Out of the Dust

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 1997

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 8: “Autumn 1935”

Part 8, Poems 103-110 Summary

This section summarizes Poem 103: “Cut It Deep,” Poem 104: “The Other Woman,” Poem 105: “No Everywhere,” Poem 106: “My Life, or What I Told Louise After the Tenth Time She Came to Dinner,” Poem 107: “Thanksgiving List,” Poem 108: “Music,” Poem 109: “Teamwork,” and Poem 110: “Finding a Way.”

Doc Rice removes Daddy’s malignancies and chastises him for waiting so long. Billie Jo asks the doctor what he can do about her hands. Besides ointment, he advises her simply, “Use them, Billie Jo […] / They’ll heal up fine if you just use them” (210). Back at home, both Billie Jo and her father try harder to forge a more emotional connection. She allows his help as she attempts to clear out the two childhood boxes, and he acknowledges her boldness in seeking a new life. In “The Other Woman,” Billie Jo warily gets to know Louise, the teacher of her father’s night class who “stayed by” him when Billie Jo left. Louise cooks well and promotes Bayard’s help in helping to clean up after dinner. Billie Jo senses that Louise is not out to replace Ma—but Billie Jo wants to continue to foster her relationship with her father, and not allow Louise to “crowd” her out (214).

She talks openly with Louise after Louise’s 10th visit, telling her about Ma, piano, the accident, and her trip west. She feels Louise listens and understands, and Billie Jo appreciates that Louise does not tell her what to do or how to feel. The winter wheat shows hopeful signs of a harvest and Mad Dog stops to visit once a week. At Thanksgiving, Billie Jo is grateful for more favorable weather conditions, water in the river and pond, and the new poppies planted on Ma’s and Franklin’s grave. She mentions receiving a letter of thanks from the migrant’s wife after receiving the photo Billie Jo mailed. She begins playing piano again.

In “Teamwork,” Billie Jo reflects again on Thanksgiving, how after dinner, Daddy and Louise walked to Ma’s grave “where he let Ma know his intentions. / And Ma’s bones didn’t object” (224). In the poem that caps the novel, “Finding a Way,” Billie Jo mentions the importance of keeping hope alive and bolstering one’s spirit with optimism; otherwise, hard times are even harder. Her father plans to plant sorghum and cotton along with wheat moving forward, and Billie Jo keeps practicing piano, and looks forward to the time when Louise “stays for good” (227).

Part 8 Analysis

Part 7 of Out of the Dust contains the subtle climax of the narrative with Billie Jo’s attempt to flee west and decision to return home. Part 8, then, contains the falling action and evidence of the resolution of multiple conflicts. Once home, Billie Jo has no regrets. She moves forward with confidence and renewed energy into a closer relationship with her father, more care toward and healthier promotion of her own interests, and more hope for the future. Billie Jo steps into a role of new maturity and accrued wisdom because of her tragic losses and her struggles; she does this after her admission at the end of Part 7 that she still needs her father to be a parent to her. Her acceptance of needing others to avoid the pitfalls of a life prone to loneliness and isolation is key to her coming-of-age and growth in wisdom.

A series of events and ways in which Billie Jo reacts to them provides evidence of her character’s arc and leaves the reader with a taste of the hopefulness Billie Jo herself eventually derives. She tries to clean her two childhood boxes in devotion to the promise to Ma. She allows her father to participate, showing her new devotion to their closeness but she opts to not throw away the items, as the keepsakes represent who she was and who she is, establishing a new devotion to her own identity as a strong young person. She accepts Louise into their lives on the farm, hesitantly and warily at first, but with increasing respect. Billie Jo treats her return to playing piano with a parallel caution: “We sniff each other’s armpits, / and inside each other’s ears, / and behind each other’s necks. / We are both confident, and a little sassy” (222). Billie Jo also mentions in passing that Mad Dog stops on his way to Amarillo weekly, planting a hope for their future as friends or partners in a romantic relationship.

These experiences prove that Billie Jo accepts now the turns her life has taken and the fact that challenges like drought and dust can forever change a person. Each step she takes—getting to know Louise, practicing on Ma’s piano again, appreciating her father’s minimal “help” in the kitchen—sings of hope and shows how she now can welcome optimism into her life. Her father’s genuine respect for her brash action of going west contributes to her newfound confidence: “I dreamed of running off to, / though I never did” (211). Much more influence, though, for Billie Jo’s final choice toward happiness comes from the lessons she observes, digests, and utilizes on her own. As she tells Louise, she knows intuitively when she is ready to try piano again. In a parallel way, she more innately now can sum up her own conclusions about life’s struggles and tragedies: One must do the work of keeping hope and dreams alive, for only then is resilience and survival possible. A combination of self-forgiveness, acceptance, and hope are the result of Billie Jo’s experiences since the accident, and the mental, emotional, and physical choices she makes amass to bring her character arc to a close: “And I stretch my fingers over the keys, / and I play” (227).