How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Alexandra drove off alone. The rattle of her wagon was lost in the howling of the wind, but her lantern, held firmly between her feet, made a moving point of light along the highway, going deeper and deeper into the dark country. (1.1.33)
Symbolism alert. As Alexandra drives home on this dark, windy night, her lantern is a point of calm resistance and resilience. It calls to mind Alexandra's own refusal to let herself be extinguished, even when conditions on the Divide seem impossible.
Quote #2
A pioneer should have imagination, should be able to enjoy the idea of things more than the things themselves. (1.4.1)
A pioneer perseveres in the hardest of conditions because he or she has "imagination"—a pioneer is always able to envision a better world. Well, it seems many of the people on the Divide don't exactly fit this description.
Quote #3
"I'm afraid they are beginning to feel hard toward me because I won't listen to any talk about going. Sometimes I feel like I'm getting tired of standing up for this country." (1.4.14)
Alexandra is pretty darn committed to staying on the Divide and creating a successful farm. It's everything her father ever wanted, right? Well sometimes, as in this passage, she wonders whether it's worth it. Alexandra perseveres, but she runs the risk of sacrificing her relationship with her family.
Quote #4
For the first time, perhaps, since that land emerged from the waters of geologic ages, a human face was set toward it with love and yearning. It seemed beautiful to her, rich and strong and glorious. Her eyes drank in the breadth of it, until her tears blinded her. Then the Genius of the Divide, the great, free spirit which breathes across it, must have bent lower than it ever bent to a human will before. The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman. (1.5.3)
Alexandra might have occasional doubts about her decision to stay on the Divide, but there's no question she's got a fire burning inside. In fact, it's almost like the Divide itself, the great "Genius," has bestowed a special form of perseverance upon her.
Quote #5
"We hadn't any of us much to do with it, Carl. The land did it. It had its little joke. It pretended to be poor because nobody knew how to work it right; and then, all at once, it worked itself. It woke up out of its sleep and stretched itself, and it was so big, so rich, that we suddenly found we were rich, just from sitting still." (2.4.4)
While the rest of us might attribute Alexandra's success to her own perseverance and hard work, she's much more modest. She gives all the credit to the Divide, as if the Divide had a will of its own and was able to bring about its own transformation.
Quote #6
"And now the old story had begun to write itself over there," said Carl softly. "Isn't it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, they have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years." (2.4.13)
Well, how's that for perseverance? Carl's fascinated by the way human relationships pretty much repeat the same dramas, over and over. In fact, humans are so persistent in repeating these dramas, that their stories have almost become part of nature itself. Hm. Guess that's why they call it "human" nature…
Quote #7
"I don't know. Perhaps I am like Carrie Jensen, the sister of one of my hired men. She had never been out of the cornfields, and a few years ago she got despondent and said life was just the same thing over and over, and she didn't see the use of it. After she tried to kill herself once or twice, her fold got worried and sent her over to Iowa to visit some relations. Ever since she's come back she's been perfectly cheerful, and she says she's contended to live and work in a world that's so big and interesting. She said that anything as big as the bridges over the Platte and the Missouri reconciled her. And it's what goes on in the world that reconciles me." (2.4.26)
The grass is always greener, as they say. Alexandra seems perfectly aware that it's her awareness of and occasional longing for the hustle-and-bustle of the outside world that really keeps her going on the Divide. In other words, while she might envy someone like Carl, who has seen the big cities, she's not giving up on her commitment to the land any time soon.
Quote #8
Out of her father's children there was one who was fit to cope with the world, who had not been tied to the plow, and who had a personality apart from the soil. And that, she reflected, was what she had worked for. She felt well satisfied with her life. (4.1.4)
When it comes to Alexandra, is it really all for the love of the Divide? Well, not quite. Alexandra understands her own sacrifice in terms of the opportunities she believes she's giving to Emil, her younger brother. For most of the novel, she's convinced that she's persevering for his sake. But how true is that?
Quote #9
"There is great peace here, Carl, and freedom…I thought when I came out of that prison, where poor Frank is, that I should never feel free again. But I do, here." Alexandra took a deep breath and looked off into the red west. (5.3.21)
Now, let's all take a deep breath and bask in the symbolism. Alexandra is finally able to acknowledge the freedom living and working on the Divides have given her. When she stares off into the "red west," at the end of this passage, we have a perfect symbol of the American frontier dream—a seemingly boundless horizon of personal freedom. But do we buy it? How free is Alexandra? Does freedom really boil down to a feeling of belonging?
Quote #10
"You remember what you once said about the graveyard, and the old story writing itself over? Only it is we who write it, with the best we have." (5.3.23)
Well, Carl might be convinced that human dramas are just human nature, but Alexandra is able to see things differently in the end. Humans struggle to persevere and are free to struggle in their own way. And that's the freedom Alexandra believes she has found for herself, as well.