How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"We pay a high rent, too, though we pay differently. We grow hard and heavy here. We don't move lightly and easily as you do, and our minds get stiff. If the world were no wider than my cornfields, if there were not something beside this, I wouldn't feel that it was much worth while to work." (2.4.24)
Is there any good place to be? In the city, you're lonely and anonymous. On the Divide, you lose the freedom to explore a life of the mind. Meaninglessness and disappointment seems to be a possibility just about anywhere. So, where's the escape?
Quote #8
"As you will," said Alexandra wearily. "All at once, in a single day, I lose everything; and I do not know why. Emil, too, is going away." Carl was still studying John Bergson's face and Alexandra's eyes followed his. "Yes," she said, "if he could have seen all that would come of the task he gave me, he would have been sorry. I hope he does not see me now. I hope that he is among the old people of his blood and country, and that tidings do not reach him from the New World." (2.7.10)
Alexandra seems to have achieved what she and her father always wanted—a successful farm. But even for a practical and down-to-earth woman like Alexandra, that's just not enough. Her life disappoints her as long as she has no one to share it with.
Quote #9
When everything is done and over for one at twenty-three, it is pleasant to let the mind wander forth and follow a young adventurer who has life before him. (3.1.40)
Disappointment isn't just for Carl and Alexandra. Marie struggles with a feeling of disappointment in her marriage to Frank. Though she tries to remain as cheerful and upbeat as ever, the narrator clues us in here to her true feelings. She seems to admire Emil all the more because he isn't tied down.