How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from From Here to Eternity.
Quote #4
ALMA: I—I won't marry you because I don't want to be the wife of a soldier.
PREWITT: Well, that… would be about the best I could ever do for you.
ALMA: Because nobody's going to stop me from my plan. Nobody, nothing. Because I want to be proper!
PREWITT: Proper.
Alma wants to lead a pleasant, financially-secure, and successful life. It doesn't have much to do with love, which seems to be Prewitt's main motivation in pursuing his relationship with Alma even though he can't give her this "proper" life.
Quote #5
ALMA: In a year I'll have enough money saved. I'm going back to my hometown in Oregon. I'll build a house for mother and myself. Join the country club and take up golf. I'll meet the proper man with the proper position. I'll make a proper wife who can run a proper home, raise proper children. I'll be happy because when you're proper, you're safe.
Alma's main goal is safety, security. Now, she has to scrounge for her living as a "hostess" at the New Congress Club (in the book, she's a prostitute). Financial security is so important to her because it's one thing she's lacked her whole life—even her love for that other guy back in Oregon couldn't give her the security she desired. Plus, it'll help her take care of her mother too. So, it's a wholly practical and understandable plan, in a way, however much it might displease Prewitt.
Quote #6
KAREN: Once commissioned you go to the States.
WARDEN: An officer.
KAREN: Yes. Then I could divorce Dana and marry you.
WARDEN: An officer! I've always hated officers.
Warden doesn't like officers because (in part) they're in a class that's supposedly superior to him. He likes being a person with a lower rank who yet remains more competent than his supposed superiors.