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
April 1935 is an especially dry month in the Panhandle, which causes fires everywhere. One day, Billie Jo’s school catches on fire, though luckily, the damage is not significant. It takes Billie Jo a week before she is comfortable returning to school after the incident. A week after the school fire, three boxcars catch on fire and burn to ash. Firemen try to put the fire out but fail because they don’t have enough water.
Although a fire at the school is scary enough in its own right, Billie Jo is especially shaken because of her prior experience with fire. She understandably associates fire with the mutilation of her flesh and her mother’s death. There is nothing Billie Jo hates more than fire—except possibly dust.
Themes
