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16. State Tests
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Out of the Dust, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, Survival, and the Dust Bowl
Poverty, Charity, and Community
Coming of Age
Family and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
One night in March, Billie Jo wakes up to wind and lightning. She senses a storm is coming and fears the dust that she knows will soon cover everything. The storm destroys the crops, ruining all of her father’s hard work. Billie Jo steps outside to watch the destruction until the storm starts to get too close. She steps back inside just before the dust reaches her. Moments later, her father wakes up and runs out into the storm with his work clothes half on. Billie Jo tries to warn him there is nothing he can do, but he goes out anyway.
This is the first dust storm in the novel, though Billie Jo’s behavior suggests she has experienced many similar storms before. The lyrical descriptions of the storm and Billie Jo’s reaction to it suggest there is beauty in its violence, though that is little consolation for Billie Jo and her family. Billie Jo’s father’s decision to run out into the storm is futile—the act of a desperate man with no other options.
Themes
Meanwhile, Billie Jo’s mother wipes dust off of what she can and starts preparing coffee and biscuits. Billie Jo and her mother wait for hours for her father to return. While they wait, the temperature drops, and it starts snowing. At first, Billie Jo is happy for the snow but soon realizes it is no match for the dust, which is scattered everywhere. Finally, Billie Jo’s father returns, covered in mud and dust, looking defeated. When he sits down at the table he doesn’t cry, but Billie Jo thinks about how it would look like he was crying mud if he did.
Billie Jo and her mother know there is nothing they can do to help Billie Jo’s father’s crops, so they prepare what little comforts they can for when Billie Jo’s father returns. When he comes, his reaction is characteristic: he sits solemnly, refusing to express the negative emotions that are surely raging inside of him. Everyone knows how dire their situation has become, but because there is no obvious solution, they can only sit quietly and reflect.
Themes
