Mercy Watson to the Rescue — Chapter 2

Narration Prompt

Summarize the chapter's narrative arc, then identify the central tension Kate DiCamillo is dramatizing and evaluate whether she handles it honestly.

Discussion Questions

1. Kate DiCamillo writes an entire chapter — short as the form allows — about the dreams of three sleeping characters. There is no plot. The disaster of chapter 3 has not yet begun. What is being claimed by giving the dreams-chapter the same narrative dignity as the action chapters? What does the chapter's existence say about what counts as a story?
2. Augustine argues in the Confessions that the soul is most truly itself in what it cannot help loving. By that standard, Mrs. Watson's sleeping mind — busy serving toast to Mercy — reveals a soul whose deepest motion is care for another. Mr. Watson's sleeping mind — racing fast cars — reveals a soul whose deepest motion is the unlived life. Is this Augustinian reading fair to the chapter, or is it forcing weight onto sleeping minds that the writer did not intend to bear?

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