Because of Winn-Dixie introduces readers to Opal, a 10-year-old girl who recently moved to the small town of Naomi, Florida with her daddy—and who finds and adopts a scruffy-looking stray dog in the grocery store one day. The dog, whom Opal names Winn-Dixie after the store, is Opal’s first friend in Naomi—and over the course of their adventures that summer, Winn-Dixie helps Opal make friends with others in her small town. As Opal befriends Winn-Dixie and others, and as she becomes increasingly curious about her absent mother, Opal begins to learn important lessons about the power of storytelling. Through telling her own stories and giving others the opportunities to tell their stories, Opal discovers that while storytelling can be a cathartic and positive experience for the storyteller, the act of listening is arguably even more important and meaningful. Listening to others’ stories, the novel suggests, is a way to build community, show respect, and help people find a sense of dignity and purpose.
When the novel begins, Opal has been in Naomi for several weeks but doesn’t yet have any friends. She craves someone to talk to, especially since her father (whom she calls “the preacher”) “spends so much time preaching or thinking about preaching or getting ready to preach” and therefore doesn’t have much time for Opal. When Opal finds Winn-Dixie at the local grocery store one evening and lies that he’s her dog so that he doesn’t get taken to the pound, Winn-Dixie promptly begins to fill the void in Opal’s life. Opal begins talking to Winn-Dixie almost immediately. He’s her first confidante, and simply having someone to talk to has almost instantaneous benefits for Opal. During Winn-Dixie’s first bath, Opal tells him as much as she knows about her Mama, who left the preacher when Opal was three—and then, with Winn-Dixie’s “prodding,” she asks the preacher to tell her 10 things about Mama. This demonstrates how being able to tell her own story and verbally work through her problems gives Opal the confidence she needs to ask the preacher for information she’s desired for years. Even if she’s only speaking to a dog, not a fellow human, the simple act of telling her story and having someone listen to it makes her feel more secure, confident, and at ease in Naomi and in her family.
As Winn-Dixie assists Opal in befriending a number of Naomi’s adult residents, Opal takes this lesson about the value of being able to tell one’s story and pays it forward by asking for and listening to the stories of Otis the pet shop employee and the elderly ladies Miss Franny Block and Gloria Dump (the town librarian and a woman believed to be a witch, respectively). Especially when it comes to Franny and Gloria, Opal sees firsthand how meaningful it can be to have someone listen to one’s story. Though Franny is a reasonably well-respected fixture in town as the librarian, Opal witnesses fellow library patrons treat Franny coolly and as though she’s not a real person. However, Franny opens up and becomes someone entirely different once Opal agrees to sit and hear a story. Gloria, too, transforms in Opal’s mind from possibly being a witch to being a kind and generous lady who desperately needs a friend as the two exchange stories. The bond that she and Opal form is rooted in their daily practice of sitting outside, eating peanut butter sandwiches, and sharing stories and wisdom. Listening to these women and Otis is a way for Opal to demonstrate that to her, Otis, Franny, and Gloria are individuals who have rich histories of their own, entertaining tales to weave, and wisdom to impart. In turn, they show Opal that they believe she’s worthy of their time and attention by telling her their stories—but the novel implies that the dignity and respect that these individuals gain by having someone listen to them is just as meaningful, if nor more so.
Through this, Because of Winn-Dixie positions storytelling as something far more than an entertaining pastime. Rather, storytelling is how people learn about themselves and about their history—and most importantly, it’s how people pass what they know onto others. While silence can isolate a person and make them feel alone in the world, telling stories and listening to the stories of others can build community, friendships, and family—and make even those who exist in the background come to life.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Storytelling and Listening ThemeTracker
Storytelling and Listening Quotes in Because of Winn-Dixie
“He won’t talk to me about her at all. I want to know more about her. But I’m afraid to ask the preacher; I’m afraid he’ll get mad at me.”
Winn-Dixie looked at me hard, like he was trying to say something.
“What?” I said.
He stared at me.
“You think I should make the preacher tell me about her?”
Winn-Dixie looked at me so hard he sneezed.
“I’ll think about it,” I said.
I went right back to my room and wrote down all ten things that the preacher had told me. I wrote them down just the way he said them to me so that I wouldn’t forget them, and then I read them out loud to Winn-Dixie until I had them memorized. I wanted to know those ten things inside and out. That way, if my mama ever came back, I could recognize her, and I would be able to grab her and hold on to her tight and not let her get away from me again.
She sighed. “I imagine I’m the only one left from those days. I imagine I’m the only one that even recalls that bear. All my friends, everyone I knew when I was young, they are all dead and gone.”
She sighed again. She looked sad and old and wrinkled. It was the same way I felt sometimes, being friendless in a new town and not having a mama to comfort me. I sighed, too.
“You know, my eyes ain’t too good at all. I can’t see nothing but the general shape of things, so I got to rely on my heart. Why don’t you go on and tell me everything about yourself, so as I can see you with my heart.”
And the whole time I was talking, Gloria Dump was listening. She was nodding her head and smiling and frowning and saying, “Hmmm,” and “Is that right?”
I could feel her listening with all her heart, and it felt good.
I waved at the woman on the porch and she waved back, and I watched Sweetie Pie run off to tell her mama about Otis being a magic man. It made me think about my mama and how I wanted to tell her the story about Otis charming all the animals. I was collecting stories for her.
“Why are all those bottles on it?”
“To keep the ghosts away,” Gloria said.
“What ghosts?”
“The ghosts of all the things I done wrong.”
I looked at all the bottles on the tree. “You did that many things wrong?” I asked her.
“Mmmm-hmmm,” said Gloria. “More than that.”
“But you’re the nicest person I know,” I told her.
“Doesn’t mean I haven’t done bad things,” she said.
It all made me think about Gloria Dump. I wondered who comforted her when she heard those bottles knocking together, those ghosts chattering about the things she had done wrong. I wanted to comfort Gloria Dump. And I decided that the best way to do that would be to read her a book, read it to her loud enough to keep the ghosts away.
“And the army took him, and Littmus went off to war, just like that. Left behind his mother and three sisters. He went off to be a hero. But he soon found out the truth.” Miss Franny closed her eyes and shook her head.
“What truth?” I asked her.
“Why, that war is hell,” Miss Franny said with her eyes still closed. “Pure hell.”
I swept the floor real slow that day. I wanted to keep Otis company. I didn’t want him to be lonely. Sometimes, it seemed like everybody in the world was lonely. I thought about my mama.
I kept on going over the list in my head. I memorized it the same way I had memorized the list of ten things about my mama. I memorized it so if I didn’t find him, I would have some part of him to hold on to. But at the same time, I thought of something I had never thought of before; and that was that a list of things couldn’t even begin to show somebody the real Winn-Dixie, just like a list of ten things couldn’t ever get me to know my mama.
“Mama,” I said, just like she was standing right beside me, “I know ten things about you, and that’s not enough, that’s not near enough. But Daddy is going to tell me more; I know he will, now that he knows you’re not coming back. He misses you and I miss you, but my heart doesn’t feel empty anymore. It’s full all the way up. I’ll still think about you, I promise. But probably not as much as I did this summer.”
