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41. The Empty Spaces
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
Billie Jo spends a lot of time in the kitchen, where everything hurts her hands. Meanwhile, her father spends his days outside, digging a giant hole. Billie Jo thinks he is attempting to dig the pond her mother asked for. She knows the project will never work and thinks it is too little, too late. When people walk by, they think Billie Jo’s father is insane, and Billie Jo is inclined to agree. Billie Jo forgives her father for all of his bad behavior since the accident. However, she still hasn’t forgiven him for leaving the bucket of kerosene near the stove.
Much like when Billie Jo’s father ran out into the storm to protect his crops, the hole is a futile effort of a desperate man who will try anything to find a viable way forward. Right now, Billie Jo’s father is lost, and he does not know how to process his grief. The hole is his way of trying to move forward, though as Billie Jo and her neighbors note, it reads as the behavior of an insane man.
Themes
