How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Stanza)
Quote #4
I don't know my father anymore. / He sits across from me, / he looks like my father, / he chews his food like my father, / he brushes his dusty hair back / like my father, / but he is a stranger.
[…] We are both changing, / we are shifting to fill the empty spaces left by Ma. (41.1, 3)
Like Ma's frightening appearance after the accident, her death also transforms Daddy into something unrecognizable to Billie Jo. They don't talk easily, which isn't saying much since they had trouble communicating even before the accident. In her absence, they both struggle to change and adjust to life together.
Quote #5
Mrs. Brown said, / "The blossom opened at midnight, / big as a dinner plate. / It only took moments to unfold." / How can such a flower / find a way to bloom in this drought, / in this wind. (45.2-3)
You know times are hard when a crowd gathers around a neighbor's front porch to watch a flower bloom because it's become such a rare thing. The blooming of the cereus plant is a small but important moment in the story, as it foreshadows Billie Jo's own transformation from a withered shell into someone with a love of life, even in the middle of darkness and sadness.
Quote #6
And later, / when the clouds lift, / the farmers, surveying their fields, / nod their heads as / the frail stalks revive, / everyone, everything, grateful for this moment, / free of the / weight of dust. (57.7)
Just like the characters, the land also goes through transformations as the dust storms come and go. Rain in particular is a game changer for every living thing in the Panhandle—the heaviness of hardship lifts from tired shoulders just as the wheat regains life.