Characters' Motivations in "Because of Winn-Dixie"

Because of Winn-Dixie is a delightful book about a lonely young girl who finds friendship in a dog. The main character, India Opal Buloni, finds a homeless dog and she and the dog go on to have a marvelous summer. Friendship between a young girl and her dog would seem to be the central theme in the book. However, when looked at through a psychoanalytic lens the book then has deeper underlining issues. When looked at psychoanalytically the novel takes on a whole new theme. The theme changes from friendship to abandonment and loss.

The book deals with the issue of India being abandoned by her mother. India narrates early in the book, how her mother left her when she was a small child. In the novel India says to Winn-Dixie "See you don't have any family and neither do I...I don't have a mama.... So we're almost like orphans" (21). Although living with her father during the novel, India clearly feels that she has no one that care for her. When India mother abandoned her she feels alone and disconnected from her father. Her and her father have a distant relationship at the start ...