Out of the Dust

Out of the Dust

by

Karen Hesse

Out of the Dust: 59. Scrubbing Up Dust Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Billie Jo walks past the Crystal Hotel and sees a man on his knees, scraping mud. She thinks about how her mother also scraped up mud around the house to ensure everything stayed as clean as possible. Now that her mother is gone, the task of scraping mud falls to Billie Jo because her father will not do it. Billie Jo wouldn’t mind scraping the mud except that it hurts her hands. However, she knows she needs to do it because her mother would haunt her if she didn’t.
Without her mother in the picture, Billie Jo has more duties than before even though she is less capable of carrying them out because of her injured hands. Despite the pain certain tasks cause, Billie Jo completes them as a way of honoring her mother’s memory and attempting to find normalcy in her desperate situation.
Themes
Nature, Survival, and the Dust Bowl Theme Icon
Coming of Age Theme Icon
Family and Forgiveness Theme Icon