ideas. The pain is dry, aching, and empty. It longs for relief in the same way a parched earth longs for rain to give it life.

There are several great examples of imagery in this section. Authors create imagery by providing powerful descriptions. These descriptions help a reader gain a clear visual picture of the scene. The following example of imagery is found on page 138:

I'll bet none of the ladies mind
spending time with my father,
he's still good looking
with his strong back,
and his blondy-red hair
and his high cheeks rugged with wind.

These details provide a clear image of her father's tough and rugged appearance. Later on page 145, Billie Jo provides incredible imagery of the storm:

it scratched my eyes
and stung my tender skin,
it plugged my nose and filled inside my mouth.
No matter how 1 pressed my lips together,
the dust made muddy tracks
across my tongue.
But I kept on,
spitting out mud,
covering my mouth,
clamping my nose,
the dust stinging the raw and open
stripes of scarring on my hands,
and after some three hours I made it home.

The verbs here make the storm seem alive; it seems to attack Billie Jo as she tries to survive through its attempts to "sting" her and plug up her nose.

A metaphor is a comparison that doesn't use like or as. I especially love this metaphor on page 139:

My fingers leave sighs
in the dust.

It would be tempting to call this personification, which is giving human attributes (like the ability to sigh) to something not human. But this doesn't say that her fingers are sighing. Instead, they leave little sighs, used as a noun, in the dust of the piano. The tracks in the dust become metaphorical for all she has lost and for the sadness she feels as she touches her mother's piano. This is a touchingly bittersweet metaphor that captures her mood of longing.

Karen Hesse's poetic novel Out of the Dust is filled with interesting literary devices. Let's look at a few from pages 153–175. The title of the very first poem in this section is actually a metaphor: “Heartsick.” Billie Jo's physical heart is perfectly fine, but her emotions are agitated. She even storms (another metaphor) away from her father when he asks her what's going on.

Billie Jo tends to use such metaphoric idioms frequently. She worries that her father is “fooling around” about the raised spot on his nose (“Skin”), and she bumps into her musical friends sometimes (“Regrets”). The “fire boys tore over” to fight the boxcar fire (“Fire on the Rails”). In this last poem, she also personifies the flames, describing them as “crazy in the wind” and noting that they “licked away” at the boxcars. Notice, too, Billie Jo's sensory details; we can easily picture the “warped metal,” “twisted rails,” “scorched dirt,” and “charred ties.” This is also a nice example of parallelism with the list of adjectives and nouns.

In “The Mail Train,” Billie Jo once again uses metaphor and personification when she speaks of “mountains of dust” and “blizzards of dust” that block that train and “beat down on the cars.” Further, a letter, again personified, is “waiting inside a mail bag.” The poem “Migrants” features a wonderful simile. The wheat is “sparse as the hair on a dog's belly.”

The very title of “Blankets of Black” is a metaphor, and the poem is filled with literary devices. Billie Jo talks about how on a clear day, she and her neighbors stagger (vivid language) out of their “caves of dust” (metaphor). They “flocked outside” (metaphoric idiom), and the churches “opened their arms” (personification). A while later, however, “heaven's shadow” (metaphor) creeps across the plains. It is a black cloud “big and silent as Montana” (simile) that barrels toward them (personification). The storm swallows the light, and the wind screams (personification). The house where Billie Jo and her father take shelter is “dazed by dust” (personification), and its walls shake “in the howling wind” (personification).

Billie Jo offers readers a bit of dialogue between Mad Dog and herself in “The Visit.” In “Freak Show,” she is appalled at how the Dionne quintuplets are displayed “like a freak show” and “like a tent full of two-headed calves” (simile). Finally, in “Let Down,” Billie Jo, in a metaphor, thinks that she and her father are both “turning to dust.”

Karen Hesse's poetic novel Out of the Dust is filled with literary devices. Let's take a look at some of them from pages 93–110.

We see some dialogue in “Mad Dog's Tale” as Mad Dog explains how he got his unique nickname. There's even a little bit of figurative language here, for he says his nickname “stuck,” as if it were plastered to him with glue. In “Art Exhibit,” Billie Jo mentions the Oklahoma Panhandle, which is actually a metaphor because that part of the state looks like a handle sticking out from a piece of cookware. Further, Billie Jo says that she “feels such a hunger” to see paintings like the ones in the art exhibit. She is not literally hungry, of course, so she is using a metaphor to describe her longing for beauty.

In “Christmas Dinner Without the Cranberry Sauce,” Billie Jo speaks of how she didn't make cranberry sauce for Christmas dinner. Her mother never taught her how. The missing cranberry sauce becomes a symbol for the gap in Billie Jo's family.

In “Driving the Cows,” the author creates a simile when she says that dust “piles up like snow” on the prairie and against the fences. She then provides a metaphor; there are “mountains of dust” that even push over barns. She also personifies the Russian thistle, saying that it “breaks free / to tumble across the plains.”

We get great sensory details in “First Rain” as we picture Billie Jo lying in bed with a wet cloth over her nose to keep out the dust. We can almost feel the grime in the sheets and imagine what it would be like to have dust between our teeth and under our eyelids and scratching our skin. The first drops of rain are described by a simile. They are “like the tapping of a stranger / at the door of a dream.” They are “a concert of rain notes” (metaphor) as they travel through the gutters and gullies into the “thirsty earth” (personification).

Another metaphor appears in “Haydon P. Nye” as the wheat turns “the plains to gold.” Finally, in “Scrubbing Up Dust,” Billie Jo feels that her Ma's eyes are on her and that her Ma is haunting her, so she does the “knuckle-breaking” work of beating mud out of everything, and she describes it using vivid imagery.

In my copy of this book, the poem "Hope" is found beginning on page 176. There is an example of alliteration in this line:

lacy on the edges of my sleeves.

The repetition of the s sound, even in the c in lacy, might mimic the sweeping sound of a snowfall, which provides the setting for this poem.

Later in this poem, there is an example of personification:

It was the kindest
kind of rain
that fell.

Characterizing the rain as "kind" is giving it a human attribute, and this connotes a sense of peaceful rainfall. There is also a bit of repetition here, emphasizing the "kind" nature of the rainfall.

In the same poem, there is an example of a simile in these lines:

steady as a good friend
who walks beside you,
not getting in your way.

Here, the rainfall is compared to a "good friend," using the word as to demonstrate that comparison. This simile again brings a sense of faithfulness to the rainfall with warm and tranquil tones.

There are various examples of figurative language in these lines as the storm intensifies:

It kept coming,
thunder booming,
lightning
kicking,
dancing from the heavens
down to the prairie.

"Booming," which is a word that demonstrates a sound, is an example of onomatopoeia. Giving lightning the ability to kick, which is a human movement, is another example of personification. The rain "dances" from the heavens to the prairie, which is again personification.

The rain here is a symbol of hope. It has soaked the "ready earth" and provided the necessary elements for new growth. At the end of this poem, Billie Jo is "certain that the grass would grow again," which signals a change for the farmers. In these lines, repetition is used to demonstrate the importance of this symbolic rain:

certain the grass would grow again,
certain the weeds would grow again,
certain the wheat would grow again too.

There is a sense of certainty that the rainfall brings to their lives. They are going to be okay. The wheat will return, and their livelihood will prevail.

Another simile that I particularly like in this section is in the poem titled "Baby":

Then he looked at me
sorry as dust.

To compare her father's disappointment to dust itself is a particularly striking comparison. Often in this book, dust is seen as a symbol of death and hardship. The dust represents the entirety of their struggle in so many ways, reflecting the crushing effects of their economy. Poverty grips this society in seemingly inescapable ways, just like the dust that follows Billie Joe nearly everywhere she goes.

