Analysis: Out of the Dust
Abstract
Karen Hesse's book Out of the Dust takes an unconventional approach to fiction, depicting the events of a full-length novel in a number of free verse poems. The tale of a family of farmers attempting to survive the Dust Bowl, Hesse's work is fascinating in its minimalism and heartbreaking in its focus. Hesse's free verse prose lends a childlike sense of simplicity and wonder to these heavy themes, showing just how dramatic these conditions can affect a child of that age; the result is an intelligent and thoughtful book on life in the Dust Bowl.
Karen Hesse's book Out of the Dust takes an unconventional approach to fiction, depicting the events of a full-length novel in a number of free verse poems. The tale of a family of farmers attempting to survive the Dust Bowl, Hesse's work is fascinating in its minimalism and heartbreaking in its focus. Billie Jo, the main character of the book, is a wonderful case study of innocence lost, as the ravages of life during this era of American history take their toll on her sense of identity and worth. The use of free verse poetry as a narrative style lends the Dust Bowl setting a curious lyricism, elevating the actions and thoughts of Billie Jo to mythic status.
As a main character, Billie Jo's journey reflects the book's themes of family, loss, forgiveness and perseverance. The Dust Bowl, because of its nature as an unforgiving time in American history both economically and socially, left many families like Billie Jo's struggling to make ends meet. To that end, her family has nothing left but each other. As circumstances and actions continue to tear apart the family, Billie Jo loses more and more, until she effectively has to take matters into her own hands and control her own destiny. She represents the potential for humanity to transcend their terrible conditions and become better people.
Billie Jo's life is a minimalist one; living out in the Oklahoma Panhandle in the midst of the Great Depression, she and her mother and father must contend with dust storms, never-ending chores, and failing crops. The whole family works together to make a better life for themselves, and for Billie Jo's mother, who is pregnant with their second child. The baby then becomes a beacon of hope for them to achieve greater happiness. Furthermore, Billie Jo's successes at her piano playing allow her to find a measure of happiness despite the horrors of the Dust Bowl (she is asked to play at the Palace Theatre, which later leads to a prospective career as a touring musician).
Billie Jo herself is a top student, and an incredibly talented piano player; her exceptional nature at the beginning of the book provides the plot with an even greater sense of pathos once tragedy strikes. During an accidental house fire caused by Father's negligence, Billie Jo accidentally burns her hands badly, and throws a bucket of flaming kerosene onto her mother. This is implied to have caused Mother to die a month later in childbirth; the child then dies a few days later. Billie Jo and her father are deeply affected by these events; Billie Jo's hands are burned, preventing her from helping on the farm and playing piano, and Father becomes even more withdrawn and silent because of the loss of his family (and his continually failing farm). Hesse shows how one simple event can slowly, but surely, undo years of strong family-building, and leave father and daughter as strangers.
Billie Jo's despair and anger is palpable in the book, as the hardships her family has to endure continue to pile up:
"I am so filled with bitterness,it comes from the dust, it comesfrom the silence of my father, it comesfrom the absence of Ma." (Hesse)
The environment and her circumstances have piled up over the events of the book to create an almost overwhelming sense of loss and rage in Billie Jo; she is angry at the Dust Bowl for making life so hard for her family, at her father for being unable to comfort her and give her strength, and her mother for being gone. At the same time, she is angriest at herself, because of her role in her mother's death; in attempting to save their home, she mortally harmed her mother, causing her tremendous guilt and grief. She feels a palpable sense of loss at her mother's passing, her own career-ending hand injury, and her emotionally distant father - all hardships that she has had to endure throughout the Dust Bowl.
However, as Billie Jo works through her grief, she starts to accept her situation and move on from it. She begins to get over her father's distance, understanding that he was in mourning as well; his actions have been defense mechanisms designed to keep him from losing himself altogether. When he went to a bar instead of staying by his dying wife's bedside, Billie Jo understands that he did so in order to dull the pain of his impending loss. While the father's actions leave a lot to be desired, his motivations are much more understandable. Billie Jo has every right to remain angry at her father, but by the end of the book she is able to forgive; Hesse uses her as an example of how, even in the worst of times, it is necessary to make recompense for our actions and move forward from tragic events.
The environment is one of despair and destitution, as abject poverty leaves people disillusioned and disenfranchised, leaving little hope for a brighter future. Despite this, Billie Jo's family attempts to undercut these conditions with humor: Billie Jo's father comments that the dust makes it look like "the potatoes were peppered plenty,' and that the milk turns into chocolate milk. These attempts to lighten the mood are part and parcel of just how important family is in times of economic destitution. Despite this, there is still palpable fear at losing their home: at one point Billie Jo asks:
Hesse counters this depression with the small family moments that Billie Jo and her father are able to find throughout the book, allowing them small measures of comfort in the most terrible conditions.
In conclusion, themes of family and environment, love, despair, loss and forgiveness pervade Hesse's quiet, contemplative book Out of the Dust. Much of the family's trials and tribulations come as a result of their environment - the Dust Bowl wreaks havoc on their community, with droughts and dust storms that leave people completely impoverished. Living in a place with such little hope, Billie Jo hangs on to her family as much as she can, as they all help each other through the hardships they must endure. Hesse's free verse prose lends a childlike sense of simplicity and wonder to these heavy themes, showing just how dramatic these conditions can affect a child of that age; the result is an intelligent and thoughtful book on life in the Dust Bowl.
Works Cited
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. Scholastic Books, 1999. Print.
