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
Miss Franny says that her great-grandfather, Littmus W. Block, was 14 when the Civil War broke out. He was big and strong, and he told his mama that he couldn’t stand by. He went to war. In a whisper, Miss Franny says that sadly, men and boys always want to fight, and nothing will convince them that war isn’t fun. Littmus left to be a hero, but he soon discovered the truth: war is hell. Amanda says that hell is a cuss word, but Miss Franny declares that war should be a cuss word too. She says that neither Amanda nor Opal can imagine what it’s like. Littmus was hungry, covered in vermin, cold in the winter, and hot in the summer. He was shot at, and he was only a child. Opal asks if Littmus died, but Miss Franny points out that she wouldn’t be here if he’d died.
Littmus learns right from the beginning that it doesn’t matter how much he might have romanticized the Civil War: fighting in a war isn’t something to idealize. It’s dirty, uncomfortable, and dangerous, and many people die in the process. Miss Franny’s insistence that “war” should be a cuss word adds more nuance to the idea that nothing is black and white. Even though the word might be accepted and inoffensive, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t connote something horrible and tragic. In a perfect world, its usage would reflect that.
Themes
Miss Franny says that Littmus came out of the war a changed man. He walked from Virginia home to Georgia, but when he arrived, there was no home—the Yankees had burned it. As Amanda joins Opal on the floor, she asks what happened to Littmus’s sisters. Miss Franny says that Littmus’s mama and sisters all died of typhoid fever, while his daddy died on the battlefield. Opal and Amanda remark that this is a sad story; Opal is surprised that Amanda agrees with her. Miss Franny insists she’s not done yet. Opal nudges Winn-Dixie to make him stop snoring. She wants to know how Littmus survived after losing everything he loved.
Littmus’s story reveals that the main consequence of idealizing something like war is that one can lose what’s most important to them in the process—in Littmus’s case, his entire family. This parallels Opal’s own situation: because Opal idealizes Mama and her memories of her, Opal is probably missing out on opportunities to get to know the preacher. Meanwhile, Amanda’s interest in the story makes her more real and sympathetic to Opal (and to the reader). By listening to Miss Franny’s story, the girls don’t just show the storyteller respect: they learn to respect each other too.
Themes
