra helpings) and chooses, narrowing her eyes in the process. Is Kate DiCamillo granting Mercy bouleusis — the threshold capacity Aristotle reserves for rational creatures?
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Critical Thinking
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