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
It is May of 1934, and the apples are still green. Billie Jo knows they are too sour to eat at the moment. However, they will ripen around the time the baby arrives, and Billie Jo’s mother will turn them into all manner of desserts. Billie Jo is excited to eat apples on the way to school. She plans to eat them so often she will smell like them all the time.
The apples give Billie Jo something to look forward to; they are one of the few things in her life that provide her with comfort and happiness. She treats the apples much like her father treated the poppies growing along the French countryside.
Themes
