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
On a Saturday night in September, Mrs. Brown—one of Billie Jo’s neighbors—invites people over to watch her cereus plant bloom. Billie Jo gets there at three in the morning and sees the open blossom. Billie Jo is amazed the plant managed to survive. She leaves before the morning light arrives because she doesn’t want to witness the plant’s inevitable demise when the sun comes up.
Like Billie Jo’s mother’s apple trees, Mrs. Brown’s cereus plant is a rare sign of life and beauty in the otherwise desolate Panhandle. Billie Jo knows such moments are fleeting and would rather spend less time enjoying the happy, hopeful moments if it means she does not witness the inevitable destruction.
Themes