I hope this gets you started as you continue to evaluate the literary devices in this section of the text. Good luck!

My version may differ from yours, so be sure to double check any page numbers. I'll try to include a variety of pages to hopefully hit the right range.

In the poem "Outlined in Dust," Billie Jo makes use of an aphorism, which is a universally accepted truth that is given in a concise way. On page 111, she points out,

I'm my father's daughter.

This phrase is used to show her sense of connection to her father, even though she struggles in their relationship. Biologically, she is (of course) her father's daughter. Semantically, this makes sense. Yet she is also connected to him in deeper ways: his nature, his walk, and parts of his personality.

Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or phrase in consecutive lines of poetry. In the poem titled "The President's Ball," these lines appear:

Tonight, for a little while
in the bright hall folks were almost free,
almost free of dust,
almost free of debt,
almost free of fields of withered wheat. (113)

The word "almost" is repeated four times here and begins three of those lines. This is an intentional structure to show how close the "folks" came to this idea of perfection. They were gloriously close to sheer happiness, free from their constant worries. You'll also find alliteration twice in that last line. The f sound is repeated in "free of fields," and the w sound is repeated in "withered wheat." These are harsh sounds, meant to echo their harsh lives.

An allusion is a reference to a person, event, or piece of literature that exists outside of this work. There is an example of an allusion in in the poem "Family School":

We share it at lunch with our guests,
the family of migrants who have moved out from dust
and Depression
and moved into our classroom. (117)

"Depression" here is a reference to the Great Depression, which is important to the setting of the novel. This was time of great financial difficulty, and this migrant family is symbolic of those struggles.

Hyperbole is an intentional exaggeration. In the poem "Dreams," Billie Jo says,

I have a hunger
bigger than Joyce City. (126)

Clearly, her sense of hunger isn't larger than a city, but the exaggeration points out the depth of this "hunger."

I hope this helps as you examine other literary devices used in this section. Good luck!

Karen Hesse's novel Out of the Dust is rather unique overall, because it is composed of a series of poems rather than a prose narrative. Throughout those poems, Hesse incorporates many different literary devices. Let's look at a few of them.

In the poem "Roots" (page 75 in the edition I'm using), tree roots become a symbol. Trees dig down deep into the ground, just like Billie Jo's father is rooted deep in the land and will stay there no matter how hard life is. Billie Jo, however, isn't sure of her roots. She wonders if she is meant to be where she is like the prairie grass and the hawks or if she is more like a tree, out of place on the Oklahoma prairie.

The poem "The Hole" (pages 77–78) also carries symbolism. Billie Jo's father is digging a hole just as his dead wife wanted. Billie Jo cannot understand why he's doing it, and he doesn't tell her, but readers are invited to wonder if the hole he is digging symbolizes the hole in his heart caused by his wife's death. Billie Jo has her own hole in her heart, for she misses her mother, and she cannot yet forgive her father for leaving the pail of kerosene by the stove.

In "Kilauea" (page 79), Billie Jo compares the volcanic eruption in Hawaii to the dust storms of Oklahoma. She presents an extended description of the eruption with its choking smoke and invites readers to imagine how the dust storm is similar and different.

While the author does not elaborate on the symbolism of "Boxes" (page 80), she suggests that each of the items in the boxes in Billie Jo's closet somehow represents her life, or at least parts of it. Notice, too, the hyperbole or exaggeration. There are not "a thousand things" in those boxes, but perhaps Billie Jo feels as if there are.

The poem "The Path of Our Sorrow" (pages 83–84) features metaphor. The idea of sorrow traveling down a path or a person traveling a path with "a thousand steps" to get to sorrow is metaphoric in itself. That sorrow "climbs up our front steps" (personification), is as "big as Texas" (simile), and has been traveling toward the characters even as they moved toward it.

