Billie Jo is grieving and when people grieve, it is natural for them to feel anger. Billie Jo is very angry. She says,
I am so filled with bitterness,
it comes from the dust, it comes
from the silence of my father, it comes
from the absence of Ma.
She is motherless and she blames herself and her father. She is angry because her father has distanced himself from her. She is angry because she can't play the piano the way she used to. And she is angry because she can no longer depend on her piano playing as her ticket out of the Dust Bowl.
As Billie Jo works through her grief, she begins to accept what happened. She knows now that her father was not able to reassure or comfort her because he was grieving, too. And, the reason he left his wife's bedside to go to a bar while she was sick was because he couldn't bear the pain of losing her. Billie Jo understands that her father did the best he could at the time. In spite of overwhelming losses, Billie Jo is able to forgive herself and her father.
Billie Jo's father is also able to forgive. He loses his wife and newborn son when they die. He loses his crops and his livelihood because of the drought and dust storms. And he loses his daughter when Billie Jo runs away. While Billie Jo is gone, her father gains insight into their situation, resulting in reconciliation with his daughter and a redefining of their family.
