Because of Winn-Dixie

by

Kate DiCamillo

Mama is Opal’s mother who never appears in person in the novel. She left Opal and the preacher when Opal was three years old, and since the preacher seldom if ever speaks about her, Opal knows little about her. When the preacher agrees to tell Opal 10 things about Mama, Opal learns that her mother was a bright and fun person who loved to grow things and listen to stories—but she also learns that Mama was deeply unhappy in her marriage and turned to alcohol to deal with her unhappiness. Opal desperately wants Mama to come back, and the preacher does too—but neither of them will admit that Mama isn’t coming back until the end of the novel.

Mama Quotes in Because of Winn-Dixie

The Because of Winn-Dixie quotes below are all either spoken by Mama or refer to Mama. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Storytelling and Listening Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

“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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Daddy/The Preacher, Mama
Page Number: 22-23
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“Number ten,” he said with a long sigh, “number ten, is that your mama loved you. She loved you very much.”

“But she left me,” I told him.

“She left us,” said the preacher softly. I could see him pulling his old turtle head back into his stupid turtle shell. “She packed her bags and left us, and she didn’t leave one thing behind.”

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Daddy/The Preacher (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Mama
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Daddy/The Preacher, Mama
Page Number: 29-30
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Miss Franny Block, Mama
Page Number: 49-50
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

All of a sudden, I felt happy. I had a dog. I had a job. I had Miss Franny Block for a friend. And I had my first invitation to a party in Naomi. It didn’t matter that it came from a five-year-old and the party wasn’t until September. I didn’t feel so lonely anymore.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Otis, Miss Franny Block, Mama, Sweetie Pie Thomas
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

All of a sudden it was hard for me to talk. I loved the preacher so much. I loved him because he loved Winn-Dixie. I loved him because he was going to forgive Winn-Dixie for being afraid. But most of all, I loved him for putting his arm around Winn-Dixie like that, like he was already trying to keep him safe.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Daddy/The Preacher, Mama
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Otis, Mama, Sweetie Pie Thomas
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

I stayed where I was and studied the tree. I wondered if my mama, wherever she was, had a tree full of bottles; and I wondered if I was a ghost to her, the same way she sometimes seemed like a ghost to me.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Gloria Dump, Mama
Related Symbols: The Mistake Tree
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

And I got real good at holding on to Winn-Dixie whenever they came. I held on to him and comforted him and whispered to him and rocked him, just the same way he tried to comfort Miss Franny when she had her fits. Only I held on to Winn-Dixie for another reason, too. I held on to him tight so he wouldn’t run away.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Daddy/The Preacher, Gloria Dump, Miss Franny Block, Mama
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Gloria Dump, Miss Franny Block, Mama
Related Symbols: The Mistake Tree
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

I got up out of bed and unwrapped a Littmus Lozenge and sucked on it hard and thought about my mama leaving me. That was a melancholy feeling. And then I thought about Amanda and Carson. And that made me feel melancholy, too. Poor Amanda. And poor Carson. He was the same age as Sweetie Pie. But he would never get to have his sixth birthday party.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Mama, Amanda Wilkinson, Sweetie Pie Thomas, Carson
Related Symbols: Littmus Lozenges
Page Number: 126-27
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Otis, Mama
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

“There ain’t no way you can hold on to something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.”

Related Characters: Gloria Dump (speaker), India Opal Buloni, Winn-Dixie, Daddy/The Preacher, Mama
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Mama
Page Number: 163-64
Explanation and Analysis:

“But do you know what? I just realized something, India Opal. When I told you your mama took everything with her, I forgot one thing, one very important thing that she left behind.”

“What?” I asked.

“You,” he said. “Thank God your mama left me you.” And he hugged me tighter.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Daddy/The Preacher (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Mama
Page Number: 166-67
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

“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.”

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Daddy/The Preacher, Mama
Related Symbols: The Mistake Tree
Page Number: 177-78
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Because of Winn-Dixie LitChart as a printable PDF.
Because of Winn-Dixie PDF

Mama Quotes in Because of Winn-Dixie

The Because of Winn-Dixie quotes below are all either spoken by Mama or refer to Mama. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Storytelling and Listening Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

“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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Daddy/The Preacher, Mama
Page Number: 22-23
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“Number ten,” he said with a long sigh, “number ten, is that your mama loved you. She loved you very much.”

“But she left me,” I told him.

“She left us,” said the preacher softly. I could see him pulling his old turtle head back into his stupid turtle shell. “She packed her bags and left us, and she didn’t leave one thing behind.”

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Daddy/The Preacher (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Mama
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Daddy/The Preacher, Mama
Page Number: 29-30
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Miss Franny Block, Mama
Page Number: 49-50
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

All of a sudden, I felt happy. I had a dog. I had a job. I had Miss Franny Block for a friend. And I had my first invitation to a party in Naomi. It didn’t matter that it came from a five-year-old and the party wasn’t until September. I didn’t feel so lonely anymore.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Otis, Miss Franny Block, Mama, Sweetie Pie Thomas
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

All of a sudden it was hard for me to talk. I loved the preacher so much. I loved him because he loved Winn-Dixie. I loved him because he was going to forgive Winn-Dixie for being afraid. But most of all, I loved him for putting his arm around Winn-Dixie like that, like he was already trying to keep him safe.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Daddy/The Preacher, Mama
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Otis, Mama, Sweetie Pie Thomas
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

I stayed where I was and studied the tree. I wondered if my mama, wherever she was, had a tree full of bottles; and I wondered if I was a ghost to her, the same way she sometimes seemed like a ghost to me.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Gloria Dump, Mama
Related Symbols: The Mistake Tree
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

And I got real good at holding on to Winn-Dixie whenever they came. I held on to him and comforted him and whispered to him and rocked him, just the same way he tried to comfort Miss Franny when she had her fits. Only I held on to Winn-Dixie for another reason, too. I held on to him tight so he wouldn’t run away.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Daddy/The Preacher, Gloria Dump, Miss Franny Block, Mama
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Gloria Dump, Miss Franny Block, Mama
Related Symbols: The Mistake Tree
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

I got up out of bed and unwrapped a Littmus Lozenge and sucked on it hard and thought about my mama leaving me. That was a melancholy feeling. And then I thought about Amanda and Carson. And that made me feel melancholy, too. Poor Amanda. And poor Carson. He was the same age as Sweetie Pie. But he would never get to have his sixth birthday party.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Mama, Amanda Wilkinson, Sweetie Pie Thomas, Carson
Related Symbols: Littmus Lozenges
Page Number: 126-27
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Otis, Mama
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

“There ain’t no way you can hold on to something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.”

Related Characters: Gloria Dump (speaker), India Opal Buloni, Winn-Dixie, Daddy/The Preacher, Mama
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Mama
Page Number: 163-64
Explanation and Analysis:

“But do you know what? I just realized something, India Opal. When I told you your mama took everything with her, I forgot one thing, one very important thing that she left behind.”

“What?” I asked.

“You,” he said. “Thank God your mama left me you.” And he hugged me tighter.

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Daddy/The Preacher (speaker), Winn-Dixie, Mama
Page Number: 166-67
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

“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.”

Related Characters: India Opal Buloni (speaker), Daddy/The Preacher, Mama
Related Symbols: The Mistake Tree
Page Number: 177-78
Explanation and Analysis: