Out of the Dust

The wheat is a consistent motif in the story. In each season, mentions of wheat exist. What does wheat symbolize in the story as a whole? How is it tied to individuals’ successes and failures in the period? After she returns home, Billie Jo says she is like the wheat. What does she mean by this? In what scenes or situations in the story is her connection to wheat’s characteristics brought out?

Besides the Kelby home and property, only a few micro-settings appear in the novel: the school, the Palace and other small theaters, the boxcar. What emotions do each of these micro-settings consistently connote? How does each location’s emotional impact compare to the emotions associated with Billie Jo’s home and farm? Use specific details to convey your thoughts regarding each micro-setting.

Billie Jo’s narrative perspective is intimate but limited to her observations, assumptions, and ideas. The reader must use inference skills to speculate on what other characters think and feel. Choose a secondary character and one or several actions or lines associated with that character. Convey the situation, then speculate on how that character must feel or what they think in that moment.