BookCaps - Study Guide: Because of Winn-Dixie (A BookCaps Study Guide): Study Guides, no. 62

Kate DiCamillos

Because ofWinn-Dixie

Golgotha Press

By BookCaps StudyGuides

2011 by Golgotha Press,Inc.

Published atSmashWords

www.bookcaps.com

Kate DiCamillo was born inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania in 1964. As a young child DiCamillonearly died of pneumonia, so she and her family moved to Floridawith her mother and brother when she was five; her father stayedbehind to sell his business and never ended up joining them. In1987, DiCamillo graduated from the University of Florida with adegree in English, which led to her working several odd jobs, untilshe moved to Minneapolis to work in a book warehouse at the age ofthirty. While working at the warehouse, DiCamillo decided shewanted to be a childrens writer, and she began to draft her firstnovel, Because of Winn-Dixie.

DiCamillo published Because ofWinn-Dixie in 2000. She was inspired to write the book whileliving in Minneapolis and seriously missing Florida and theweather. Also, DiCamillo wanted to have a dog, much like the blackpoodle named Nanette that she grew up with, but, unfortunately, herapartment building did not allow pets. In returning home each dayto write about a girl and her dog, DiCamillo felt as though she hadher own pet. She also feels as though she discovers her characters,rather than creates them, and is blessed to be chosen to tell theirstory. DiCamillo received a Newberry Award in 2001 for Because ofWinn-Dixie and has continued to pen popular childrens novels suchas The Tale of Despereaux and The Tiger Rising.

India Opal Buloni, who goes by thename Opal, is a ten-year-old girl who moves to Naomi, Florida withher father who is taking the position of preacher at the Open ArmsBaptist Church of Naomi. Opals mother left her, and her fathermany years ago, and Opal does not remember anything about her. Opalis sad to be living in a new place because she feels terriblylonely, especially because she does not have a mother, and she isworried about being able to make friends. One day when she is atthe local Winn-Dixie supermarket picking up some groceries for ThePreacher, Opal sees the manager yelling at a poor looking dog. Forsome reason, Opal feels as though she needs to come forward andclaim the dog; she takes him home with her and gives him the aptname of Winn-Dixie.

Because of Winn-Dixie Opal meets manynew people and makes several friends. She spends time at thelibrary where she befriends Miss Franny Block and Amanda Wilkinson,and she also learns about Miss Frannys relatives. She gets a jobat Gertrudes pet store where she sweeps floors in lieu of payingfor a collar and leash for Winn-Dixie, and she befriends anex-convict named Otis who works there and plays guitar for theanimals. Opal also becomes intimate friends with an old woman namedGloria Dump who Opal is at first told is a witch by the Dewberrybrothers. One day, when Opal decides to have a party for all of hernew friends at Glorias house, there is a thunderstorm, andWinn-Dixie, who is scared of thunderstorms, goes missing. Opal andThe Preacher search everywhere for Winn-Dixie, out in the rain, butcannot find him. When they are finally reunited both Opal and ThePreacher seem to have come to terms with their abandonment byOpals mother.

Friendship is something that isextremely beneficial to Opal when she first moves to Naomi becauseshe is very lonely and worries that it will be difficult to makefriends. Immediately after taking him in, Winn-Dixie becomes Opalstruly best friend; he follows her everywhere, he is loving, and herheart is broken when she worries that she has lost him. Over time,Opal makes more friends, and she realizes that while her heart wasonce mighty lonely, especially after being abandoned by her mother,her friends have filled that void, and she is happy andcontent.

Opal loves Winn-Dixie terribly much,and it seems as though The Preacher immediately falls in love withthe dog as well; perhaps it is because Winn-Dixie fills a lovingvoid in their lives that has been missing for quite some time. Opallooks to surround herself with love, and to avoid people who may benegative factors in her life, again probably because of the lovethat she is missing from the mother, who abandoned her. The peoplewho Opal does come to love are people who she wants to all love oneanother as well.

Opal and The Preacher have bothsuffered abandonment at the hands of Opals mother who had leftthem many years prior to the novels beginning. Because of theabandonment Opal has doubts about being able to make friends,though she feels as though she needs to because she is incrediblylonely and she has emptiness in her heart from her loss. Because ofher abandonment Opal feels as though she needs to keep those thatare close to her and treat them well, such as Winn-Dixie and hernew friends.

Opal and The Preacher experience theloss of Opals mother, though she does not die she is lost to thembecause she has left their lives and in all probability will notreturn. At the end of the novel, they think that they have lostWinn-Dixie as well, and the fear that they have lost yet anotherfamily member forces The Preacher to admit that he misses his wifeand does not think she will return; in this moment, Opal alsoconfronts her father about his tendency to give up on things tooeasily. Amanda also experiences loss with the death of her youngerbrother, Carson.

After Opal loses her mother and thenis forced to move away from all of her friends she feels anincredible amount of loneliness. Opal clings to the idea thatsomeday her mother will come home and in clinging to that idea sheis not able to get over the loneliness she feels, even when shebegins making friends and finds Winn-Dixie. It is not until Opalsfather finally admits that he does not think his wife will becoming back that Opal allows herself to believe it as well, and sherealizes that she already has all of the family and love that sheneeds and her heart is no longer empty.

One of the things that Gloria Dumptells Opal is that she must work to reserve placing judgment onothers because everyone has made mistakes and everyone has ghostsin their past, but that does not make them bad people. She givesOpal this advice when it comes to Otis, because Opal wonders if sheshould be friends with him, when he has been to jail before. Opal,however, also worries about judgment from the other side; she hopesthat The Preacher will accept Winn-Dixie despite the fact that helooks to be in poor condition, he howls, and he fearsthunderstorms. She learns that a persons faults are no reason tojudge them.

Acceptance goes along with judgment,for the most part. The characters that worry about being judged,such as Opal and Otis, worry about being accepted for the thingsthey are judged on. Opal worries that she will be judged for beingthe daughter of a preacher, and she worries that The Preacher willnot accept Winn-Dixie into their family. Otis worries that he willnot be accepted if people know that he has been to jail, and he hasanxiety about being around groups of people. Otis learns that hecan make friends without being judged and Opal learns thesame.

The friends that Opal makes tend to bepeople who have isolated themselves from the general public in someway. Otis is isolated because he fears being judged by peoplebecause he was in jail and he feels uncomfortable in a groupsetting. Gloria also seems to isolate herself from the public,though she is an extremely self-assured woman who has come to gripswith the ghosts of her past. Miss Franny spends all of her time inthe library and isolates herself in the comfort of books, ratherthan in the comfort of companions, though she does enjoy spendingtime with Opal and Winn-Dixie.