Figurative Language in Out of the Dust

1. Out of the Dust
By Karen Hesse
Figurative
Language

2. Out of the Dust
Student Work Pages and Teacher Key Printable PDF
To open use normal mode, not slide show mode. Click on picture of
work page to open and print. It is a PDF.

3. http://www.woodyguthrie.de/disaster.html
Dust Bowl Ballads;
“Dust Storm Disaster"
(The Great Dust Storm)
Tim McMullen performs "The Great Dust Storm" (YouTube)
The site is FAIR USE for study purposes only.
On the 14th day of April of 1935,
There struck the worst of dust storms that ever filled the sky.
You could see that dust storm comin', the cloud looked deathlike black,
And through our mighty nation, it left a dreadful track.
From Oklahoma City to the Arizona line,
Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande,
It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down,
We thought it was our judgment, we thought it was our doom.
The radio reported, we listened with alarm,
The wild and windy actions of this great mysterious storm;
From Albuquerque and Clovis, and all New Mexico,
They said it was the blackest that ever they had saw.
From old Dodge City, Kansas, the dust had rung their knell,
And a few more comrades sleeping on top of old Boot Hill.
From Denver, Colorado, they said it blew so strong,
They thought that they could hold out, but they didn't know how long.
Our relatives were huddled into their oil boom shacks,
And the children they was cryin' as it whistled through the cracks.
And the family it was crowded into their little room,
They thought the world had ended, and they thought it was their doom.
The storm took place at sundown, it lasted through the night,
When we looked out next morning, we saw a terrible sight.
We saw outside our window where wheat fields they had grown
Was now a rippling ocean of dust the wind had blown.
It covered up our fences, it covered up our barns,
It covered up our tractors in this wild and dusty storm.
We loaded our jalopies and piled our families in,
We rattled down that highway to never come back again.
Words in bold are
used in this lesson.
http://www.youtube.com/embed
/qxhmahBxUdw?rel=0

4. The language in the book Out of the Dust and song offer many
wonderful opportunities to explore different poetic devices and
figurative language.
For example:
metaphor:
"heaven's shadow crept across the plains“

5. personification:
"soothed the parched lips of land“

6. repetition:
“. . .certain the grass
would grow again,
certain the weeds would grow again,
certain the wheat would grow again,
too."

7. simile:
"like a curtain of black rolled down"

8. hyperbole:
"We thought it was our judgment,
We thought it was our doom.“

9. Use a yellow marker and highlight the metaphor:
"We saw outside our window,
Where wheat fields they had grown,
Was now a rippling ocean
Of dust the wind had blown."
"We saw outside our window,
Where wheat fields they had grown,
Was now a rippling ocean
Of dust the wind had blown."
Press the spacebar to reveal answer.

10. 1. She didn’t think that they could squeeze a
rattle snake into the back, the place was so
packed.
2. I think we’re both turning into dust.
3. dinosaur ribs the size of plow blades
4.some other piece of oddness
5. My fingers leave sighs in the dust.
More metaphors . . .
(press spacebar to reveal)

11. Personification is found in the "character" of Nature in the
book, Out Of the Dust. It affects the other characters, affects events, has a life and will of
its own. When reading the book, write examples of the personification of nature.
(press spacebar to reveal some answers)
Examples showing the ways in which Nature is a character in
Out of the Dust:
1. He and the land had a hold on one another.
2. The wind took my voice and busted it into a thousand pieces.
3. snow, clinging to the earth
4. the storm swallowed the light
5. snow soothed the parched lips of the land

12. Highlight the simile:
"After the dust bowl, farmers learned new plowing
practices. Instead of cutting straight furrows in the
earth, their tractors now made big, sweeping arcs, like
waves in the ocean, to keep the soil from blowing away."

13. What are the phrases below an example
of?
a) simile
b) metaphor
c) personification
d) Hyperbole
"a long-legged girl with a wide mouth and cheekbones like bicycle handles"
"the dust turned toward the house like a fired locomotive"
"winds came, bringing a red dust like prairie fire, hot and peppery:
"his legs like willow limbs"
Similes

14. 1. her anger simmering over like a pot in an empty kitchen boiling
2. "….. my throat felt like a trap had snapped down on it"
3. “My dazzing ma”, as round and as ripe as a melon.
4. a tortured sound came from the piano (like someone shrieking)
5. the wind roared like a fire
6. it whirred like a thousand engines (grasshoppers)
More similes . . .
Press spacebar in slide show mode to reveal possible answers

15. YOUR WAY
Billie Jo often used colorful language
in her poems. Read each of the
passages on your page. Then, in your
own words, write what Billie Jo
means.

17. Online Figurative
Language Links
http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/dragonsville/metaphor1.htm
Drag and drop metaphors:
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112392/simile.html
Similes by students for students:
http://www.worsleyschool.net/socialarts/simile/page2.html
Similes quiz:
http://languagearts.pppst.com/similes.html
Free Power Points:
http://knowgramming.com/free_stuff/online/games/java/free_online_asteroids_golf_tux.htm
Free online reading games, including metaphor:
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/grade_level_help/literature_literary_devices_lan
guage_arts_fifth_5th_grade.htm
Lots of great simile and metaphor online activities: