Openness, Friendship, and Community Theme Analysis

Because of Winn-Dixie is, in many ways, a study in both the negative consequences of prejudging others and what can happen when people approach others with curiosity, openness, and compassion. While the novel lays out perfectly understandable reasons why a person may be inclined to judge someone, it overwhelmingly suggests that these reasons nevertheless keep people from being able to truly connect with others. Being open, curious, and compassionate with people, meanwhile, is one of the most effective ways to make and nurture friendships.

In most cases, 10-year-old Opal, who’s new to the small town of Naomi, Florida, is a naturally nonjudgmental person. This is apparent when she first sees a dog running wild through the local grocery store. Though she describes the animal as huge, ugly, smelly, and in poor physical health, she nevertheless sees through this to the new friend waiting underneath. The dog, whom Opal names Winn-Dixie, is just as open to new people—though he’s never seen Opal before in his life and has certainly never had anyone call him Winn-Dixie, he follows her when she calls him and is more than happy to accompany her home. Over the course of the novel, Opal has several opportunities to learn that she was right to not judge Winn-Dixie when they first met, and that she should continue in that spirit of openness. She and her father, the preacher, quickly discover that Winn-Dixie is deathly afraid of thunderstorms. He runs back and forth through their home, knocking over everyone and everything in his path. Though this scares and concerns Opal at first, the preacher counsels her that they can’t hold this trait against Winn-Dixie. Rather, they need to understand that this isn’t something he can control and help him through it as best they can. The preacher, then, reinforces the idea that individuals should be open and caring with those they consider friends. While friends may not always look or behave their best, it’s important to treat them with compassion and understanding regardless.

Winn-Dixie himself sets one of the novel’s greatest examples of openness and compassion. While Opal is a likeable protagonist—it’s easy to see why a dog or a person would want to be friends with her—Winn-Dixie helps Opal understand that even in the case of individuals who don’t seem so immediately likeable, it’s important to try one’s best to befriend them as well. Winn-Dixie is more than willing to approach and befriend everyone in Naomi: from the old woman Gloria, who’s believed to be a witch, to the pet shop employee Otis, who spent time in jail and is thought of among Naomi’s residents as a hardened criminal. While people, and children in particular, might avoid these individuals because of their supposedly sordid pasts, Winn-Dixie bursts through all of that prejudice and shows Opal that it’s silly to believe a rumor about someone without first verifying it and getting the story from the person in question.

One day, Winn-Dixie races into Gloria’s garden while neighborhood boys Dunlap and Stevie warn Opal that Gloria is a witch. Though Opal doesn’t like the boys to begin with and therefore has less reason to believe them, it’s telling that Opal decides almost instantly to follow Winn-Dixie’s lead. She understands immediately that Gloria is in no way a witch—though as a kid in a town where most others believe that Gloria is a witch, Opal would have lots of reasons to go along with it. Similarly, a “pinched-face” girl named Amanda warns Opal that Otis is a criminal, and therefore that Opal shouldn’t be around him. Though this concerns Opal—she’s always been told to avoid criminals—she pushes through her apprehension and discovers that although Otis has been to jail, he’s also one of the kindest and most generous individuals in Naomi. In these instances, Opal’s openness allows her to befriend those that Naomi society deems inappropriate friend material but who are actually longing for friends themselves and are happy to welcome Opal and Winn-Dixie into their lives.

The novel also goes to great lengths to show that as a person begins befriending people, this sets off a chain reaction of connections and friendships. In essence, the novel proposes that if a person opens themselves up to making friends, each friend will, in turn, expand a person’s social group by connecting them to others. Opal goes from being friendless; to having Winn-Dixie; to having her adult friends Gloria, Franny, and Otis; to finally making friends with kids her own age—all by choosing to embrace Winn-Dixie on that fateful night in the grocery store and by choosing to follow his lead when he attempts to introduce her to others. With this, the novel offers an important lesson: making a friend and treating others with openness, kindness, and compassion doesn’t just give a person a single friend—it can give a person a community.