Out of the Dust

Karen Hesse

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 1997

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Spring 1934”

Part 2, Poems 18-22 Summary

This section summarizes Poem 18: “Tested by Dust,” Poem 19: “Banks,” Poem 20: “Beat Wheat,” Poem 21: “Give Up on Wheat,” and Poem 22: “What I Don’t Know.”

In another round of tests at school, students contend with a passing dust storm that blows dust into the school. In “Banks,” Billie Jo feels relief when Ma says they will get back all their lost money from the bank’s closure: “Now we will have money for a doctor / when the baby comes” (38). Due to continued dry conditions and wind, County Agent Dewey forewarns there may be little seed from this year’s wheat crop to start next year’s. Billie Jo tries to play piano to keep her mind off this news, but Ma sends her to the store. Billie Jo sees how thin Joe De La Flor’s cattle are on the way and feels there is little chance of a future there.

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In “Give Up on Wheat,” Ma tries to convince Daddy to dig a pond or try cotton or sorghum, but Daddy refuses, counting on his past success with wheat as a sign to not change. When Ma persists, Daddy points out that though her two apple trees need a lot of water, she would never suggest cutting them down. Ma goes out to tend to the chickens angrily. In April, Billie Jo’s teacher sings in Madame Butterfly, an opera Billie Jo does not know. Mad Dog’s claim that “most everyone” (42) knows that opera irritates her.

Part 2, Poems 23-28 Summary

This section summarizes Poem 23: “Apple Blossoms,” Poem 24: “World War,” Poem 25: “Apples,” Poem 26: “Dust and Rain,” Poem 27: “Harvest Light,” and Poem 28: “On the Road with Arley.”

Billie Jo turns her attention to her parents in “Apple Blossoms,” “World War,” and “Apples.” Ma devotes time and attention to her two apple trees on their property. Billie Jo observes how she loves to look at them and tend to their fruit. Billie Jo’s father fought in the World War but does not talk about it much. One thing he recalls are the red poppies blooming atop graves. The description makes Billie Jo wish for flowers to bloom despite the dust. She returns to the subject of Ma’s apples to mention how the apples will ripen once the baby comes, and pies, applesauce, and cobblers will follow.

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A bad dust storm precedes a hard, driving rain that does little good, as it comes so fast the hard ground cannot soak it in. Instead, the water runs off and takes Daddy’s new wheat seed with it, leaving him to start over. Enough apples stay on the two trees for a “small harvest / if we lose no more” (47). In June, neighbors harvest wheat. Mr. Haverstick, gets only eight bushels from acreage that usually yields 20 bushels. Billie Jo knows Daddy’s yield will be less: “If Daddy gets five bushels to his acre / it’ll be a miracle” (48). That month, Billie Jo is thrilled to go on a music-playing tour of nearby towns with Arley, his band the Black Mesa Boys, and his wife Vera. It was a hard sell with Ma, but she gave in because Billie Jo gets paid. Ma keeps the dimes Billie Jo earns for her education someday. Billie Jo loves playing for people as well as the travel itself; “being somewhere new and interesting” (51) makes her happy.

Part 2 Analysis

Billie Jo notes how her parents’ disagreement over the management of the farm leaves Ma stewing: “Ma is bittering […] Ma starts to quaking but she won’t let Daddy see” (41). Her father asserts his role as the farmer in charge, and there is nothing Ma can do but try to manage her anger. In a grim eventual victory, Ma’s apples fare a little better in the next storm than the wheat. The apples represent Ma’s hope to bring abundance and life from the dry plains, which both parallels and juxtaposes against Daddy’s stubborn insistence that he can make wheat grow. They want similar results, but their emotional connection to the land and nature in general presents quite differently. With Ma, the verse connotes growth and sustenance from maternal love and care: “Ma has been nursing these two trees,” “because of Ma’s stubborn care,” “placed there in the front yard by Ma / before I was born, / that she and they might bring forth fruit / into our home, / together” (43). Ma tends the apple trees with a dogged determination through the seasons, like they are her children, whereas Billie Jo’s father mechanically replants seed with an automatic, emotionless expectation: “Daddy says, / ‘No. / It has to be wheat. / I’ve grown it before. / I’ll grow it again’” (40).

While these observations help build a clearer picture of Billie Jo’s present life, concern for her future accumulates in subtle ways. Billie Jo struggles with her insular upbringing, full of contention after she admits she does not know what Madame Butterfly is about and hears Mad Dog imply that she should: “How does that / singing plowboy know something I don’t? / And how much more is out there / most everyone else has head of / except me?” (42). By the end of Part 2, Billie Jo’s opportunity to travel with Arley and Vera and play piano for gatherings is welcome excitement and a glance at the world around her. Thoughts of home and family stay with her, though, as she compiles “a set of songs with the word baby in the title” (50).