How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Stanza)
Quote #4
If Ma could put her arm across my shoulder / sometime, / or stroke back my hair, / or sing me to sleep, making the soft sounds, / the reassuring noises, / that no matter how brittle and sharp life seemed, / no matter how brittle and sharp she seemed, / she was still my ma who loved me, / then I think I wouldn't be so eager to go. (77.1)
With Ma gone, a big piece of what home has meant to Billie Jo is chipped off—or, if we want to go with the dust metaphor, been blown away. The uneasy communication between her and Daddy, combined with Ma's absence, makes the idea of staying at home even more intolerable than it's ever been.
Quote #5
My father and I, / we can't soothe each other. / I'm too young, / he's too old, / and we don't know how to talk anymore / if we ever did. (79.3)
Ma's death forces both Billie Jo and Daddy to redefine what home means to them, causing strain in their communication. Their mutual struggle with this shows that although we only see Billie Jo's perspective, Daddy is in just as much pain as she is.
Quote #6
When we got back, / we found the barn half covered in dunes, / I couldn't tell which rise of dust was Ma and / Franklin's grave. / The front door hung open, / blown in by the wind. / Dust lay two feet deep in ripply waves / across the parlor floor, / dust blanketed the cookstove, / the icebox, / the kitchen chairs, / everything in dust. / And the piano… / buried in dust. (85.15)
Grief isn't the only thing invading the Kelby home—in the worst storm of the book, mounds of dust blow into their house, overtaking everything important to them. Billie Jo is especially upset about how it's covered her mother's grave and piano, the few things she has left to remember her by. The Dust Bowl's natural condition is a layer of external pain added on top of the internal conflict of Ma's death.