Rain Symbol Analysis

Rain symbolizes hope—which, due to the conditions plaguing the Oklahoma Panhandle during the 1930s, the novel suggests is often misplaced. While rain is essential to keeping farmers’ crops and livestock alive, it’s also extremely unreliable. It often doesn’t rain for weeks or months on end, leading to drought conditions and the dust storms that kill people and animals. But when it does rain, more often than not, it’s just as destructive as the dust. Despite this, Billie Jo and her father experience moments of hope every time it rains, even as the rain destroys their apples, Billie Jo’s father’s wheat, and turns the dust into mud. The novel even makes this association more explicit when Billie Jo watches her pregnant mother stand naked in the rain, the water dripping off of her belly. Her mother’s pregnancy represents hope that Billie Jo’s parents will be able to expand their family, just as the rain represents hope that her father’s wheat will survive the season. And just as Billie Jo’s mother dies along with the baby soon after, the rain and the dust continue to decimate the Panhandle. Rain may symbolize hope for a better future, but it also impresses upon characters that a better future is in no way guaranteed.