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 tells the reader that nearly everything that happened to her this summer happened thanks to Winn-Dixie. Without him, she wouldn’t have met Gloria Dump. One day, as Opal rides her bike home from Gertrude’s Pets with Winn-Dixie running alongside, they pass Stevie and Dunlap’s house. The boys get on their bikes and follow Opal, whispering things that she can’t hear. Opal thinks that the boys look like “bald-headed babies,” since their mama shaves their heads in the summer. She shouts back that she can hear them, even though she can’t. Winn-Dixie zooms ahead. Dunlap yells that the dog is headed for the “witch’s house,” and Opal sees an overgrown garden ahead. Winn-Dixie hops the gate and disappears.
Because the boys treat Opal so poorly, she has every reason to question their motives and whether or not they’re people she should try to befriend. While it’s certainly possible that the boys simply aren’t good at making friends and don’t have a dog like Winn-Dixie to show them how it’s done, it’s understandable that Opal has unkind thoughts about the boys. Dunlap’s mention of a witch suggests that there’s even more judgment happening in Naomi, given that labelling women as witches has historically been a product of other people’s fear.
Themes
Dunlap tells Opal that she should go rescue Winn-Dixie as Stevie insists that the witch will eat the dog. Opal calls for Winn-Dixie. Stevie says that the witch is probably already eating him, so Opal calls the boys bald-headed babies and tells them to get lost. Dunlap points out that this isn’t very nice. Opal decides that she’s more afraid of losing Winn-Dixie than she is of a witch, so she goes into the yard. Dunlap offers to tell the preacher what happened to Opal as she wades deeper into the mess of flowers, vegetables, and trees. She hears an odd laugh and sees Winn-Dixie eating out of the witch’s hand. The witch says that one can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter. Opal thinks that the woman looks nice—not like a witch at all. Plus, Winn-Dixie likes her.
Stevie is a little bit younger than Dunlap, and it shows—he’s far more interested in pestering Opal and insisting that this woman is actually a witch, while Dunlap (seemingly genuinely) offers to tell others what happened to Opal after she dies at the witch’s hands. This woman’s overgrown garden likely contributes to the local belief that she’s a witch. She doesn’t conform to normal standards of maintaining her yard, and therefore people don’t find her trustworthy. Since Opal trusts Winn-Dixie, she’s more than willing to trust this woman, showing how much she’s learned about being nonjudgmental.
Themes
Opal apologizes for Winn-Dixie’s foray into the garden, but the woman says that she enjoys the company. Opal introduces herself, and the woman introduces herself as Gloria Dump. Gloria remarks that her last name is horrible, and Opal shares that in her old town, some kids called her “Lunch Meat” since her last name is Buloni. She introduces Winn-Dixie, who tries to smile but can’t through the peanut butter. Gloria offers to make Opal a peanut butter sandwich and tells her to sit down in a lawn chair. Gloria sits with her own sandwich, puts her false teeth in to eat, and then explains that she’s almost blind. She says that instead of relying on her eyes, she has to rely on her heart; she asks Opal to tell her everything about herself. Opal has been waiting a long time to tell someone about herself, and so she tells Gloria everything.
People who don’ know Gloria (particularly children) likely assume that she’s a witch because of her unkempt garden and the fact that she’s an old, blind woman. But her kindness and genuine interest in Opal drives home that she’s not a witch in any sense of the word: she’s a lonely old lady who has to rely on other ways of learning about people, since she can’t get much information visually. (This is likely also why Gloria’s garden is overgrown —which would mean that kids like Stevie and Dunlap are judging her based on something she can’t fix on account of her sight.) Offering to listen to Opal’s story shows that Gloria recognizes the effect of having someone to confide in: it can make people feel seen and understood in a way nothing else can.
Themes
