Out of the Dust

Allusions are meaningful references in a story to history, mythology, or another work of literature or art. In Out of the Dust, author Karen Hesse peppers the narrative with historical allusions to real people and events from the era.

In “Rabbit Battles,” Billie Jo mentions neighbors involved in a rabbit-killing competition. Farmers and inhabitants of the plains historically participated in “rabbit drives” to try to rid their properties of the jackrabbits whose natural habitats had been devastated, which led the animals to encroach on farmed acreage.

Billie Jo mentions President Franklin Delano Roosevelt several times. Elected to four separate terms in office, President Roosevelt offered his popular “New Deal” economic policies to ease the effects of the Great Depression on Americans and spur recovery. When Billie Jo plays piano for the President’s birthday ball in Joyce City, she mentions “balls all over the country” (15) to benefit the Warm Springs Foundation, a center for the treatment of polio patients that Roosevelt established in 1927. The President himself suffered from polio and found the thermal springs and physical rehabilitation there beneficial.

Billie Jo references a “play” called Madame Butterfly in which her teacher will sing with opera performers.