Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Because of Winn-Dixie, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Storytelling and Listening
Sadness, Happiness, and Growing Up
Family and Loss
Openness, Friendship, and Community
Summary
Analysis
Opal wakes up in the middle of the night to an awful thunderstorm, but the storm doesn’t wake her—Winn –Dixie does, as he’s whining and beating his head against her door. Opal gets up and discovers that he’s trembling. Afraid, she tries to hug him, but he ignores her and continues to cry and beat his head against the door. Opal figures he wants out, so she opens her bedroom door. Winn-Dixie shoots past her like something is chasing him and races straight into the preacher’s room. Opal hears him leap onto the bed, but then, Winn-Dixie comes racing back out again. The preacher comes out of his bedroom, looking confused, and asks what’s going on. Thunder rolls, and Winn-Dixie tears toward the preacher. They collide, and both fall to the ground.
Opal is afraid because this isn’t the affectionate Winn-Dixie she knows and loves—this dog is fundamentally unknowable and rejects her advances. Though Winn-Dixie’s erratic behavior certainly spooks Opal, it’s also likely that on a deeper level, Opal feels rejected—and given the fact that Mama left Opal and the preacher, essentially rejecting them in the process, this is probably especially disturbing for her. This reflects Opal’s fear of losing people she considers family. Though losing loved ones is certainly something that most people fear, Opal’s anxiety that this might happen at any moment is heightened because of Mama’s abandonment.
Themes
From the floor, with Winn-Dixie on his back, the preacher explains that a pathological fear is a fear that’s impossible to reason with. The thunder cracks again, and Winn-Dixie leaps up and runs. Opal gets out of his way. The preacher says that Winn-Dixie seems to have a pathological fear of thunderstorms. Opal helps the preacher up before Winn-Dixie can run him over again, and then they sit on the couch and watch the dog run. The preacher assures Opal that when the storm is over, the real Winn-Dixie will return. Eventually, Winn-Dixie calms down and crawls onto the couch. The preacher remarks that there are a lot of thunderstorms in Florida in the summer, so they’ll have to keep an eye on Winn-Dixie so he doesn’t run away. Opal loves the preacher for being willing to forgive Winn-Dixie for being afraid, and for wanting to keep Winn-Dixie safe.
To Opal, it’s extremely comforting that the preacher wants to hold onto Winn-Dixie and make sure he doesn’t run away—in Opal’s mind, the preacher failed to do this when Mama left. From Opal’s perspective, it likely seems as though the preacher has gotten better at holding onto his loved ones in the years since Mama left. The preacher’s reaction here, then, has implications for friendship in general: he’s not upset with Winn-Dixie for being afraid and not acting his best. Rather, he shows Opal that they should be generous and try to help their friends when they have problems, rather than leaving them out in the cold.
Themes
