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
A smelly and grimy man climbs onto Billie Jo’s train car. He asks her about herself and then shows her a photograph of his wife and three sons. Billie Jo gives him two of her remaining biscuits. The man asks if she has any water, and she shakes her head. After the man is done eating, he chastises himself aloud for taking food from a child. Billie Jo shows him she still has a few biscuits left to make him feel better.
As always, Billie Jo practices charity, even when it comes to strangers. She has no obvious way of getting more food for herself, yet she gives some of her biscuits up anyway. Meanwhile, the man’s words suggest he is well aware of what he has done and feels ashamed about it.
Themes
The man explains that he left home because he lost his land and could not feed his family. Like Billie Jo’s father, the man could not get his crops to grow. In response, Billie Jo tells the man about her life and how she left her father alone. The man falls asleep while she is talking, but Billie Jo continues to speak anyway. Eventually, she finishes and falls asleep too.
The man’s situation mirrors that of Billie Jo’s father. He makes Billie Jo feel comfortable, and she talks to him as if he were a loved one. She talks to him frankly, letting out everything she always wanted to tell others about her life.
Themes
When Billie Jo wakes up, the man and the remaining biscuits are missing. In their place is the picture of the man’s family. Billie Jo promises herself she will mail the picture to the man’s wife the first chance she gets, so she knows her husband is still alive. Billie Jo continues riding the train to Flagstaff, Arizona. When she arrives, a government employee spots her and gives her food and water. Once she is fed, Billie Jo calls Mr. Hardly and asks him to let her father know she is going to come home.
The presence of the picture implies that the man stole from Billie Jo because he wants to survive so he can support his family. He is not proud of what he has done, and he leaves the photograph as a sort of apology. Billie Jo understands why the man did what did, and again chooses charity over anger. She feels the man did her a favor by helping to remind her of what is missing back home.
Themes
