Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

This book took place during the great depression. It was the dust bowl through the eyes of a little girl. Her dad was very stubborn and would not leave the area he grew wheat and would try and try again to grow the plant even though the seeds just got swept away in the dust. Her mother played the piano and she wanted to follow in her mothers foot steps and learned to play the piano as well. One day there was a bucket of gas burning left next to the stove on accident. Her mother ran to get her father and Billie Joe the girl telling the story took the pale and chucked it out the back door not realizing that her mother was on her way back. She burned her mother so severely that they had to feed her water by getting a sponge wet and dripping the water into her mouth. Her mother was also pregnant and the time and they were all very nervous for the baby. When the mom went into birth she died in labor and her baby died shortly after its birth as well. After this tragedy happened it was very hard on Billie Joe and her father. Her father began to build a pond because her mother had always wanted one. Even though there was a huge dust storm that had been accruing for years her father kept digging the pond even though it could not be filled. This symbolized the dedication and hope that all these people had. he was so dedicated to build this pond for his wife that had passed away he built it in a dust storm in hope that some day it would be filled with water. Just like the people that stayed and lived there had hope for there land and were dedicated to there land so that some day they could farm it once again. Another symbol in the book was when Billie Joe left the dust bowl and lived with her aunt but decided to come back. This symbolizes how important family was, these people choose to live in the dust bowl just to be with there family because the quality of life around them and things was no where near as important as family. Another major symbol in the book was Louise she moved in with Billie Joe and her dad and brought there family back together. She symbolized the regain of faith, some people lost faith for a while but then found it again. Finally the biggest symbol in this book was the dust. Everything they had, ate, and lived in was covered in dust. The dust was a very unfortunate thing and brought a very hard life to many people however the people that lived threw this appreciated there family and things so much more than people do today. The dust symbolized that even in the worst of times a good thing can come out of it and in this situation it was the great appreciation for family, food, and things that these people had.