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Copywork
About This Passage
Kate DiCamillo stages the chapter as a debate about names. Mr. Watson reaches for Latinate elevation ('porcine wonder'); Eugenia insists on Anglo-Saxon plainness ('pig'). Three lines, two registers, one creature. The chapter is making a quiet philosophical argument that naming and treating are not separable.
'We would prefer that you call her a porcine wonder,' said Mr. Watson. 'After all, she did save us. She's a hero.' 'She's a pig,' said Eugenia.
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Give a concise summary, then identify the most important moment and explain why it matters to the book.
Discussion Questions
- The chapter is a debate about what to call Mercy. In Genesis 2, Adam names the animals as the first act of stewardship. In the Confessions, Augustine treats names as bearers of love. Is Kate DiCamillo working in this tradition — that to name rightly is to love rightly?
- Eugenia hugs Mercy at the start of the chapter without explanation. The change from chasing to embracing is sudden and unexplained. Is the writer making an Augustinian claim about conversion (sudden, unwilled, gracious), or simply trusting the reader to fill in the gap?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
the level or tone of language a speaker chooses
Item 2
the act of giving a creature a word that fixes how it is regarded
Item 3
derived from Latin, often more formal or elevated
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Critical Thinking
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