How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Line)
Quote #1
They had to be alienated somehow, alienated and solitary enough not to care about leaving everyone they had known behind forever—and yet still connected and social enough to get along with all their new acquaintances in Wright Valley, with every member of the tiny village that the colony would become. (2.1.10)
We think the key word here is "alienated." As in, they felt alienated enough from their home planet to go and make themselves aliens (read: Martians) on some other planet. It might be the only desire all the First Hundred share, and yet maybe not.
Quote #2
Eight people aboard were idiolinguists, a sad kind of orphaning in Maya's opinion, and it seemed to her they were more Earth-oriented than the rest, and in frequent communication with the people back home. (2.2.34)
The novel definitely makes a connection between language and the home, since language is infused with values and traditions. For example, what a group considers curse-word worthy.
Quote #3
Most of the terrariums were filled with spruce trees and other flora that made it resemble the great world-wrapping Terran forest of the sixtieth latitude. Like Nadia Cherneshevsky's old home in Siberia, in other words. (4.2.22)
There's a definite connection between home and environment, too. And we understand that feeling—for us, Kansas wheat fields might as well be Mars while a nice bayside view just feels comfy-cozy. But for others the reverse might be true.