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Symbolism In Out Of The Dust

427 Words2 Pages

Symbolism uses symbols to represent ideas or qualities, such as loss, grief, or pain. This idea is of utmost importance because, in the novel Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, two symbols show the suffering of Billie Jo and Daddy. Hence, the author uses symbolism to explain the loss in Billie Jo’s and Daddy’s lives, using the gaping hole that daddy digs and the missing cranberry sauce.

Primarily, Billie Jo’s symbol for suffering loss was the cranberry sauce, as it represents her loss of her mother. She often served Christmas dinner with special cranberry sauce. So, when Ma dies from a flaming bucket of kerosene, she can't make it. Since Billie Jo is unable to make the special cranberry sauce, it represents a loss in Billie Jo's life. With it, Christmas dinner would seem more conventional. The author proclaimed, "My father loved Ma’s special cranberry sauce. / But she never showed me how to make it"(Hesse 25-16). These lines show that Ma has passed, as Billie Jo can not learn how to make her cranberry sauce, as you can never learn anything from the dead. Also, the word loved, not loves shows the impact of Ma’s death as he cannot love it anymore because Ma is gone. …show more content…

Which is a hole that he is digging. At first, Ma suggested digging a pond could help the crops survive, while Daddy thought the water in the ground would seep in far too fast. After her death, Daddy decided to see if she was right. “I think he’s digging the pond/ to feed off the windmill/ The one that Ma wanted/ but he doesn’t say/ he digs.” That shows that he is digging the pond because of her untimely death; it makes this his symbol of Ma's loss. Also, the prodigious size of the hole may represent the hole in his heart because of the loss of

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