Out of the Dust is a pretty bleak story. People's jobs are being destroyed, the land gets torn to pieces and blown away, and at least five people die. With Billie Jo and her father in the center of all this turmoil, it's comforting to know that the novel is, in the end, a story about how tragedy often transforms lives for the better.
Even when Ma was alive, and even with the hope of the baby coming, Daddy and Billie Jo weren't entirely happy—Daddy struggled to relate to his daughter, while she struggled with the guilt of knowing she was not the son he wanted. While things aren't perfect at the end of the story either, the relationship between them is the best it's ever been, the farm is back on track, and Daddy even has a new love in his life who happily exists alongside Ma's memory. Yay for positive transformations.
Questions About Transformation
- How does Billie Jo's view of herself change throughout the story?
- What do we know about Ma's background? How does it relate to the theme of transformation?
- How does Louise transform Daddy's life? How do you know?
- People aren't the only thing that changes over the course of the story. How does the land transform as well?
Chew on This
Billie Jo's journey in Out of the Dust is as much about resolving issues of insecurity and self-doubt as it is about recovering from the Dust Bowl's conditions and Ma's death.
The land's recovery and destruction from dust storms mirrors Billie Jo's own process of change as she struggles to move past the challenges in her life.