How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"I can't pray to have the things I want," he said slowly, "and I won't pray not to have them, not if I'm damned for it." (2.8.38)
So, what exactly is Emil saying here? Well, for one, he's acknowledging that his desires (for Marie) are sinful—that's why he can't pray to God to have what he wants. But, he's also saying that he doesn't want God to take those desires away. Hmm. Does anyone feel a crisis coming?
Quote #5
She found more comfort in the Church that winter than ever before. It seemed to come closer to her, and to fill an emptiness that ached in her heart. She tried to be patient with her husband. He and his hired man usually played California Jack in the evening. Marie sat sewing or crocheting and tried to take a friendly interest in the game, but she was always thinking about the wide fields outside, where the snow was drifting over the fences; and about the orchard, where the snow was falling and packing, crust over crust. […] She seemed to feel the weight of all the snow that lay down there. The branches had become so hard that they wounded your hand if you but tried to break a twig. And yet, down under the frozen crusts, at the roots of the trees, the secret of life was still safe, warm as the blood in one's heart; and the spring would come again! Oh, it would come again! (3.1.42)
Okay, that's quite an excerpt. What's going on here? Well, we just want to show the way the narrator moves quickly from the domain of religion to natural metaphors, all in order to describe Marie's inner world. Just as the church fills an "emptiness […] in her heart," she finds something like her own reflection in the wintry land, feeling "the weight of all the snow."
Quote #6
They kept repeating that Amédée had always been a good boy, glancing toward the red brick church which had played so large a part in Amédée's life, had been the scene of his most serious moments and of his happiest hours. He had played and wrestled and sung and courted under its shadow. Only three weeks ago he had proudly carried his baby there to be christened. They could not doubt that that invisible arm was still about Amédée; that through the church on earth he had passed to the church triumphant, the goal of the hopes and faith of so many hundred years. (4.6.2)
The Catholic French inhabitants of the Divide seem to have an unshakable sense of community, centered on their church. This contrasts with people like Ivar or members of the Bergson family, for who there is no center of communal life or religious faith.