Out of the Dust is narrated in first person. Billie Jo Kelby, the protagonist and main character, describes her life from the winter of 1934 through the fall of 1935. Hesse, the author, shows the harsh reality of the Oklahoma Panhandle during the Great Depression. The Oklahoma Panhandle is located in the southwestern Great Plains region of the United States and was known as the Dust Bowl. During the 1920s and 1930s, farmers plowed up grasslands to plant wheat. But then drought came leading to violent dust storms that hit the area and caused soil erosion. The farmers and their families suffered poverty all across the Great Plains.
When Billie Jo is 14 years old, Out of the Dust begins. She lives during the Great Depression of the 1930s with her mother and father. Billie Jo and her parents struggle to make the best of a hard situation. But they still try to live their lives as normal as they can. Her father is a wheat farmer and works on the farm with her mother who spends most of her time cleaning their house. Billie Jo's mother is pregnant and the baby's arrival is an event that her family has been very excited for.
Billie is able to attend school normally and is the top 8th grade student in the state of Oklahoma, according to a statewide test. Her best friend Livvie leaves the Dust Bowl and moves to California with her family. Rabbits are killed because they are eating farmers' crops, the only food left to eat. That shows the harsh living conditions of the great depression. Billie loves to play the piano. Her mother taught her to play when Billie was five years old.
When the music teacher named Arley Wanderdale, who teaches at Billie Jo's school, asks her to play the piano at the Palace Theatre with his band, she feels like she's in heaven. For Billie there is nothing better than playing the piano while the audience goes along with the rhythm to make her feel like her music is alive. After a while Arley asks Billie to travel to neighboring towns with him and the "Black Mesa Boys" during the summer months. Billie Jo's mother agrees to let her go because she will be supervised by Arley's wife and will be earning a little money. That is something Billie Jo's family desperately needs and this looks like a great opportunity.
All the sudden Billie Jo's life changes tragically as a result of a horrible accident. Out of her fathers mistake, the house catches fire. Her mother runs outside to get her father, and Billie Jo throws the flaming pail (which caused the fire) of kerosene out the door. It hits her mother who suffers from severe burns. Months later she dies giving birth to a boy a month later. The baby only lives a few days, and Billie Jo names her dead brother Franklin who is buried in his mother's arms.
Billie feels guilty for her mother and baby brother and is in pain emotionally and physically. She blames her father as well as herself and is angry with him causing the fire in the first place. Wanting to redeem herself, Billie Jo takes over her mother's chores but her hands are burned so badly which forces her away from playing the piano. Billie Jo's father becomes depressed and withdrawn leaving Billie Jo behind; they become strangers but are living in the same house. Weeks later he takes a job working long hours for Wireless Power. As time passes the dust storms and the aftermath are a continuous occurrence. Most people feel sorry for Billie Jo because she is motherless and has few friends. She loves her dog because he doesn't treat her as just a victim but rather for who she is.
She hears about a talent contest hosted in the Palace Theatre and decides to participate. She only plays on the piano at school, unable to be around her mother's piano simply because she had to much guilt. At the contest Billie plays her heart out and wins third prize. Sadly her hands are overwhelmed with pain. Billie Jo tries to play the piano again but it hurts too much and she feels like a cripple. Her father begins to take classes at night in case they have to leave the farm. Billie Jo receives a letter from her Aunt inviting her to live in Lubbock, Texas.
She notices that her father has spots on his skin that look like skin cancer. Then she decides to leave before her father leaves her. Billie jumps on a freight train and travels in a boxcar to far away Flagstaff, Arizona. She takes the opportunity to get out of the Dust Bowl and never return. What she doesn't realize is that the "dust" traveled with her emotionally. She still feels grief and on her journey she realizes she has to forgive her father and forgive herself. After, she returns home with a great understanding of her father and herself. Billie Jo and her father start over in their relationship and become a family again. Her father meets Louise, a teacher, who becomes a special person in his life. Billie Jo realizes that love ind forgiving is the key and is able to accept Louise as part of their family.
Out of the dust was a moving book with an amazing message. That every struggle in life can be resolved in the end with love and forgiveness. It also showed the incredibly harsh conditions of the Dust Bowl.
~Ralf Neuschmied
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