Dandelion Wine Chapter 23-31 Study Guide

Chapter 23-26

73. What did Mrs. Brown mean when she said to Tom that she needed the “equivalent of the blood of the Lamb” with her?

74. Why did Tom decide to go with her?

75. What is the real source of animosity between the two women?

76. How did Mrs. Brown “do herself in” in her attempt to fight witchcraft?

77. Why do you think Mrs. Goodwater had the wax doll?

78. What, in the end, “saves” Mrs. Brown from the witchcraft?

79. Create a title for Chapter 23.

80. Make 2 connections with Chapter 23. One needs to be “text to me,” and one needs to be “text to text” or “text to world.”

81. Create a title for Chapter 24.

82. The first paragraph on page 129, Colonel Freeleigh’s dream, is an extended metaphor. What does it represent?

83. Why does he make secret phone calls to Mexico City, and previously, to Buenos Aires, Lima, and Rio de Janerio?

84. What is the Colonel’s philosophy about life?

85. What is meant by the last line of this chapter—“Two thousand miles away, the closing of a window”?

86. Create a title for Chapter 25.

87. Why do you think Tom and Doug found themselves playing near the Civil War cannon downtown?

88. Create a title for Chapter 26.

Chapters 27-31

89. Why does Doug feel depressed on pages 138-139?

90. What does Doug “have to believe”?

91. Create a title for Chapter 27.

92. What “gems of wisdom” from Helen Loomis do you AGREE with? Why?

What “gems of wisdom” from Helen Loomis do you DISAGREE with? Why?

93. What does Helen Loomis have in common with Colonel Freeleigh?

94. Why did young Bill Forrester, on their first meeting in the drugstore, tell 95-year-old Helen Loomis that he was in love with her?

95. In what ways is the love shared by Bill and Helen on a higher level than most relationships?

96. Create a title for Chapter 29.

97. List the imagery at the beginning of Chapter 30 (page 158). What do you see, hear, and feel as you read the first few paragraphs?

98. How did the news of the murder quickly change the atmosphere in the town?

99. Even after it seems possible that Lavinia is the Lonely One’s next victim, she doesn’t seem upset. Why is that?

100. Think about the various men Lavinia encounters. Who do you think is the Lonely One and why?

101. Create a title for Chapter 30.

102. What does Charlie mean, “from now on we’re vanilla junket”?

103. How do the boys save August from being a total loss? Why do you think that did that?

104. Create a title for Chapter 31.