How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
As for Carol, she was an orphan; her only near relative was a vanilla-flavored sister married to an optician in St. Paul. (1.2.8)
Carol lost both of her parents before the age of twelve, which gives her a different perspective on the concept of family than most people have. She also doesn't particularly care for her sister, and the two of them hardly ever see each other. This relation to family might help explain why Carol doesn't jump at the thought of having a bunch of babies with her husband right away.
Quote #2
"What's better than making a comfy home and bringing up some cute kids and knowing nice homey people?" (1.5.10)
Here you find the most common attitude toward family in a small town like Gopher Prairie. The folks here can't believe that Carol would want to do anything with her life except have babies and hang out with other people with babies. Not that there's anything wrong with that, necessarily, but hidden in this comment is the idea that this is the only right way to live your life.
Quote #3
She had so painfully reared three sons to be Christian gentlemen that one of them had become an Omaha bartender, one a professor of Greek, and one, Cyrus N. Bogart, a boy of fourteen who was still at home, the most brazen member of the toughest gang in Boytown. (6.1.9)
The book mocks the efforts of a woman like Mrs. Bogart, who tries so hard to raise moral men that she ends up driving all of them to lead immoral lives. She's in total denial about the whole thing, though, and continues to talk about the boys as though they were angels.