Out of the Dust

The sod that maintained the natural grassland ecosystem prior to the settlement of the prairie was a soil layer held tightly together by matted roots of grasses. Under the sod, moisture kept the grasses alive even in dry times between rains. When farmers came to settle plains regions like the Oklahoma Panhandle, they first had to “bust” the sod, digging it up, turning it over (burying the prairie grasses in doing so), and tilling that soil to make it pliable enough for furrows for planting seed. Timing was not on the sides of these farmers. A sustained drought moved over the area in the early 1930s, right in time for Great Depression and falling wheat prices. Without rain, the dug-up soil dried to dust. When the winds came, with no roots to hold down the dirt, it picked up and blew wherever the wind wanted to take it.

Some characters (notably, the women) speak clearly in Hesse’s novel about the impact these irresponsible farming practices had on the land and the people trying to live there. Most significantly, Miss Freeland, Billie Jo’s schoolteacher, summarizes how the greedy push to settle the land, graze the livestock, and plow under the sod resulted directly in the current dust conditions: “We squeezed more cattle, / more sheep, / onto less land, / and they grazed sown the stubble / till they reached root […] and the more sod we plowed up, the drier things got” (83-84). Ma is a little more philosophical in tone about her husband’s farming choices, but just as direct: “Can’t you see / what’s happening, Bayard? / The wheat’s not meant to be here” (40). By the time President Roosevelt offers advice about planting trees on the prairie as shelter from the wind and to hold soil with roots, Billie Jo is quick to side with Ma and Miss Freeland: “Trees have never been at home here. / They’re just not meant to be here. / Maybe none of us are meant to be here, / only the prairie grass / and the hawks” (75).

The theme of a dichotomy between humans and nature comes through in other ways. When Billie Jo, enamored by the art exhibit, attends three times, she marvels at what the land looked like before settlement: “There were pictures of the Panhandle in the old days / with the grass blowing and wolves” (94). She wonders about the death of Haydon P. Nye, an original Panhandler who saw “only grass, / grass and wild horses” (107) when he settled long ago. Now, she wonders, “Will they sow wheat on his grave, / where the buffalo / once grazed?” (108). Throughout the novel, dust prevents men’s machines from working, and dust kills people, adults, and children alike. Dust is enough to break the spirit of many who choose instead to migrate west.

In keeping with the themes of hope and resilience at the end of the novel, the author shows reconciliation between Billie Jo’s father and the earth from which he tries so hard to profit. He opts for crop diversification, letting sod return to fallow fields, and limiting his wheat acres. Not coincidentally, conditions for his winter wheat look more hopeful for early 1936. In an effective symbol at the novel’s close, he plants now on foot, walking behind a team of mules, as the tractor does not work. Billie Jo aptly sees the righteousness in this: “Maybe the tractor lifted him above the land, / maybe the fields didn’t know him anymore, / didn’t remember the touch of his feet […] and why should wheat grow for a stranger?” (226).