How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He always put on a clean shirt when Sunday morning came round, though he never went to church. He had a peculiar religion all of his own and could not get on with any of the denominations. Often he did not see anybody from one week's end to another. (1.3.23)
One of the main ways Ivar is portrayed as a social outsider? His off-beat, vaguely fanatical religious beliefs. Here, his social isolation is placed right alongside his inability (or refusal) to "get on" with other religious denominations.
Quote #2
He best expressed his preference for his wild homestead by saying that his Bible seemed truer to him there. If one stood in the doorway of his cave, and looked off at the rough land, the smiling sky, the curly grass white in the hot sunlight; if one listened to the rapturous song of the lark, the drumming of the quail, the burr of the locust against that vast silence, one understood what Ivar meant. (1.3.24)
What exactly does Ivar mean? Well, at least we see here that the narrator shares Ivar's belief that living an isolated life in nature brings you closer to religious feelings. The whole nature-as-god idea will play a big role in O Pioneers!
Quote #3
He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run
among the hills;
They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild
asses quench their thirst.
The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of
Lebanon which he hath planted;
Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork the
fir trees are her house.
The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the
rocks for the conies. (1.3.26)
When we first meet Ivar, he's reciting this psalm in his all-natural abode. (Check out the "Shout Outs" section for more on this.) This cements the idea that Ivar finds his place of worship not in some church with other people, but alone amidst the divine creation itself—nature.
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.
Quote #7
He felt as if a clear light broke upon his mind, and with it a conviction that good was, after all, stronger than evil, and that good was possible to men. He seemed to discover that there was a kind of rapture in which he could love forever without faltering and without sin […] And it did not occur to Emil that any one had ever reasoned thus before, that music had ever before given a man this equivocal revelation. (4.6.6-7)
Well, it's not like we didn't see this one coming. Though he earlier seems totally aware that his desires are sinful (see Part 2, Chapter 8), Emil goes and has this "revelation" in church during Amédée's funeral service. He envisions himself in a state of "rapture" in which there's no sin. Well, the narrator isn't exactly buying Emil's spiritual experience—his revelation is chalked up to an overdose on church music.
Quote #8
The old man fell in the road at her feet and caught her hand, over which he bowed his shaggy head. "Mistress, mistress," he sobbed, "it has fallen! Sin and death for the young ones! God have mercy upon us!" (4.8.6)
Ivar brings Alexandra the bad news: Emil and Marie have been murdered. Not surprisingly, Ivar thinks about their murder in religious terms, as an act of divine judgment that has "fallen" from on high. Even though Alexandra is fond of Ivar, his religious rhetoric seems to have no impact on her. She just ain't buyin' it.
Quote #9
"From my youth up I have had a strong, rebellious body, and have been subject to every kind of temptation. Even in age my temptations are prolonged. It was necessary to make some allowances; and the feet, as I understand it, are free members. There is no divine prohibition for them in the Ten Commandments. The hands, the tongue, the eyes, the heart, all the bodily desires we are commanded to subdue; but the feet are free members. I indulge them without harm to any one, even to trampling in filth when my desires are low. They are quickly cleaned again." (5.1.13)
If we take a closer look at this passage, we start to get the sense that Ivar isn't so different from someone like Emil. Except that, while Emil looked for loopholes to justify his sinful desires, Ivar has formed his whole life around suppressing those desires in himself.
Quote #10
"Maybe it's like that with the dead. If they feel anything at all, it's the old things, before they were born, that comfort people like the feeling of their own bed does when they are little."
"Mistress," said Ivar reproachfully, "those are bad thoughts. The dead are in Paradise."
Then he hung his head, for he did not believe that Emil was in paradise. (5.1.24-26)
This passage makes perfectly clear the differences between Ivar's religious beliefs and Alexandra's thoughts on the dead. One thing is obvious: Alexandra is not someone, like Emil or Ivar, who thinks about actions in terms of sinfulness.