"Almost Rain" (page 88) offers both the vivid sensory imagery of low-hanging clouds, thick-feeling air, the smell of rain, and contrast, for the anticipated rain only dampens the sidewalks.

"Those Hands" (page 89) presents a flashback of Billie Jo's past conversation with her coach and a contrast with the lack of such a conversation this year when her hands hurt too much for her to play.

In Out of the Dust, the sections on February 1935 and March 1935 that span pages 129–145 include a large number of literary devices. In the section “The Competition,” which begins on page 129, Billie Jo starts off with hyperbole, which is extreme exaggeration for effect.

I suppose everyone in Joyce City and beyond…
came to watch the talent show at the Palace.

A vivid bit of imagery is Ivy’s description of the packed theater, which was so full

that she didn't think they could
squeeze a
rattlesnake
into the back.

Another image is the impression that the Harkinses make playing their harp: they

made you want to look up into the heavens for
angels.

The author frequently employs repetition. In the same section, two related examples are two sets of lines describing the participants in the show, which begin with our and their.

our wild hearts pounding,
our lips sticking to our teeth,
our urge to empty ourselves….
their feet flying,
their arms swinging,
their mouths gapping.

Alliteration is a kind of repetition involving only initial consonant sounds. In the same section, this appears in the initial s, f, and h sounds in these lines:

made a sorry sight
in front of the
famous Hazel Hurd Players.

In “The Piano Player,” beginning on page 134, there is a simile, a comparison of unlike things for effect using like or as. Billie Jo compares the pain she feels playing the piano to the dry land: “it hurts like the parched earth with each note.”

In “March 1935 Dust Storm,” additional similes are used. Billie Jo evokes the mysterious quality of the people she hears crying out but cannot see: “their voices rose like ghosts.” When her father finally returns home from looking for her, “his eyes [are] as red as raw meat.”

The page numbers can vary with different printings. I'll include my page numbers, and hopefully they will line up fairly closely with your own.

An oxymoron consists of two seemingly contradictory words that describe something. Consider this statement:

That was awful kind (93).

Awful and kind aren't two words that you normally consider as working together; in fact, they seem to contradict each other when considered separately. However, in this context, readers understand that this means "especially nice."

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds, particularly at the beginnings of words and in a single line. Consider this line:

But now the exhibit is gone,
the paintings
stored away in spare rooms
or locked up
where no one can see them. (94, emphasis added)

The s sound is repeated, and it seems to make a whispering sound, echoing the emptiness of the room and the hidden places of the paintings.

There are several literary devices from this section on page 97:

Dust
piles up like snow
across the prairie,
dunes leaning against fences,
mountains of dust pushing over barns.

"Dust piles up like snow" is an example of a simile. Dust is being compared to snow, using like to create the comparison. This creates a connotation of the deep and sweeping nature of the dust. "Mountains of dust" is a hyperbole. There might be a great quantity of dust, but it certainly isn't enough to create an actual mountain.

Polysyndeton occurs when writers string together many clauses with conjunctions for an intended dramatic effect. Consider this example:

Then folks moved in and sod got busted
and bushels of wheat turned the plains to gold,
and Haydon P. Nye
grabbed the Oklahoma Panhandle in his fist
and held on. (103)

There are four different ands in this sentence. The author intentionally does this to convey the way everything seemed to happen at once. The sentence is rushed and breathless, because this moment was rushed and breathless.

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase in successive lines of poetry. Consider this section:

It doesn't swing lightly
the way Ma's voice did,
the way Miss Freeland's voice does,
the way Mad Dog sings. (108)

The repetition of "the way" in three successive lines emphasizes all that her father's voice is not. In fact, she uses similes in the following lines to compare her father's voice to a car engine that is choked with dust.

There are so many literary elements to consider in this section. I hope this helps you get started in working your way through other examples. Good luck!

In Out of the Dust, the poems on pages 193–211 are concerned with the summer and fall of 1935, as Billie Jo becomes so dissatisfied with her life that she runs away, but then returns. The literary devices include personification and apostrophe in her lines addressed to the piano. There are numerous uses of simile and metaphor, as well as alliteration.

In “The Dream,” set in summer 1935, Billie Jo directly addresses the piano as if it were her mother. She emphasizes the instrument’s human characteristics. Apostrophe is direct address to an inanimate object, abstract idea, or natural phenomenon, or supernatural being. She opens the poem speaking to the piano: “Piano, my silent / mother.” Personification is the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman things such as inanimate objects or abstract ideas. Billie Jo tells the piano that she appreciates conversing with it: “you are … willing / to stay with me / … talk to me."

There are numerous uses of simile, a comparison of unlike things for effect using “like” or “as.” In the dream poem, she compares the quiet that she shares with the piano to a body of water: together, they “find that stillness / like a pond.” In August 1935, “Something Lost, Something Gained,” she uses similes to describe a man who enters the boxcar in which she is riding. His eyes have deep shadows “like ashes, / like death.”

The author often creates sound patterns using alliteration, the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Set in July 1935, “Out of the Dust,” features alliteration in the L sound as the train stops for her, “a long-legged girl to latch on” to the car. Later, when she returns and her father meets her, alliteration is used in the F and C sounds describing the new fishpond:

We can swim in it once it fills,
and he'll stock it with fish too,
catfish, that I can go out and
catch of an evening
and fry up.

In Out of the Dust, the sections on January and February 1935 that span pages 111–128 include a large number of literary devices. The text is not broken into stanzas and does not employ rhyme. There are numerous instances of simile, a direct comparison using the words like or as. In the “Outlined by Dust” section, these include Billie Jo’s description of her father’s singing voice, which sounds “like a car short of gas, like an engine choked with dust.” Some of the imagery also refers to her father, as she describes some personal habits.

He rubs his eyes… with his palms out….
And he wipes the milk from his
upper lip same as me,
with his thumb and forefinger.

The author frequently employs repetition. One example is the lines that begin “the way”:

the way Ma’s voice did,
the way Miss Freeland's voice does,
the way Mad Dog sings.

Alliteration is a kind of repetition that involves only initial consonant sounds. This appears in the phrase “starts and stops.”

Personification means attributing human qualities, such as emotions, to nonhuman entities, such as inanimate objects or impersonal forces. This is used in the February section, "Family School," when she describes the feed-sack nighties that had not been used for her baby brother, who died. She attributes hope to the garments: “little feed-sack nighties, / so small, / so full of hope.”

A symbol that recurs throughout the book, including several times in these pages, is dust. A symbol is an object that stands for something else. Overall, dust stands for the Great Depression. In these pages, it stands for loss, especially of her mother, in the phrased “outlined in dust” for her mother’s silhouette on the bed. It also stands for the people’s resignation to carry on with what little they have left, after everything else is blown away.

In the February section, "Dreams," we find a metaphor, a direct comparison for effect. Billie Jo compares her desire to be recognized for her music to the physical desire for food.

I have a hunger
bigger than Joyce City.
I want tongues to tie, and
eyes to shine at me.

In Out of the Dust, the poems on pages 212–227 are concerned with Daddy’s illness after they learn he has cancer. Literary devices include simile, personification, and alliteration.

In October 1935, “The Other Woman,” Billie Jo talks about Louise’s help and her father’s reactions to having her around. When he puts on an apron, Billie Jo describe his appearance by using a simile, a comparison of unlike things for effect using the words like or as. She says her father looks “silly as a cow.”

Also in October, “Not Everywhere” includes personification, which is attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things, such as inanimate objects, abstract ideas, or body parts. When Billie Jo and her father are visiting Ma’s and Franklin’s graves, she thinks Louise should not walk up there because “their bones wouldn't like it.” This usage is repeated later in November 1935, “Teamwork,” after Daddy and Louise decide to get married and go together to Ma’s grave to let her know: “Ma's bones didn't object.”

