How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
At first it seemed utterly impossible to her; but then she thought of how desolate and lonesome everything was here and of what a comfortable companion Rosie might be on dark evenings and during the long winter nights. (1.2.8.13)
Beret can't imagine how she'll cope with living on the vast, open prairies. Her best hope for companionship at this point seems to be Rosie the cow, since her husband and sons will no doubt spend every waking moment working the land.
Quote #2
"You can spend the whole evening there, you know, visiting and talking. It'll make the time pass quicker, and you won't be so lonesome." (1.2.9.4)
Per Hansa isn't dumb. He knows that living on the prairie will be tough for Beret, so he suggests that she spend as much time as possible visiting with their neighbors. But Beret isn't satisfied. She wants to hang out with her family and move back to Norway because she misses her parents. Even though the isolation hurts her, she becomes more and more of a loner as the book unfolds.
Quote #3
She realized, too, how lonesome it must be for Beret, to sleep over there in the wagon with only the children. (1.2.9.13)
The women in this book understand loneliness much more than the men. In this instance, Sörine sees Beret sleeping in a wagon and feels sorry for her because she knows how hard life can be with no one to talk to. And it's not like Beret plans on talking to her young sons about her feelings.
Quote #4
[To] Henry it seemed just an amusing interruption to their loneliness; the idea of chasing people away from a place that was nearly destitute of human beings already, seemed comical. (1.4.8.6)
Henry Solum thinks it's ridiculous when he and the Norwegian men chase a bunch of Irish people off their land. There is nothing but land in every direction. It's people who are rare out in these parts. And yet the greedy part of humanity always seems to win out in these moments. Sure, people want company. But they seem to want private property even more.
Quote #5
A feeling of unfathomable loneliness settled upon her. (1.5.1.13)
Now we're getting to the heart of things. Rölvaag spells it out to us in black and white terms when he talks about Beret's sense of isolation. She can try all she wants to distract herself. The fact remains that she feels totally alone on the prairies.
Quote #6
Beret must try to imagine how lonesome she was, sitting at home all alone with that useless husband of hers—and no little newcomer to wait for! (1.6.3.19)
Kjersti wants Beret to know that even though she's lonely, things could be worse. Kjersti, for example, is in the same situation. But she doesn't even have a child to keep her company.
Quote #7
Here was the endless prairie, so rich in its blessings of fertility, but also full of a great loneliness—a form of freedom which curiously affected the minds of strangers, especially those to whom the Lord had given a sad heart. (2.3.3.12)
O.E. Rölvaag gives us a hint to why the prairies affect Beret more deeply than anyone else. It sounds like Beret has always had a heart that leaned toward sadness. In other words, things need to go pretty well for her to be happy. But when she's exposed to the isolation of the prairies, it doesn't take long for her to become severely depressed.
Quote #8
But more to be dreaded than this tribulation was the strange spell of sadness which the unbroken solitude cast upon the minds of stone. (2.4.1.2)
It's nice to think about the American frontier as a place of excitement and adventure. But people don't always realize how harsh and depressing life on the frontier was for many people. We don't always talk about the high rate of suicide among these folks, which was no doubt cause by the isolation and vastness of the place they were living in.
Quote #9
And so had been the Spirit since the day the first settlers landed on the eastern shores; it would rise and fall at intervals, would swell and surge on again with every new wave of settlers that rolled westward into the unbroken solitude. (2.4.1.7)
The settler's life has its ups and downs. But one thing that doesn't change is the "unbroken solitude" of life on the prairies. It takes a certain kind of person to thrive in this atmosphere, and unfortunately, this type of person often came to the New World with a family in tow. Even though a guy like Per Hansa might love the prairies, that doesn't mean the rest of his family will.
Quote #10
… His face was ashen and drawn. His eyes were set toward the west. (2.4.9.3)
In the end, Per Hansa dies cold and alone. And when we hear that his eyes are set to the west, we wonder if Hansa died thinking about all of the land he would have loved to settle. It's kind of a fitting end to the book, because Per Hansa has always been isolated by his lust for land and power. His work on the land has isolated him from his wife, and his pride and competitiveness has isolated him from his closest friends.