Locals Blame Billie Jo (Situational Irony)
After Ma's death, Billie Jo overhears locals talking among themselves about how Billie Jo threw the pail of burning kerosene out the door, accidentally burning her mother and precipitating her death during childbirth. Billie Jo notes that the locals refer to it as an accident but simultaneously lay the blame on her, neglecting to bring up the fact Bayard left the kerosene pail next to the stove and then abandoned Ma while she writhed in pain and begged for water so he could go on a drinking binge. In this instance of situational irony, the locals ignore the moral complexity of comprehending Bayard's culpability in Ma's death, preferring to use Billie Jo's mistake as a simple explanation for what brought about the tragedy.
Trees Have Never Grown in the Panhandle (Situational Irony)
As Billie Jo and her fellow Dust Bowl residents struggle to survive in their bleak, dried-out landscape, President Roosevelt suggests they plant trees that will break the wind, end the drought, and offer shelter to animals and children. While the President believes the tree roots will hold the soil in place and stop it from blowing away in the wind, Billie Jo comments that FDR doesn't understand the problem because trees have never grown on the terrain, which has only ever supported prairie grass. In this instance of situational irony, the President's misguided suggestion betrays the government's lack of interest in trying to remedy the issue of the Dust Bowl.
Welcome to Stay (Situational Irony)
One morning, Billie Jo and her classmates arrive at the schoolhouse to discover that a man named Buddy Williams has moved his mother, wife, and two kids into the schoolhouse. He tells Miss Freeland that they are seeking shelter from the dust while he looks for a job. Though he has technically broken into the school without permission, Miss Freeland undermines the reader's expectations of how most school officials would handle a trespasser by saying they are welcome to stay. In this instance of situational irony, the family is not treated with suspicion or made to feel like criminals; instead, a sense of camaraderie prevails as the Dust Bowl migrants are welcomed by the school community with donations of food and clothes. They even study the lessons alongside the students, watching Miss Freeland from the makeshift apartment they've set up in the corner of the room.
Back Into the Dust (Situational Irony)
Throughout the novel, Billie Jo dreams of getting "out of the dust" and traveling west to California, where she believes there will be rain, work opportunities, and a sense of hope for the future. When she finally leaves, Billie Jo travels in a train boxcar for several days. Along the way, she witnesses only poverty and desperation. As soon as she gets off the train, Billie Jo sends a message back to her father that she is coming home. In this instance of situational irony, Billie Jo gets "out of the dust" only to realize that the dust is inside her, meaning the landscape in which she was raised is a non-negotiable part of her identity. Giving up the fantasy that a change in geography will solve her problems, Billie Jo returns to Cimarron County determined to “grow” in one place, just as her father does.
