Previous
59. Scrubbing Up Dust
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 and her father stare at each other from across the dinner table. This is how they spend their time after Billie Jo’s father comes home from digging holes. Sometimes, Billie Jo’s father will sing quietly while he works, but his voice sounds broken—as if dust is blocking it. Billie Jo knows there are a few mannerisms she and her father have in common, but that is about it. She thinks about how hard it must be for her father without her mother around. Her mother and her father always worked as a team and sacrificed for each other.
The silence that passes between Billie Jo and her father suggests that they have yet to repair their relationship. Although Billie Jo stills loves her father and empathizes with him, he feels distant in every way that matters. At the moment, Billie Jo feels like she not only lost her mother in the accident, but her father as well.
Themes
Billie Jo wonders if her father looks at her to try to see some of her mother. If so, she knows he is unsuccessful because she looks and acts too much like him. Billie Jo knows because she has looked in the mirror and searched for her mother’s features. She wishes she could see her mother in herself because it would bring her some comfort. Unfortunately, she is her father’s daughter.
Because Billie Jo’s father always wanted a son, he trained his daughter to act like him. This causes heartbreak now that his wife is gone, as his only daughter not only looks exactly like him, but she has been trained to act like him as well.
Themes
