How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Carl dropped the end of his cigar softly among the castor beans and sighed. "Yes, I suppose I must see the old place. I'm cowardly about things that remind me of myself. It took courage to come at all, Alexandra. I wouldn't have, if I hadn't wanted to see you very, very much."
Alexandra looked at him with her calm, deliberate eyes. "Why do you dread things like that, Carl?" she asked earnestly. "Why are you dissatisfied with yourself?" (2.4.19-20)
"Wherever you go, there you are." Or so they say. Carl thought he could escape disappointment in himself by leaving the Divide. Now, he's right back where he always was. Alexandra, who has always tried to overcome her feelings of loneliness and disillusionment with hard work, doesn't get it.
Quote #5
"But you show for it yourself, Carl. I'd rather have had your freedom than my land." (2.4.22)
Up until this point in the novel, we've only known Alexandra to be a strong-willed, optimistic type. Now, we start to get a different picture. Clearly, beneath that steely exterior, she's having second thoughts about her commitment to staying on the Divide. She feels trapped.
Quote #6
Carl shook his head mournfully. "Freedom so often means that one isn't needed anywhere. Here you are an individual, you have a background of your own, you would be missed. But off there in the cities there are thousands of rolling stones like me. We are all alike; we have no ties, we know nobody, we own nothing. When one of us dies, they scarcely know where to bury him." (2.4.23)
The Divide might seem suffocating at times, but according to Carl, it beats being a nobody in the big city. He went from being disappointed in the Divide to being disappointed by the big city. Now, his biggest complaint seems to be his feeling of homelessness.