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 has a Christmas dinner at school with Miss Freeland and two other motherless girls. The dinner is better than she thought it would be—much better, in fact, than the silent dinner she has at home with her father. Billie Jo wishes she could have made her mother’s cranberry sauce for her father, but she never got a chance to learn how to make it.
The dinner with Miss Freeland and the cranberry sauce recipe are a reminder of how much Billie Jo lost in the accident. Not only did she lose her mother; she also lost a teacher who was supposed to guide her through the difficult world of life in the Panhandle. Now, all she has is a father who will hardly speak to her.
Themes
