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.

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!