Billie Jo is the main character in the book. She was named Billie Jo by her father because he really wanted a girl. She is an only child and loves to play the piano. She has a mother named Polly, who has been pretty tired out by life on the farm. She is a great cook, a very good pianist, and is pregnant. Her father's name is Bayard. He is a hard working farmer, but he is somewhat stubborn, never wanting advice from anyone. The story takes place in the 1930's, in the panhandle of Oklahoma on a farm in Joyce City, but they are going through a very hard time because they are living through the Dust Bowl.…
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is a well-written book. It is well-written because it uses precise vocabulary. The book includes sentence structure that varies. Also, word order helps make the story flow. There is music in language which creates emphasis on the subject matter. It has compelling details. Also, it avoids condescension and didacticism.…
In the “Black Blizzard” written by Scholastic Scope 2002, it explains a black dust storm in the 1930-1935. A family prepares for a huge dust storm that is dangerous and life threatening. Farms in the south had a drought and lost most of their crops which made farmers lose jobs, america was already suffering from the stock market crash and the great depression. The dust storm killed many farm animals, stopped car engines, and the banks stole their homes and destroyed the farms for money that they owed Farmers moved south. In the south, it was hard for Okies(people from the south that moved) because the native Californians mistreated them due to being scared of them tried to make them leave. America became better, rain came back, Some Okies…
I believe that the central idea of the section “Spring 1934”of the novel “Out of the Dust” would be telling the reader that the dust wouldn't stop coming and it's destroying most of the crops. One reason is that they are getting used to the storm. In the first chapter, it explains that they are in the school house working on a test in the dust storm and Billie Jo says “I hope we can get bonus points for testing in a dust storm”. One other reason is that the crops can’t handle the storm. In the chapters Beat Wheat, Give Up on Wheat, and Harvest, they all talk about some sort of food being a problem for them. In the chapter Beat Wheat that one quarter of the wheat was withered away of died of dehydration. In the chapter Give Up on Wheat it says…
“Originally covered with grasses that held the fine soil in place, the land of the southern plains was plowed by settlers who brought their farming techniques with them when they homesteaded the area.” The Dust Bowl, otherwise known as “The Dirty Thirties”, was made possible by World War I (WWI) and The Great Depression. Wheat was easy to grow and it caused a high demand. Little was known that the misuse of the land would bring upon the greatest influence behind the importance of conserving nature and its importance of carefully using the land. The dust storms were brought on by a mix of natural components and human activities. Thus, the tempests brought on numerous individuals to leave their homes, endure the dust, and lastly change how they…
Not everyone was affected by the Dust Storm in the same way. Thousands of Americans were forced off their land and lost their jobs, but those who worked in other types of jobs were not suffering in the same way. Al and Mae were surrounded by food and were clearly not hungry or else they would have eaten some of it. Families traveling west were starving; people were dying of malnutrition and other forms of neglect. This passage, and chapter, gave the reader a different perspective of the 1930s. The Joad’s story- their thoughts, feelings, and experiences- connected the reader and characters. Because of this connection, a reader can forget how others were experiencing and years; until this point, the world was only filled with despair. The restaurant…
In the 1930’s a huge drought caused many difficulties to farmers across the United States especially in Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. During this time land had dried up because of very little rainfall. With less moisture in the soil, high winds in the plains caused dust storms. The series of dust storms was later called the Dust Bowl. Living conditions in this area of the United States were very poor, causing people to move westward bound. Frank Manies was one of those people. Now a retired schoolteacher residing in Tulare, he left his home in Oklahoma during times of struggle for a chance to come to California and experience a new and improved way of living and working.…
"The Dust Bowl took only 50 years to accomplish...It came about because the culture was operating in precisely the way it was supposed to. Americans blazed their way across a richly endowed continent with a ruthless, devastating efficiency unmatched by any people anywhere. Some environmental catastrophes are nature's work, others are the slowly accumulating effects of ignorance or poverty. The Dust Bowl, in contrast was the inevitable outcome of a culture…
The dust bowl was a tragic time in America for so many families and John Steinbeck does a great job at getting up-close and personal with one family to show these tragedies. In the novel, “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck employed a variety of rhetorical devices, such as asyndeton, personification and simile, in order to persuade his readers to enact positive change from the turmoil of the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck tells the fictional narrative of Tom Joad and his family, while exploring social issues and the hardships of families who had to endure the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Steinbeck’s purpose was to challenge readers to look at the harsh realities around them for “the purpose of improvement”. The rhetorical strategies used in the “Grapes of Wrath” elicit a deeper understanding from its readers for the hardships these migrants faced and helped them to fight for a better way. (John Steinbeck, "Banquet Speech," Nobel Foundation, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1962/steinbeck-speech.html, Accessed 30 August 2013.)…
Dust Bowl The lives of millions were changed when the dust came to town. Crops were lost. Lives were lost. Human dignity was in short supply.…
Beginning in the 1930’s, and causing terror ever since, the Dust Bowl has been one of the worst times in our history. Many farms in the American Great Plains Region were destroyed because of the drought and dust storms. “It was this giant wall coming towards you.” Floyd Coen describes the 2,000 foot high wall of dust during the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was a perfect storm of natural disaster that affected thousands of people.…
The "Dust Bowl" phenomenon occurred throughout western Oklahoma and Kansas and in the Texas panhandle. Severe drought during the 1930's had led to massive agricultural failures in the Southwest. These areas had been heavily overcultivated by the wheat farmers for the last decades and were covered with millions of acres of loose, uncovered topsoil. Without precipitation the crops withered and died. The topsoil, which did not have any anchoring roots, was picked up by the winds and carried in billowing clouds across the region. Huge dust storms blew across the area, at times blocking out the sun and even suffocating those caught unprepared.…
The 1920’s was a horrible time for all, especially those from the midwest, and those farmers now had to use new and improved methods involving machines and new revolutions to increase the speed and growth of their extravagant crops. But now the damage is done, because World War 1 is over. Most thought this destruction was at an end and only good was to come, but in 1931 things took a turn for the worst and more devastation piled on from an era known as the “Dirty Thirties”. “The most visible evidence of how dry the 1930s became was the dust storm” (Overmiller). This is also more greatly known as the Dust Bowl. “The Dust Bowl got its name after Black Sunday, April 14, 1935”. (Overmiller). And from then on farmers realized no new/advanced technology could get them through this devastation period. Since…
The Dust Bowl began on Thursday, April 18, 1935, it was a huge, black, cloud of dirt, piled up on the western horizon. This storm was enormous and deadly. The Dust Bowl affected Oklahoma, Texas, parts of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. These states were vulnerable to the dust storm due to their lack of rainfall, light soil, and high winds. As a result, soil lacked the the strong roots of grass in order to stay in place, this made it easier for high, hectic winds to get a hold of the soil. Years before the Dust Bowl, ranchers and farmers looking for new land to grow crops and maintain live stock stumble across this land. Hoping to finally settle down and start their business; however, on 1935, the very land that gave them hope, now gave them…
Dust is a second prevalent symbol throughout the story and signifies the decaying of the house. In the passage the author…