Nature, Survival, and the Dust Bowl
Out of the Dust follows 14-year-old Billie Jo as she and her parents struggle to survive in mid-1930s Oklahoma, during the height of the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was a phenomenon that temporarily destroyed American agriculture in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Oklahoma during the 1930s. From 1930-1936, millions of Americans suffered, none more so than those who lived in the Oklahoma Panhandle, like Billie Jo and her…
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Poverty, Charity, and Community
The characters in Out of the Dust live in an inhospitable climate, both due to the devastating Dust Bowl that destroys crops and coats everything in dust, and in terms of the Great Depression, the United States’ most severe economic depression. However, despite their struggles, Billie Jo’s community is full of goodwill, with most people going out of their way and sometimes even risking their lives to help others. This, Billie Jo and her…
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Coming of Age
Out of the Dust follows 14-year-old Billie Jo as she comes of age during the Dust Bowl. Billie Jo’s life centers around the concerns one would expect from a girl her age: she thinks about friends, boyfriends, what she wants to do with her life, and playing the piano. However, regularly, she has to set these quotidian concerns aside to fight for her survival as dust storms threaten her life and the lives of…
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Family and Forgiveness
The emotional center of Out of the Dust is Billie Jo’s relationship with her parents. In the beginning of the novel, her relationship with her mother and father is relatively straightforward. She loves her mother but wishes she would be more affectionate. Meanwhile, she and her father are a lot alike because her father raised Billie Jo like she was his son. However, these relationships get thrown into disarray after Billie Jo’s mother dies…
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