The Poetry of the Dust by Angelina H. (2023)

In Karen Hesse’s novel, Out of the Dust, Hesse uses imagery, personification, and similes to emphasize the hope and loss of the Dust Bowl to weave a dynamic and compelling historical fiction. For instance, in her poem Apple Blossoms, she uses imagery to portray how Billie Jo stands under the two apple trees while “...delicate and/pinky-white,”(pg.43) petals are dropping “...a blizzard/of sweet-smelling flowers”(pg.43). These descriptions of Ma’s apple blossoms assist the reader in painting an image in their mind. Without the detailed imagery utilized by Hesse, it would be hard to imagine and understand that Billie Joe gains hope when standing under the apple trees which are thriving even in the harshest of environments. Likewise, Hesse also applies similes regularly to her poems to augment them. In her poem Devoured, she uses a simile to describe how a cloud of grasshoppers “...whirred like a thousand engines…”(pg.68). Hesse’s use of this simile helps a reader feel as though they are truly listening to the grasshoppers as they are devouring Ma’s precious apples and feel the tremendous loss of the Dust Bowl, everything the farmers worked for being obliterated by dust. Also, the verb “whirr” make it seem like the grasshoppers are efficient machines made by nature to ravage crops. Another poetic device used by Hesse is personification, such as in her poem Night Bloomer. She is illustrating how Mrs. Brown’s cereus cactus flower wilts and dies as it was “...touched by the first finger of morning light…” (pg.81)when the sun is hiking up the sky at dawn. This aids the reader depicting the scene when the flower dies and establishes an even deeper feeling of loss after Ma’s death. The personification also lets us better imagine the sad moment as the cereus flower wilts. In conclusion, the figurative language Hesse uses aids us in feeling and depicting scenes of beautiful hope and desperate loss is the Dust Bowl.