Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
Kate DiCamillo grants Mercy a new personality piece — she 'loved to chase' — at exactly the structural moment the plot requires it. The chapter delivers a philosophical demonstration: the same physical event (Eugenia in pursuit) constitutes two opposite emotional realities (rage and delight) for the two participants. The world meets each creature differently, and the difference is not external to the world — it IS the world.
There was going to be a chase. Mercy loved to chase. She let Eugenia get very close to her. 'Oink!' said Mercy, dashing away. She ran in circles. She kicked up her heels.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Give a concise summary, then identify the single most important sentence in the chapter and explain why it matters to the book as a whole.
Discussion Questions
- Mercy 'loved to chase' is a new piece of her personality, introduced exactly when the plot requires it. Aristotle distinguishes between character traits that are formed (built up by habit) and traits that are revealed (always present, finally visible). Which is Mercy's love of chasing — formed or revealed? What is Kate DiCamillo claiming about how characters become themselves?
- The same chase delivers opposite feelings to the two participants. Husserl's phenomenology insists that the world is not what it is in itself but what it is for the consciousness encountering it. Is Kate DiCamillo restating Husserl in a children's chapter? Does the philosophical observation survive translation into the comic register?
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
the philosophical study of how the world appears to a particular consciousness
Item 2
the position that there is no view from nowhere; every experience is situated
Item 3
the doctrine that good can emerge from events not consciously aimed at it
+ 3 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 7 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free