How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Stanza)
Quote #1
As summer wheat came ripe, / so did I, / born at home, on the kitchen floor, / Ma crouched, / barefoot, bare-bottomed / over the swept boards, / because that's where Daddy said it would be best. (1.1)
And that, friends of Shmoop, is how you write an opening line. What an image—right from the start, Billie Jo makes it clear that her life has been hard from day one.
Quote #2
Daddy says, / "The potatoes are peppered plenty tonight, Polly," / and / "Chocolate milk for dinner, aren't we in clover!" / when really all our pepper and chocolate, / it's nothing but dust. (11.4)
Sometimes our circumstances are so challenging that the only response is to joke about them. That's what Daddy's doing here. Infusing a dark situation with humor is a common response to suffering.
Quote #3
Mr. Hardly's been worse than normal / since his attic filled with dust / and collapsed under the weight. / He hired folks for the repairs, / and argued over every nail and every / little minute. / The whole place took / shoveling for days before he could / open again and / some stock was so bad it / had to be thrown away. (9.4)
Some of the book's most vivid portraits of suffering come from minor characters like Mr. Hardly. We get a clear picture of how, even though farmers' livelihoods were most damaged by the Dust Bowl, they weren't the only victims—the dust shows no partiality in the lives it affects.
Quote #4
Daddy came in, / he sat across from Ma and blew his nose. / Mud streamed out. / He coughed and spit out / mud. / If he had cried, / his tears would have been mud too, / but he didn't cry. / And neither did Ma. (17.9)
The gritty, admittedly disgusting picture of muddy snot here gives a pretty vivid picture of the assault of the dust on those who dare try to stop it. Perhaps the most telling detail, though, is that neither Daddy nor Ma cries about the loss of their crops. This reveals how hardened they've become to the suffering of the Dust Bowl.
Quote #5
And as the dust left, / rain came. / Rain that was no blessing. / It came too hard, / too fast, / and washed the soil away, / washed the wheat away with it. / 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)
Just because it rains doesn't necessarily mean things will get easier. The suffering of the Dust Bowl demonstrates that even something that looks like a "blessing" can actually be destructive.
Quote #6
Daddy / has made a tent out of the sheet over Ma / so nothing will touch her skin, / what skin she has left. / I can't look at her, / I can't recognize her. / She smells like scorched meat. / Her body groaning there, / it looks nothing like my ma. / It doesn't even have a face. (35.1)
The physical detail of the burns Ma sustains in the accident is one of the novel's most disturbing pictures of suffering. So far we've come to see Ma as a distant, but loving woman with a vivacious natural beauty and killer musical talent—now all of that is gone, though.
Quote #7
There is barely a blade of grass / swaying in the stinging wind, / there are only these / lumps of flesh / that once were hands long enough to span octaves, / swinging at my sides. (39.4)
Perhaps second to Ma and the baby, the greatest loss Billie Jo sustains in the accident is the damage to her hands. While she obviously heals to the point of being able to play piano again, having everything that was important to her taken away—including her ability to play music—demonstrates the tremendous amount of pain she's been dealt.
Quote #8
But now, / sorrow climbs our front steps, / big as Texas, and we didn't even see it coming, / even thought it'd been making its way straight for us / all along. (46.1)
The Dust Bowl itself is a metaphor for the overall suffering the characters experience. Like sorrow itself, it's all encompassing, unexpected, and can't be stopped.
Quote #9
Joe De La Flor can't afford to feet his cows, / can't afford to sell them. / County Agent Dewey comes, / takes the cows behind the barn, / and shoots them. / Too hard to watch their lungs clog with dust, / like our chickens, suffocated. (56.1)
The suffering the dust inflicts on the land is so widespread that even the animals aren't immune to it, not even small ones like chickens. If you're in its path, you'll be touched by it.
Quote #10
While I washed up dinner dishes in the pan, / the wind came from the west, / bringing – / dust. / I'd just stripped all the gummed tape from the / windows. / Now I've got dust all over the clean dishes. / I can hardly make myself / get started cleaning again. (92.1-2)
Raise your hand if you like washing dishes. Yeah… That's what we thought. If you think it's bad under normal circumstances though, just imagine being in Billie Jo's position. The unpredictability of the dust adds to the suffering it inflicts, so even the simplest tasks suddenly become overwhelming.