How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It was facing this vast hardness that the boy's mouth had become so bitter; because he felt that men were too weak to make any mark here, that the land wanted to be let alone, to preserve its own fierce strength, its peculiar, savage kind of beauty, its uninterrupted mournfulness. (1.1.18)
Whoa. We guess that's what you'd call "bitter." From the very start, Carl is disappointed in the Divide and in himself. In fact, disappointment is pretty much the defining element of his character.
Quote #2
The settlers sat about on the wooden sidewalks in the little town and told each other that the country was never meant for men to live in; the thing to do was to get back to Iowa, to Illinois, to any place that had been proved habitable. (1.4.1)
In the novel's beginning, most of the locals seem to share Carl's sense that the Divide isn't meant to be inhabited. Knowing this helps us get a sense of how really exceptional Alexandra is. She's basically the only one around who thinks the Divide is awesome.
Quote #3
"What a wonderful place you have made of this, Alexandra." He turned and looked back at the wide, map-like prospect of field and hedge and pasture. "I would never have believed it could be done. I'm disappointed in my own eye, in my imagination." (2.3.34)
Does Carl ever stop being disappointed? Sheesh. When Carl returns from the city and sees what Alexandra has managed to do with the supposedly unlivable Divide, he feels like a big ol' failure.