Personification also appears in November 1935, “Music.” As Billie Jo resumes playing the piano, she personifies the music by saying they are getting to know each other, using language that suggests the music has a body.

We sniff each other's armpits,
and inside each other's ears,
and behind each other's necks.

Alliteration, the repetition of initial consonant sounds, appears in November 1935, “November Dust.” The initial g sounds are repeated in “nourish her garden, / help the grass around it grow.”

Page numbers can vary, so I'm going to provide a few examples. Hopefully these pages numbers will match up at least partially, but if they don't, you should be able to use this information to work with your own edition.

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of lines. An example of anaphora is found here:

He sits across from me,
he looks like my father,
he chews his food like my father,
he brushes his dusty hair back. (75)

The word he is repeated intentionally at the beginning of four lines in a row, and it is followed by a verb. Though the verb differs each time, anaphora highlights the way this man does the things her father should do. It also serves to show the disconnect she feels as she juxtaposes these lines with the line "but he is a stranger."

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds, particularly at the beginnings of words in a single line of poetry. You can find alliteration here:

he works on the windmill. (77)

The repetition of the w sound mimics the rush of wind through the windmill.

Imagery is providing specific details that help readers visualize the content. There is especially nice imagery in the poem titled "Boxes":

In my closet are two boxes,
the gatherings of my life,
papers,
school drawings,
a broken hairpin,
a dress from my baby days,
my first lock of hair,
a tiny basket woven from prairie grass,
a doll with a china head,
a pink ball,
three dozen marbles,
a fan from Baxter's Funeral Home,
my baby teeth in a glass jar,
a torn map of the world,
two candy wrappers,
a thousand things I haven't looked at
in years. (79–80)

The items themselves are easy to visualize because they are combined with vivid modifiers. The map is torn. The basket is woven from prairie grass. The hairpin is broken. All of these details help the reader construct the image of the "thousand things" worth keeping in this box.

An idiom is a group of words which have an understood meaning and are not to be taken literally. Examine this line:

And I haven't got the heart. (80)

Billie Joe doesn't literally mean that she doesn't have her heart organ. Instead, she means that she lacks courage or desire. The meaning of the word heart has been transformed in this phrase.

A simile is a comparison between two unlike objects, using the words like or as to compare them. An example is found in these lines:

The blossom opened at midnight,
big as a dinner plate. (81)

The flower here is being compared to a "dinner plate," and the word "as" is used in that comparison. This shows the size of the flower and provides some imagery about its circular diameter.

I hope this helps as you continue to evaluate this section for additional examples of figurative language. Good luck!

You should be able to locate an example of symbolism right away. In the opening lines of “The Dream,” notice how Billie Jo describes the piano. It’s as if she’s not talking about an inanimate object but about someone that she can physically and verbally interact with. It’s like the piano symbolizes a reliable friend or trusted companion.

As for metaphor, you should be able to spot a metaphor in “Midnight Truth.” It’s not the most complex metaphor, but there is a place in the poem where Billie Jo employs language figuratively and not literally. When Billie Jo says, “But mostly, I’m invisible,” you might want to think about how “invisible” is a metaphor for something else involving her and her dad.

Moving on to alliteration, you’ll want to look for places where Billie Jo puts words together that start with the same letter or sound similar. In the poem “Out of the Dust,” Billie Jo describes watching a girl hop on a train. Her description of the girl—with its emphasis on words starting with l—would probably make a solid example of alliteration.

For your fourth and final literary device, you could try and find, as you mention, a simile or imagery. You could also try and find personification. If you’re looking for a simile, find a spot where Billie Jo makes a comparison using as or like. If you’re searching for imagery, find a place where Billie Jo’s description is exceptionally vivid. If you’re trying to locate an example of personification, you’ll need to find a spot where Billie Jo talks about an object as if it possessed the properties of a human being.