Death

Billie Jo's mother was pregnant with her baby brother. While making breakfast one morning, Billie Jo's mother went to make coffee. She picked up a pail of water that was by the stove. Instead it was a pail of kerosene. This caused a fire to break out. She ran for the door. Billie Jo grabbed the pail and threw it out the door. Instead, her mother was there. She had turned back and was hit by the remaining kerosene. Billie Jo's mother and unborn baby brother were burned badly. Billie Jo's hands were also burned badly. Night and day, Billie Jo's father cared for her mother. The docter came to care for her mother and for Billie Jo. Nothing much could be done for either. Billie Jo's mother died while giving birth to her brother. This single event would be the most devestating event for Billie Jo. She was closer to her mother than to her father. She continued to blame herself throughout the rest of the novel for her mother and brother's deaths. Even though it was an accident, Billie Jo and others blamed her.

"Billie Jo threw the pail, they said. "An accident," they said. Under their words a finger pointed." Summer 1934 Page 71

This text shows that even though people realized that it was an accident, they still pointed the finger at Billie Jo. Not once, do people admit or realize that Billie Jo's father put the kerosene there and that her mother had thought that it was water. This shows a theme that is true in life. People are more likely to believe the first thing they hear rather than trying to figure out and understand the real truth. Karen Hesse portrays this theme well. Not once did anyone ask Billie Jo what had happened. They heard that she had thrown the pail. They never tried to learn how she had ended up with the pail.