Billie Jo Kelby is the strong and courageous protagonist, or main character, of the novel. She is 14 years old when the story begins, tall and slender, with red hair and freckles, and she loves apples. She is a dynamic character. Her experiences and actions cause her to change during the novel. We know how Billie Jo changes because Hesse narrates Out of the Dust in the first person, allowing Billie Jo to speak for herself.
When the novel begins, Billie Jo is making the best of her life despite the dust storms, depression, and drought. She attends school and does well, receiving the highest score in the state on the standardized state test for eighth graders. She also plays a “fierce” piano. Playing the piano is Billie Jo’s passion. When she plays, she gets lost in the music. She is self-confident about her ability to play the piano and loves to entertain at the Palace Theatre with Arley Wanderdale and his band, the Black Mesa Boys, and singer and friend, Mad Dog Craddock. Billie Jo envisions herself moving away from the Dust Bowl someday; her means of escape will be her talent as a pianist.
After the accident, when Billie Jo throws the burning pail of kerosene out the door of the house and onto her mother, and after the death of her mother and newborn baby brother, Billie Jo’s life changes forever. She is in extreme physical pain because her hands are badly burned. Her hands are scarred and curled up, making it painful for her to stretch her fingers and play the piano. Billie Jo is in emotional pain as well. She is grieving for the loss of her mother, her baby brother, and her ability to play the piano, which was to be her escape out of the Dust Bowl. Billie Jo has also temporarily lost her father. He has unknowingly abandoned her. He is grieving also and, as a result, is distant and self-absorbed, incapable of paying attention to Billie Jo. These losses contribute to Billie Jo’s loneliness and isolation. Billie Jo also feels angry towards her father for having left the pail of kerosene in the kitchen in the first place. She wonders if she can ever forgive him.
Feeling guilty and despondent, Billie Jo runs away. Her journey, on a freight train, takes her to Flagstaff, Arizona. She confronts her misery and begins to accept herself as being “her father’s daughter.” She knows that “the dust is a part of her as it is a part of her father.” She realizes that her father didn’t turn his back on her intentionally; he was grieving as she was. Billie Jo returns home—able to forgive herself and her father. She is able to give herself permission to exercise her hands by playing her mother’s piano once again.
