Line #75 Literature/OutOfTheDust


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/out_of_the_dust.png]]
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3	''Out of the Dust'' is a 1997 HistoricalFiction novel by acclaimed children's author Karen Hesse. It won the MediaNotes/NewberyMedal in 1998.
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5	The novel is a collection of free-verse poems, making it a unique entry in the world of ChildrensLiterature. The plot deals with its protagonist Billie Jo Kelby, a [[{{Tomboy}} tomboyish]], talented pianist, struggling to survive in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl during TheGreatDepression. She has a [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest kind]] mother, nicknamed Ma, [[DeathByNewberyMedal who dies tragically]], and a [[TheStoic distant]] father, a World War I veteran nicknamed Daddy. As the novel progresses, Billie Jo and Daddy [[CharacterDevelopment learn to endure]] their tough existences, as well as the hole in their lives created by the death of Ma.
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7	!!This novel contains examples of:
8	* BodyHorror: The accident with the kerosene leaves Billie Jo's hands covered in third degree burns, and her mother in even worse shape.
9	* CharacterDevelopment: Both Billie Jo and Daddy. Billie becomes a much stronger young woman, with a sense of purpose (i.e., her piano playing) by the book's end, and she forgives her father for the freak accident. Daddy is not nearly as [[TheStoic stoic]] by the end of the novel; and he's found a new love in Louise.
10	* CrapsackWorld: Well, it ''is'' TheGreatDepression...
11	* DeathByChildbirth: Ma dies giving birth to Billie Jo's brother, although in this case, it's not the birth alone that kills her so much as it just pushes her over the edge after she was already on death's doorstep from the kerosene accident. The baby doesn't last much longer.
12	* DeathByDespair: Referenced. Billie Jo mentions that a woman died two hours after her husband. The official cause of death was announced as "dust pneumonia" but Billie Jo believes that she just couldn't go on without him.
13	* DeathByNewberyMedal: Ma and baby Franklin. [[spoiler:And averted by Daddy, who is treated for skin cancer near the end of the book]].
14	* DeathOfAChild:
15	** Billie's brother Franklin dies a few hours after being born.
16	** It's mentioned that two boys were killed in a bad dust storm.
17	* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: Billie Jo has a supportive and kind mother and an emotionally distant (though not terrible) father. The strained relationship between Billie and her father after her mother dies forms much of the book's plot.
18	* DisasterDominoes: Ma's accident:
19	** Daddy leaves a pail of kerosene beside the stove without telling anyone what it is.
20	** Ma mistakes the kerosene for water and pours it into the coffee pot, causing it to catch fire.
21	** Ma runs out of the house to get Daddy. Billie Jo starts to follow her, but decides it's a bad idea to leave the kerosene to burn uncontrolled in the "bone-dry kitchen", and goes back to get it out of the house.
22	** For reasons unknown (possibly because she had the same thought as Billie Jo), instead of continuing to run for Daddy, Ma turns around and also heads back towards the house.
23	** Billie Jo throws the pail of burning kerosene out the door just as Ma is coming back up the path, causing burning kerosene to splash on her clothes. The resulting incident leaves Ma horribly burned and near death (ultimately leading to the death of both her and the baby), and Billie Jo gets third-degree burns on her hands trying to save her.
24	* DoorstopBaby: In one chapter, Billie Jo writes about how a package containing a live human baby was found on the front steps of the church.
25	* DreamCrushingHandicap: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] At first, it seems like this trope will be played straight when Billie's hands are crippled in the freak accident, making it much harder for her to play piano. However, local musician and good friend Arley Wanderdale tries to convince her to perform in a city-wide TalentContest anyway, and she does, winning third place. By the end of the novel, [[spoiler:she's [[CharacterDevelopment playing piano on the regular again]].]]
26	* DrowningHisSorrows: After Ma gets disfigured in the kerosene accident, Bayard does this in a nearby town called Guymon to forget his life's problems, despite the fact that Ma is unable to do anything for herself and Billie Jo can't help her much due to how badly burned her own hands are. [[WhatTheHellHero Billie Jo isn't happy about it]], although she forgives him for it well before she forgives him for leaving the kerosene on the stove.
27	* EarnYourHappyEnding: Well, not really a ''happy'' ending - it ''is'' TheGreatDepression, after all. But after a bookload of suffering, the surviving characters are much happier by the end than they’ve been since at least Ma died, especially Daddy.
