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Chapter 3
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
The preacher and Opal settle in on the couch with Winn-Dixie between them. The preacher says that Mama was funny and could make anyone laugh. Second, she had red hair and freckles, just like Opal does. Third, she had a green thumb. Fourth, she could run very fast. Opal says that she’s the same way—she even beats boys. The preacher is quiet for a moment, but at Opal’s prodding, he tells her a fifth thing: Mama couldn’t cook and even burnt water. Sixth, Mama loved stories, especially funny ones. The seventh thing is that she knew all the constellations. With his eyes closed, the preacher tells Opal the eighth thing: Mama hated being a preacher’s wife. She hated the church ladies judging her.
The preacher tells Opal a mix of good, neutral, and bad things about Mama. This begins to make the case that all people are composed of a variety of different qualities of varying “goodness.” Some, like Mama’s hair color, are just neutral descriptors. Others, like the fact that she hated being a preacher’s wife (which presumably influenced her to leave), are negative, especially to someone like Opal who has to deal with the aftermath of her mother’s departure.
Themes
The ninth thing about Mama is that she drank, which caused fights between her and the preacher. With a long sigh, the preacher says the tenth thing is that Mama loved Opal very much. Opal reminds the preacher that Mama left her, but the preacher corrects Opal that Mama left both of them and left nothing behind. Opal can see the preacher pulling his head back into his shell. She gets up, thanks him for telling her, and goes to her room. There, Opal writes down everything the preacher said so she won’t forget. She reads them to Winn-Dixie until she has them memorized. She wants to make sure that if Mama ever comes back, she’ll be able to hold onto Mama and not let her get away again.
Though the preacher doesn’t say if Mama’s implied alcoholism was something she dealt with even before their marriage, it’s possible to read her substance abuse as a reflection of how unhappy she was as a preacher’s wife. She may have had a very good reason to leave: her own physical and mental health. Opal’s insistence that Mama left her specifically shows that in her mind, Mama’s departure is personal. She isn’t able to see that Mama may have had a good reason to go—or even that the preacher is suffering in equally meaningful ways.
Themes
