How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Stanza)
Quote #1
She was distracted enough, / I was determined enough, / this time I got just what I wanted. / Permission to play at the Palace. (5.3)
Given what's coming down the pike for her later, Billie Jo's need to persuade Ma to let her play piano at the Palace Theater seems pretty small. Still, it reveals a lot about her character. When Billie Jo wants something, she isn't going to give up easily.
Quote #2
After seventy days / of wind and sun, / of wind and clouds, / of wind and sand, / after seventy days, / of wind and dust, / a little / rain / came. (12.1)
This poem—which comprises the entire chapter—is pretty much the entire story of these people's lives. They wait and wait for even the smallest amount of rain, and when it's gone, they start waiting all over again. When Billie Jo gives these brief, poetic descriptions of the weather, it's usually to showcase the perseverance of her community in hoping that somehow things just have to get better.
Quote #3
I ask Ma / how, after all this time, / Daddy still believes in rain. / "Well, it rains enough," Ma says, / "now and again, / to keep a person hoping. / But even if it didn't / your daddy would have to believe. / It's coming on spring, / and he's a farmer." (14.7-8)
One of the most memorable traits about Bayard Kelby is that no matter how bad the situation gets, he keeps hoping that the rain will come and the wheat will revive—even when his hopes are borderline unrealistic. Being a farmer is so much a part of his identity that he doesn't know what to do except hope for a miracle when spring comes.
Quote #4
He ran into the storm, / his overalls half-hooked over his union suit. / "Daddy!" I called. "You can't stop dust." (17.5)
Wow—Daddy's so determined to not let his crop die that he tries to take on a big honking dust storm single-handedly. Sadly, Billie Jo's right. We all know how this one ends.
Quote #5
Now, little remains of Daddy's hard work. / And the only choice he has / is to give up / or start all over again. (26.2)
Give up? Give up? Is she kidding here? We've seen enough to know that phrase isn't in Daddy's vocabulary. Not surprisingly, he'll be right back at it soon.
Quote #6
I pushed her to the ground, / desperate to save her, / desperate to save the baby, I / tried, / beating the flames out with my hands. / I did the best I could. / But it was no good. / Ma / got / burned / bad. (32.5)
Billie Jo's attempt to rescue Ma from the flames is one of the story's most heartbreaking acts of perseverance. But think about this: Where in our exploration of this theme did we just see somebody taking on an impossible task out of sheer determination? Billie Jo really is her father's daughter.
Quote #7
[Joe De La Flor] gathers thistle to feed what's left of his cattle, / his bone-thin cattle, / cattle he drives away from the dried-up Beaver River, / to where the Cimarron still runs, / pushing the herd across the breaks, / where they might last another week, maybe two, / until it / rains. (56.2)
Joe's last-ditch effort to save his cattle occurs just after County Agent Dewey shows up to shoot the ones who are starving to death. Losing that many of his herd surely would be motivation enough to quit for most people, but not for our favorite singing cowboy. Instead he takes his chances, driving the cows to a water source in hopes that the rain will come and they'll revive.
Quote #8
I sit at the school piano / and make my hands work. / In spite of the pain, / in spite of the stiffness / and scars. / I make my hands play piano. […] It's the playing I want most, / the proving I can still do it. / without Arley making excuses. (68.1)
The Palace contest gives Billie Jo a sort of second wind with playing piano, and suddenly she's back in the saddle, ready to prove to everybody that she's still got the goods. Even excruciating pain, which is surely a reminder of Ma's absence and the events of the last several months, isn't enough to stop her, which reveals her determination to recover.
Quote #9
The way I see it, hard times aren't only / about money, / or drought, / or dust. / Hard times are about losing spirit, / and hope, / and what happens when dreams dry up. (111.3)
This quote might seem like a downer for something that illustrates determination and perseverance, but let's look at it a little closer. What does happen "when dreams dry up"? For Billie Jo, it means having to make a choice between surrounding herself with grief and pain and choosing not to go on, or deciding to overcome the hardship and do what's necessary to survive, no matter how much it hurts.
Maybe the story is telling us that when we come to the end of ourselves, at that place where things seem hopeless, we need to choose to rise up from the pain and bring ourselves "out of the dust."