28	* {{Escapism}}: [[InUniverse In-universe]], Billie Jo plays the piano as a way to escape her brutal, unforgiving life.
29	* ForWantOfANail: If that pot of kerosene wasn't in the wrong place at the wrong time, a ''lot'' of drama and heartache could've been avoided.
30	* FromBadToWorse: Things weren't so great at the beginning of the story, but once Ma dies giving birth to Franklin, that's when things ''really'' start rolling off the deep end.
31	* FrothyMugsOfWater: Averted. Being set in the 1930s, it couldn't lack a reference to moonshine. It also features Billie Jo's dad going out drinking after the accident.
32	* GenderBlenderName: "Billie Jo" is a feminized spelling of a traditionally male name, given to her by her father who WantedASonInstead.
33	* TheGreatDepression: The novel takes place smack dab in the middle of this period, from 1934 to 1935.
34	* GoodParents: Ma, who as mentioned is very supportive of Billie Jo.
35	* GossipyHens: [[spoiler: After her dead baby brother is taken away to be buried, Billie Jo overhears two women gossiping about the accident, focusing on Billie Jo's having thrown the pail of kerosene. Though they at least acknowledge that it was an accident, Billie Jo is furious and anguished that they only focus on her part in it, not mentioning that it was Daddy leaving the pail by the stove that started the whole chain of events or that, after the incident, he abandoned Ma for hours to drink up all their savings despite knowing she was incapable of caring for herself.]]
36	* {{Hunk}}: Mad-Dog, the boy Billy Joe has a crush on.
37	* ICouldaBeenAContender: Ma could have been a famous pianist. At least Billie thought so.
38	* ImperiledInPregnancy: Ma is heavily pregnant when the accident happens. She survives initially, covered in burns, but dies giving birth.
39	* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: Billie is a ''very'' [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example, but she does overcome her crippled hands to play piano, despite everyone's, [[WellDoneSonGuy including her father's,]] doubts.
40	* IntergenerationalFriendship: Arley and Billie Jo. At the end, Billie forms this with [[spoiler: Louise, her father's girlfriend, as well]].
41	* LastMinuteBabyNaming: A tragic case. Billie Jo's baby brother dies before he's given a name, but the reverend at the funeral asks her father to posthumously name him. He doesn't respond, so Billie Jo speaks up in his place and names her brother Franklin after the President.
42	* TheMentor: Arley Wanderdale, who's more of a father figure to Billie than Bayard, her actual dad.
43	* MercyKill: A minor character has his cattle shot instead of letting them starve or suffocate due to the dust.
44	* MissingMom: Ma dies near the beginning of the book.
45	* MostWritersAreWriters: Karen Hesse has gone on record to say Billie is a musician and a poet [[WriteWhatYouKnow because she too is a musician and a poet]].
46	* NotSoStoic: When Billie Jo and Daddy go to a town ball, he actually ''smiles and laughs.'' Earlier, before Ma dies, he’s not above joking the dust in their food is pepper and chocolate.
47	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mad Dog received his nickname because as a toddler he loved to bite people's legs. His real name is never mentioned and not even Billie Jo knows it.
48	* ParentalTitleCharacterization: Billie Jo switches from calling Bayard "Daddy" to simply referring to him as "my father" after the accident, symbolizing her losing faith in him. [[spoiler:When she returns home and they reconcile, she begins calling him "Daddy" again.]]
49	* PoliticalCorrectnessIsEvil: [[InUniverse In-universe,]] one of the TalentContest contestants, Birdie Jasper, thinks this is going on when Billie gets a prize, claiming the judges are [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged "just being nice to a cripple."]] The other performers disagree.
50	* PoorCommunicationKills: Daddy leaves a pail filled with kerosene beside the stove without telling Ma what it is. She mistakes it for water and tries to use it to make coffee, causing the kerosene to catch fire. She runs out to get Daddy, but for reasons that are never explained, turns around and heads back for the house very quickly, while Billie Jo, not expecting her mother to be coming back so soon, throws the pail of still-burning kerosene out the door to stop the fire spreading through the house. The resulting accident leaves Billie Jo's hands and Ma's entire body covered in third degree burns, injuries that prove fatal to Ma.
51	* SecondPlaceIsForWinners: Billie Jo is proud of herself when she wins third-place in the TalentContest.
