Out of the Dust

Ma’s piano was a gift from Billie Jo’s father when they married; though the house had “gaps in the walls, / a rusty bed, no running water” (24), it also had the lovely Cramer piano on which Ma would play pieces beautiful and mesmerizing to Billie Jo and Bayard. Ma planted two apple trees at the start of the marriage as well, taking the time and care necessary with the trees to grow them into healthy, fruit-bearing trees. These elements from their early marriage symbolize the hope both brought to the union of a future filled with children, music, family moments, beauty, sustenance, and happiness. Billie Jo grows up associating the piano and the apple trees with Ma and happy, hopeful times.

After the accident, Billie Jo is unable due to her injuries to help defend the apple trees from the grasshopper swarm. Symbolically, the swarm destroys the apples on the same day that Ma dies. Late in the story, Louise brings apples to the farm in acknowledgment of their meaning to Billie Jo. Billie Jo accepts the apples as a gift from Louise and a sign of hope for the future.

In her dream after the accident, Billie Jo first breaks Ma’s piano: “I hit the keys with my fist, and the piano broke into / a hundred pieces” (64), symbolizing the guilt she feels for causing Ma’s burns.