The Most Important Chapters:
The most important chapters in this book are the ones that give meaning to the story. They move the plot along, and help you to really get involved with the story. Without these chapters the story wouldn't be the same, and that's why I decided to feature these few stories.
Here is a verse from an important chapter:
Dazzled
In the kitchen she is my Ma,
in the barn and the fields she is my daddy's wife,
but in the parlour Ma is something different.
She isn't much to look at,
so long and skinny,
her teeth poor,
her dark hair always needing a wash, but
from the time I was four,
I remember being dazzled by her
whenever she played the piano.
This is one of the very important chapters in the story. It describes Ma and how Billie Joe loves her and is 'dazzled' by her. It also helps to foreshadow why the book takes a whole different turn in the next selection.
Here is a section from it:
The Accident
I got
burned
bad.
Daddy
put a pail of kerosene
next to the stove
and Ma,
fixing breakfast,
thinking the pail was
filled with water,
lifted it,
to make Daddy's coffee,
poured it,
but instead of making coffee,
Ma made a rope of fire.
It rose up from the stove
to the pail
and the kerosene burst
into flames.
The foreshadowing mentioned earlier is that in 'Dazzled', it is established that Billie Joe loves her Ma more than anything, like any child is expected to. But in this chapter, her sympathy for Ma is shown and Billie Joe is so desperate to save her Ma that she ruins her hands in the process, giving the author more chances to explain the ain of living in that time, that place.
The next chapter establishes Billie Joe's pain for Ma even more.
Devoured
I climbed into the trees,
opening scabs in my tender hands,
grasshoppers clinging to me.
I tried beating them away,
but the grasshoppers ate every leaf,
they ate every piece of fruit.
Nothing left but a couple apple cores,
hanging from Ma's trees.
I couldn't tell her,
couldn't bring myself to say
her apples were gone.
I never had a chance.
Ma died that day
giving birth to my baby brother.
The impact of this chapter is talked about in almost every chapter afterward. It is the reason for the book, and is possibly the most important chapter of all. This book has a number of storylines going on, but all are given a bang when this one starts.
The next chapter I am going to talk to you about is the first in a long line of chapters that establish that Pa and Billie Joe are becoming more distant with every chapter.
The Empty Spaces
I don't know my father anymore.
He sits across from me,
he looks like my father,
he chews his food like he's my father,
he brushes his dusty hair back
like my father,
but he is a stranger.
This storyline is also very important to the entire story. It changes everything. The next is perhaps the shortest chapter in the entire book, but still has quite an impact. It is part of the long line of chapters talking about the dust storm and how it's wreaking havoc on everybody and everything.
Broken Promise
It rained
a little
everywhere
but here.
Though this next chapter is one that I chose because, not only is it extremely important, it is the title of the whole thing!
Out of the Dust
I walk through the calm night
under the stars
I walk to
where the train stops long enough
for a long-legged girl to latch on
and as my heart races
I feel the Earth tremble beneath me and then
the sound of sharp knives.
metal against metal,
as the train pulls up to the station.
Once I miht've headed east,
to Mr. Roosevelt.
Now I slip under cover of darkness
inside a boxcar
and let the train carry me west.
Out of the Dust.
This chapter tells of her going west towards California, and adds a whole new twist to the story. I can guess why the author, Karen Hesse, decided to use this as the chapter to name the book after. For it is a great chapter, and I think it was a good decision.
Though the most important chapter is the last, which is self-explanitory.
Finding a Way
Sometimes, while I'm at the piano,
I catch her reflection in the mirror,
standing in the kitchen, soft eyed, while Daddy
finishes chores,
and I stretch my fingers over the keys,
and I play.
