For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Apparently she thought she was cool with the single life, but when she met the dashing Bayard Kelby (110.2), she changed her tune. Louise only appears in the last part of the book, but she gets her very own chapter, and it gives us some pretty solid information about her. After a week, Billie Jo returns home and convinces her father to go see a doctor. After Billie comes back, Louise stays in the family's life, often coming to dinner and helping clean up. Billie Jo and Louise just talk, and her father eventually ends up dating Louise. FDR's New Deal is a series of programs to assist farmers (along with the rest of the country). Talking for a while, he shows her a picture of his family before she falls asleep. Billie Jo almost unwillingly grows to like her, saying she is plain and honest, and knows hot to not step on ghosts. The Wicked Stepmother. Daddy takes a loan to try and start a new bread shop, which Ma advises against, but the dust carries it away and makes more dust. The baby is delivered and lives for a few moments, until he too is pronounced dead. It is here she learns of her sense of belonging, and it all becomes clear to her. Billie Jo may have lost her mom, but life only looks up once Louise arrives on the scene. Unfortunately, her mother is running back to the house, and Billie Jo ends up throwing the can of kerosene onto her mother’s apron, lighting her on fire. Billie Jo begins with how her father wants to have a son instead of a daughter, but how he loves her anyway, but treats her like the son he doesn’t have, rough and tough. She later marries Bayard, becoming Billie Jo's stepmother. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. Women who get hitched to previously married men often get some pretty bad stereotypes thrown at them, but fortunately Louise, Daddy's lady friend and future wife at the end of the book, seems like she'll be the one who gives stepmamas a better name. The opening of the book also describes the dust storms causing trouble on farms, a vital part to the rural farming community, for it is a homestead area. The best part about Louise, though, is that she understands the sticky situation she's entering into in relating to Billie Jo. Out of the Dust is a verse novel by Karen Hesse, first published in 1997. Buried on top of a hill, Billie Jo names him Franklin after the president, her father at a loss for words. As dust storms swoop in and steal any hope of profit from wheat, the US government makes moves to try to help the area. The two even start to gain each other's trust again. Women who get hitched to previously married men often get some pretty bad stereotypes thrown at them, but fortunately Louise, Daddy's lady friend and future wife at the end of the book, seems like she'll be the one who gives stepmamas a better name. Louise is a good listener, understands the hurt Billie Jo's experienced, and wants to support her. She hitchhikes on a train, and a homeless and smelly man comes up to her. The Wicked Stepmother. Billie Jo almost unwillingly grows to like her, saying she is plain and honest, and knows hot to not step on ghosts. The Other Woman. And it's a good thing too, since she winds up really rocking Billie Jo's world. Billie Jo is left trying to give water (using immensely burned and swollen hands) to her burned and injured mother. Billie Jo's own hands are badly burned as well, swollen and dripping pus. Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Out_of_the_Dust&oldid=982749213, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 10 October 2020, at 02:46. After Billie comes back, Louise stays in the family's life, often coming to dinner and helping clean up. The Second Wife. We learn that she was Daddy's night school teacher in the class he decided to take to expand his horizons (or find a lady—the verdict's still out on this one); plus she is highly educated and a hard worker. Thinking the house may catch on fire, Billie Jo runs back inside and throws the can of kerosene out the door. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. (106.8). She awakens to find that her biscuits are gone, but the picture that the man had of his family is left in its place. She calls him "Daddy" for the first time since the incident. A few days later, Billie Jo's mother dies while giving birth to her son. By Karen Hesse. One day while Billie Jo's pregnant mother is making breakfast, her father leaves a pail of kerosene next to the stove and then goes out into the fields. After trying to return to her former life style, Billie Jo becomes desperate to get out of the dust, so she gets up and leaves one night with only a handful of biscuits. She teaches the night school that Bayard had attended, which was the manner in which they met. The Other Woman. Screaming to her husband, Billie Jo's mother runs out to the fields, with Billie Jo behind her. Louise is a great cook, has awesome people skills, and—according to the last chapter of the book—wears fabulous hats. Her mother is taken inside and treated by the local doctor, but she never again looks like "Ma" to Billie Jo, for she is unrecognizable through her burns. Louise. © 2020 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal. Billie Jo respects Louise because Louise knows how to cope with "two red heads" and not "step on the toes of a ghost". Out of the Dust is a verse novel by Karen Hesse, first published in 1997. The Second Wife. After the deaths, Billie Jo stops calling her father "Daddy." While Billie Jo cites a lot of stuff she likes about Louise, she tells us: What I like best about her / is Louise doesn't say what I should do. Louise understands that Billie and her father had a … By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from Shmoop and verify that you are over the age of 13. Losing your mom is bad enough, but losing her in a tragic accident when she's pregnant and you bear some of the responsibility is downright awful. / She just nods / And I know she's heard everything I said. Louise understands this and doesn't try to force her way into the family's life. If you must have a stepmother, fabulous hats can only help the situations as far as we're concerned. Her mother picks up the pail, mistakenly thinking it is water and makes "a rope of fire". Time goes on, and she begins to notice spots on her father's face, similar to those on her grandfather when he had skin cancer. Billie Jo runs outside and began to beat the flames on her mother with her bare hands in an attempt to save both her mother and unborn sibling. Louise appears later on in the story, revealing to have comforted Bayard when Billie Jo had run away. Create your own unique website with customizable templates. Scarred and burned, Billie Jo is left unable to play piano, one of the few joys that had remained in her life (like her mother). Billie Jo and her father begin to drift apart from each other. Louise in Out of the Dust. One night, Billie Jo's father takes the money allocated to pay for his daughter's future education and gets drunk at Guymon. She then meets Louise, a woman who stayed with her father while Billie was on the run. Louise understands that Billie and her father had a past before her, and has to give Billie time to adapt to her.

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