Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Plot

What conlicts does Billie Jo face?

14 comments:

  1. One her conflicts are when her mom dies of poison when she was cooking.

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  2. *CONTAINS MANY SPOILERS DO NOT READ IF NOT FINISHED WITH THE BOOK* PLEASE

    Her biggest conflict is the dust that ruins everything. That's obvious. Her next biggest conflict is that she threw the kerosene which was completely accidental and now everyone says things like "That's the girl that killed her mother and baby brother," or "that's the girl that threw the pot even though it was really the dad's fault for leaving the pot on the stove in the first place and Billie Jo was just trying to help. She didn't know her mother was coming back in.
    That accident also caused her to be motherless and her dad isn't very good to talk to and it caused her and to be burned and hurt which makes it hard to play the piano and that's the thing she loves doing so much. She does try to play again but it hurts so much during and after and she thinks that people will just look at her broken hands and just dismiss her music talent.
    Her dad just looks at her hands all the time because he knows that it's his fault that the family only has two people instead of four and that he caused his only daughter, his little girl, so much pain and heartbreak.
    She thinks that it's the dust that makes everything fall apart but in the end when she runs away she realizes that the dust is what makes her who she is "The dust made me who I am." The dust is a part of her literally and emotionally, the dust is her home.

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  3. The dust is obviously a major conflict in the book. The dust prevents her from getting important things like wheat. But there are inner conflicts with herself such as whether or not she could ever forgive her father for the pail of kerosene and whether or not it was her fault.

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  4. I agree with Mary when she says the the dust is clearly a major conflict, but in this novel Billie must also cope with the loss of her mother, and the regret she has of never being close with her, and the constant reminder that she accidentally threw boiling kerosene onto her then pregnent mother, and she also burned her own hands terribly, taking away her one true love, playing the piano. After her mother died her father drank away all of the emergency money her mother stored away, he then changed, in her eyes, he was not the same man he was when her mother was alive, he began to dig the lake that her mother wanted, but she believed it to be his own grave, Billie could not bare to watch her father torture himself this way so she left, but Billie soon comes to the realization that she can not escape the dust, it is a part of her, she returns to her father, and he tells her he is almost done with the lake, and she is at rest knowing that he was, in fact, not digging himself a grave.

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  5. Bille Jo has many conflicts in the book, Most of the story tells us about the dust and Billy Jo has to deal with that everyday. Billy Jo also thought she was ugly and thought she should've been a boy and her father wanted a boy so she thinks she dissapointed her father being a girl. But i think the main conflict was when her mother died and she blammed the death on herself and had to deal with it for the rest of her life.

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  6. Billie Jo faces many conflicts in this book. The main conflict is the fight with the dust. Another bin impact on her life is her mother and her brother dieing. Then she can’t play the piano and her dad goes a little insane. But the whole point of this story is her conflicts in life inside the dustbowl of the 1930's.

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  7. Billie Jo faces many conflicts during the story well first her mother gets badly burned, and then dies giving birth to Bille Jo's brother who also dies. Billie Jo's hands get badly burned in the fire, which prevents her from playing piano. Also the dust that makes everything so much harder.

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  8. Billie Jo cant play the piano. She also doesnt have a mother. Her father doesnt talk to her. Mad Dog and the Black Mesa Boys r playing on the radio with out her.