52	* ShoutOut: Billie Jo's teacher Miss Freeland sings in a performance of ''Theatre/MadameButterfly.''
53	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: ''Way'' on the cynical side, even though [[BittersweetEnding the ending]] is surprisingly upbeat and hopeful.
54	* SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic: As realistic as humanly possible, though it's to be expected, considering it's basically the kiddie equivalent of a [[Creator/JohnSteinbeck Steinbeck]] novel.
55	* SoProudOfYou: Downplayed when Billie tells Ma she scored the highest out of the entire eighth grade on a standardized test.
56	--> '''Ma''': I knew you could.
57	* SoreLoser: The tap dancers pout into their mirrors after not winning at the talent contest, with Birdie Jasper claiming it's Billie Jo's fault she didn't win and that the judges were "just being nice to a cripple".
58	* TheStoic: Daddy was alway like this, but cranks it up several notches after Ma and Franklin die. [[CharacterDevelopment He gets better.]]
59	* StrongFamilyResemblance: Used tragically. Billie Jo resembles her father in both looks and mannerisms but is very little like her mother. After Ma dies, Billie bemoans that she wish she could see more of her mother in herself.
60	* TheSwarm: As if things weren't hard enough for Billie Jo, a giant swarm of grasshoppers comes and devours every leaf and apple on her mother's two apple trees, to which she tries to fight them off but fails, on the same day that her mother dies giving birth to her stillborn brother.
61	* TalentContest: Billie enters one about halfway through the book; she wins third-place and earns [[InflationNegation two dollars.]]
62	* TeacherStudentRomance: A rare example between adults. [[spoiler:After Billie Jo’s father begins going to night school, he ends up falling for his teacher, Louise. The book ends with them in a romantic relationship]].
63	* ThisIsUnforgivable: One of the main conflicts in the novel is Billie Jo refusing to forgive her father for leaving the pot of kerosene on the stove, as it lead to [[ForWantOfANail the chain of events]] ending in Ma's death. By the end, she [[CharacterDevelopment has forgave him]] - as well as herself, for throwing the pot.
64	* TheRunaway: Billie runs off westward [[spoiler:but returns back home a chapter later after meeting a man who ran away from his family]].
65	* TitleDrop: An interesting variation, in that the TitleDrop is repeated numerous times across the novel as sort of a literary {{leitmotif}}, rather than just said once or twice.
66	* {{Tomboy}}: Billie Jo herself, though considering her father [[WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent wanted a boy to begin with]], it's not that surprising.
67	* TomboyishName: Again, Billie Jo.
68	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Billie's love of apples, which stems from her mother's apple trees, is noted several times. The book even includes a recipe for apple sauce in the afterword.
69	* UnnamedParent: Averted with Billie Jo's father, whose name is revealed to be "Bayard". Also averted with her mother, who is referred to once as "Polly" (and "Pol" twice by her husband).
70	* WantedASonInstead: Billie Jo's dad wanted a son. As a result, he gave his daughter a TomboyishName and raised her similarly to a son.
71	* WhamLine:
72	** From the chapter "The Accident":
73	-->''I got burned bad''.
74	** From the chapter "Devoured":
75	-->''Ma died that day giving birth to my brother.''
76	** From the chapter "Midnight Truth":
77	-->''He is rotting away, like my father, ready to leave me behind in the dust. Well, I'm leaving first''.
78	** From the chapter "Something Lost, Something Gained":
79	-->''I called Mr. Hardly from her office and asked him to let my father know... I was coming home''.
80	* WellDoneSonGuy: Billie repeatedly tries to make her parents proud of her over the course of the book. She doesn't really succeed with her mom, but [[spoiler: does with her dad when she returns home from her train ride out of Oklahoma]].
81	* WhatTheHellHero: Billie reacts this way when her dad [[DrowningHisSorrows drinks up all the emergency money in Guymon.]]
82	* WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent: Billie Jo's father wanted a boy, not a girl, which is why he gave her a [[TomboyishName masculine name]] and forced her to work on the farm.
83	* YouGotGuts: When Billie returns from [[spoiler: her short trip out the Panhandle,]] Bayard says this almost verbatim.
84	--> '''Daddy''': I didn't have half your sauce, Billie Jo.

Context Literature / OutOfTheDust