In the historical novel, Out of the Dust, written by Karen Smith. The readers are introduced to a family living through the struggles of the dust bowl. Billy JO who is fourteen years old and the protagonist of this novel. According to the novel, Billy JO was a long-legged girl with a wide mouth and cheekbones like bicycle handles. Her dad got a redheaded, freckle-faced,narrow-hipped girl with a fondness for apples and a hunger for playing fierce piano( page 3 ). Additionally, she lives in a panhandled shack .She lives with her dad who is a farmer,and he is dogmatic on the outside and soft on the inside, he relishes his wife and he really wanted another child who was a boy. Also, she lives with her mother who is pregnant after 14 years. She is really beautiful and her husband loves her. She also loves to play her piano and she loves to teach piano. Her mother did not appreciate the way Billie JO's music teacher taught her, it …show more content…
Billy started having weird dreams and what not. Her mother is crying because the baby moves inside her and the burns. It follows that her father is really stressed out and found the money the mother saved and started wasting it on drinking alcohol.Thereafter, her mom and brother died her aunt came over and she did not even look at Billy Jo, on contrary the neighbors were keep saying that Billy threw the pail over and over. I think she made a prudent decision to throw the pail she was a intrepid girl. At least it saved her house. Afterwards, that terribly hard evening sadly her mother died. As the author states in the novel," Ma died that day giving birth to my little brother."(page 62 Smith). Her relationship with her father was getting bitter,and bitter as the days goes by. She, was feeling awkward around him and she thinks that her father does not even think about her mother