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  9. There are many conflicts Billie Jo faces throughout this story. Of course, the most important one is the dust. Everthing that happens revolves around the dust, and everyone is just trying to get out of the dust. The dust ruins crops, animals, and basically just the lives of those who faced it. It gets in peoples food and clothes and mouth and eyes and makes it hard to earn money and live.
    Another conflict is the death of Billie Jo's mother and baby brother. Everyone is blaming the death on Billie, not acknowledging the fact that her dad put the pail of kerosene by the stove, and the fact that Billie didn't know her mom was coming back, and the fact that Billie was just trying to save the house. "'Billie Jo threw the pail,' they said."
    A third conflict is that Billie Jo's hands are burned badly. Everything she does hurts, but she doesn't tell anyone about her pain. All she wants to do is play the piano, but every note she plays only hurts and sounds horrible. Eveyone looks at her like she's a cripple. She couldn't play the piano very well at the show and the only one that looks at her for who she is, not a cripple, but Billie Jo, is Mad Dog, and she is very grateful that at least one person's opinion didn't change of her.
    Another conflict is that Billie Jo doesn't know where she belongs. She doesn't know her father anymore, and the dust ruins everything. Like many young kids, she decided to run away. On the train she meets a man who helps her realize that she does belong in Oklahoma, where the dust is. Like Jenny said, she realizes that the dust makes her who she is, and the dust is a part of her.
    A fifth conflict is that her dad is digging a pond, just like Ma wanted. Billie Jo thinks he is digging his own grave. Her dad is getting white blotches on his skin, and Billie knows what they are. Her grandpa died from the same thing. Her dad isn't doing anything about it, it's like he's asking to die. She feels like he's going to leave her all alone. "He is rotting away, like his father, ready to leave me behind in the dust." This is not the only conflict she faces with her father. Her and her father don't have a relationship. He took the emergency money and spent it all on alchohol, and he looks at Billie Jo, wanting to see even the tiniest trace of Ma or Franklin. "But it can't be. I'm my father's daughter."

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  10. there were many conflics in billy's time in the dust bowl. like the dust ( of course ) and her mother's death ( burnt by karocene, poisend, and died giving birth ). Also the karocene messing up her hands by burning them.

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  11. Billy-Jo had alot of conflicts in the book. But i think the two major conflicts were the dust storms and that her mother died. The mothers death was very sudden so she wasnt prepared for it and hurt her more.

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  12. Billie-Jo faces numerous conflicts through the entirety of the book. Conflict vs self, conflict vs nature, etc etc.

    The obvious, main conflict is against the 'dust'. Living during the period, and in the place of the 'Dustbowl', life is extremely difficult for her. Crops don't grow, a drout, and a famine, are all outcomes of this.

    Another conflict is with her mother, who virtually has a leash around her neck like a dog, requiring control over her constantly.
    Though she has her mind set on the best things for Billie-Jo, she is overly strict about it.

    Last but not least, the death of her mother, and the burning of her hands. Billie-Jo's father left kerosene next to the stove, how smart. The stove erupted in flames, and she threw it onto her mother by accident. Her mother did not die directly of the wounds, but giving birth to her second child; who also dies.

    It's extremely difficult for Billie-Jo to perform even the most simplest of tasks due to her physical impairment; such as washing the dishes, or even playing the piano.

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  13. Billie Jo had many conflicts during her life time. The obvious one is the dust, which causes no food because of lack of rain.
    The major one probably has to be growing up without a mother because her mother got badly burnt with kerosene and a few days later died giving birth to Billie Jo's brother who also died. At the mother's funeral Billie Jo hear people talking about the mother's burns and says it's Billie Jo's fault but she was just trying to help by carrying it outside so the house wouldn't burn and she didn't know her mother was coming back into the kitchen. Now that her mother is dead she has no one to talk to. Billie Jo's father begins to dig a ditch which Billie Jo thinks is his grave but it's the well that her mother wanted.

    Billie Jo also tries to run away but when she meets a mysterious man on the train she realizes everything she needs is at home. Even the dust is her home.

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  14. Billie jo faces so many conflict.The main conflict is the dust,with the dust she can't eat any thing, nothing is clear,and the dust causes many problems everywhere.billie's mother is a big conflict, ever since she died billie is now alone. when billie threw the kerosene which was completely accidental, she now has burnt her hands which elminates her ablities to do many thing, she can't play the panio or it will hurther hands, she can't hold any thing everyone thinks it was her fault, that her mother died.
    while father does not talk to her ,and billie thinks he's building hole for is grave.since he has white spots on him ,and they both know what it is because his father had them too.

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