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’s father considers going to night school so he will have a fallback plan in case farming fails. Billie Jo assures him the farm will be okay. She realizes that she sounds like he used to, while he sounds like her mother. Billie Jo’s father also mentions that most of the people in night school classes are women. Billie Jo wonders if the women are why he actually wants to go. She would not be surprised if the women took an interest in him; he is a strong and handsome man. In fact, it might be a blessing in disguise—some of the women will probably cook for him, giving Billie Jo one less job to do. However, Billie Jo does not like the idea of her father spending time with women other than her mother.
Billie Jo’s father’s desire to go to night school shows that he is thinking about the future in ways that he hasn’t for some time. Even if Billie Jo is right and her father is more interested in women than his education, he is starting to move on from the events of the past with an eye toward what is next for him and his family. Meanwhile, Billie Jo is not ready to move on from her mother and does not want her father to either. It is an issue that will drive yet another wedge in their already troubled relationship.
Themes
