An Analysis Of Karen Hesse's Out Of The Dust

In the novel, Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, Billie Jo is a girl living in the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. She goes through tough times with her father, her family, and herself. Hesse uses descriptive and intense texts as well as using free form in her poems to increase her power through her words. Sometimes it goes too far with her descriptions. The words and sentences she uses are powerful but too graphic for an average student. There are many reasons why we should keep this book in the ELA curriculum and many reasons why we shouldn’t keep this novel in the curriculum. Out of the Dust should not be a part of our eighth grade curriculum because it is confusing, too emotional and graphic.

One reason why this novel shouldn’t stay in the curriculum

The poem On Stage, has words on its own separate line. To read a book in paragraph form, you would have to read left to right, but in Out of the Dust, you would have to read a word, then skip a line and read ONE word, then you would read a regular sentence. This is just one of the reasons why Out of the Dust should leave the ELA curriculum.

A second reason why this novel shouldn’t stay is because some chapters/poems don’t further and enhance the story. This novel has a very emotional storyline and it draws your eyes to the pages of the story, but sometimes, poems do nothing to further, or even enhance the storyline. The poem No Good, for example, does nothing but tell the reader how much her hands are useless, “I did play like a cripple at Arley’s show, not that Arley would ever say it. But my hands are no good. Arley understands, I think. He won’t ask again” (136). Most poems are filled with feeling, but some poems feel like they were quickly put together. For example, the poem, Kilauea, is very, very small page and it doesn’t do anything to enhance the story whatsoever: A

There a good few poems where Hesse uses very descriptive texts in emotional and violent events. There are sentences that go too far into the realm of too disgusting. Remember, school is supposed to a friendly environment. For example, the poem, The Accident, Hesse goes into to detail about the mother catching on fire, “The flaming oil splashed onto her apron/and Ma, suddenly Ma/was a column of fire” (61). This is just one of the poems that are graphic. School is a place where students are supposed to feel well and happy, but this is the exact of opposite of that. This book might give pictures of the disturbing events in their head. In school, it not appropriate to do anything disgusting. Why should books be different? These events are also very emotional. This book would make young readers, including myself, turn away from the pages because of how emotionally demanding and gorey these events are. Karen Hesse writes the poem, Burns, where how Doc Rice tends to her burns. She goes over the top and gives great detail of what he did to Billie Jo’s hands, “ The doctor cut away the skin on my hands, it hung in crested strips/He cut my skin away with scissors, then poked my hands with pins to see what I could feel” (62). Some