How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
She wore a man's long ulster (not as if it were an affliction, but as if it were very comfortable and belonged to her; carried it like a young soldier), and a round plush cap, tied down with a thick veil. (1.1.3)
Here's one of the first physical descriptions we get of Alexandra. The narrator goes out of his or her way to point out how comfortably Alexandra wears a man's coat, looking "like a young soldier." Well, turns out that's just the beginning of Alexandra's gender bending.
Quote #2
She stabbed him with a glance of Amazonian fierceness and drew in her lower lip—most unnecessary severity. It gave the little clothing drummer such a start that he actually let his cigar fall to the sidewalk and went off weakly in the teeth of the wind to the saloon. His hand was still unsteady when he took his glass from the bartender. His feeble flirtatious instincts had been crushed before; but never so mercilessly. He felt cheap and ill-used, as if some one had taken advantage of him. (1.1.7)
When this middle-aged guy tries to make an innocent pass on Alexandra, she more than shoots him down. She "stabs" him with her "glance of Amazonian fierceness." Yowza. The tables of gender are turned, and in this case, it's the older man who ends up feeling like he's been violated.
Quote #3
He was a thin, frail boy, with brooding dark eyes, very quiet in all his movements. There was a delicate pallor in his thin face, and his mouth was too sensitive for a boy's. The lips had already a little curl of bitterness and skepticism. (1.1.12)
Let's face it: Carl is not your stereotypical frontier Man. He is "frail," "brooding," "delicate, and his mouth is "too sensitive for a boy's." Like Alexandra, the narrator portrays his gender as seriously bent. A match made in heaven?
Quote #4
But when all was said, he had come up from the sea himself, had built up a proud little business with no capital but his own skill and foresight, and had proved himself a man. In his daughter, John Bergson recognized the strength of will, and the simple direct way of thinking things out, that had characterized his father in his better days. He would much rather, of course, have seen this likeness in one of his sons, but it was not a question of choice. (1.2.7)
John Bergson's father "proved himself a man," by making his own business, but he squandered it all—leaving his son to make up for it. But in a twisted, new land, things don't exactly turn out the way he thought. It seems like those manly characteristics—his father's "skill and foresight"—didn't end up in his sons, but are best reflected in his daughter, Alexandra. Now, it sounds like he's a little disappointed. Maybe Alexandra's gender-bending is really about pleasing daddy…
Quote #5
He seemed to shrink into himself as he used to do; to hold himself away from things, as if he were afraid of being hurt. In short, he was more self-conscious than a man of thirty-five is expected to be. He looked older than his years and not very strong. (2.4.1)
Even as a grown up, Carl still doesn't exactly match the stereotypes of manliness. It seems leaving the Divide and living in the big city hasn't done much for bringing him out of his protective shell.
Quote #6
"Well, suppose I want to take care of him? Whose business is it but my own?"
"Don't you know he'd get hold of your property?"
"He'd get hold of what I wished to give him, certainly." (2.10.16-18)
When Alexandra and Carl finally hook up, their relationship is not exactly what we'd call "traditional," at least for the Divide. Alexandra is a successful farmer and businesswoman. Apparently, Carl has almost nothing to his name. Though this arrangement offends her brothers and makes them fear for "their" property, Alexandra is never once concerned. Yep—she's in control.
Quote #7
Lou turned to his brother. "This is what comes of letting a woman meddle in business," he said bitterly. "We ought to have taken things in our own hands years ago. But she liked to run things, and we humored her." (2.10.26)
Lou and Oscar obviously resent Alexandra's success, and—no surprise, here—they blame their woes on her being a woman. In this section, the narrator lets us see the way Lou and Oscar's misogyny, the way they look down on women, comes from their feeling of envy and powerlessness in the face of Alexandra's triumphs.
Quote #8
Oscar spoke up solemnly. "The property of a family really belongs to the men of the family, no matter about the title. If anything goes wrong, it's the men that are held responsible." (2.10.28)
Lou and Oscar don't like the idea of Alexandra being able to deal with her property as she sees fit. In their minds, the property really belongs to them, since they're the men of the family and are "held responsible" for whatever happens with the land. Now, compare this to Alexandra's view on land ownership, at the end of the novel: "The people who love [the land] and understand it are the people who own it for a little while." (5.3.25)
Quote #9
"If I were big and free like you, I wouldn't let anything make me unhappy. As old Napoleon Brunot said at the fair, I wouldn't go lovering after no woman." (4.2.16)
While Marie is attracted to Emil's freedom and lack of ties, she also resents him. This is an moment when we get the sense that Marie feels constrained by her role as a woman and as Frank's wife.
Quote #10
The years seemed to stretch before her like the land; spring, summer, autumn, winter, spring; always the same patient fields, the patient little trees, the patient lives; always the same yearning, the same pulling at the chain—until the instinct to live had torn itself and bled and weakened for the last time, until the chain secured a dead woman, who might cautiously be released. (4.5.5)
Well, the narrator definitely thinks Marie is constrained by her role as a woman. Marie is pictured here thinking about her future, watching herself and her desire to thrive slowly waste away, as she remains stuck to her "chain"—Frank, of course.