How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Pemberton's partners appeared incapable of further speech. Their eyes shifted to the leather chaps Serena wore, the beige oxford shirt and black jodhpurs. Serena's proper diction and erect carriage confirmed that she'd attended finishing school in New England, as had their wives. But Serena had been born in Colorado and lived there until sixteen, child of a timber man who'd taught his daughter to shake hands firmly and look men in the eye as well as ride and shoot. (1.20)
Our introduction to Serena happens alongside the business partners meeting her. Right away, she's set up in opposition to the gender norms of the day: She wears pants instead of skirts, hunts instead of drinking tea, and always speaks her mind. She's a woman way ahead of her time.
Quote #2
Incapable of coyness, as always, even the first time they'd met. Pemberton felt again what he'd never known with another woman—a sense of being unshackled into some limitless possibility, limitless though at the same time somehow contained within the two of them. (1.67)
Pemberton's description of Serena is spot on. She is assertive, aggressive, and bold, all things her society deems "masculine." Early on in the book, we get a lot of descriptions of her in contrast to the typical gender stereotypes so we don't confuse the two—though we're pretty sure Serena would set us straight if we did.
Quote #3
That morning at the club two women had come out on the veranda and sat nearby, dressed, unlike Serena, in red swallowtail hunting blazers and black derbies, hot tea set before them to ward against the morning's chill. I suppose she imagines riding without a coat and cap de rigueur, the younger of the women had said, to which the other replied that it probably was in Colorado. (2.23)
There aren't many women in the book that we get to know well (aside from Rachel and Serena), but here we see how other women are behaving. Just like we suspected, it's nothing like Serena. Check out what they think of her, too—it's not just the men who don't take kindly to her sass.