How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Things away from home often look better than they are. […] Anyway, I've heard so much about the river farms, I won't be satisfied till I've seen for myself." (1.4.43)
Alexandra isn't exactly what we'd call a "dreamer." The narrator explicitly says that she doesn't have "much imagination" (3.2.1). Well, something similar comes across in this statement. Alexandra's not easily misled to believe that things must be better beyond the Divide—she needs to see it to believe it. That kind of practical, down-to-earth attitude is what her character is all about.
Quote #5
For the first time, perhaps, since that land emerged from the waters of geologic ages, a human face was set toward it with love and yearning. It seemed beautiful to her, rich and strong and glorious. Her eyes drank in the breadth of it, until her tears blinded her. Then the Genius of the Divide, the great, free spirit which breathes across it, must have bent lower than it ever bent to a human will before. The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman. (1.5.3)
Alexandra might not be the romantic type. But when it comes to her relationship to the Divide, things get a little complicated. In this passage, in which the Divide seems to come alive as a personified "Genius," we might very well be gaining access to Alexandra's unconscious dreams and desires—her "heart."
Quote #6
"We hadn't any of us much to do with it, Carl. The land did it. It had its little joke. It pretended to be poor because nobody knew how to work it right; and then, all at once, it worked itself. It woke up out of its sleep and stretched itself, and it was so big, so rich, that we suddenly found we were rich, just from sitting still." (2.4.4)
Even in the things she says, as in this statement, Alexandra reveals the way the Divide comes to life in her fantasies. Not only in the Divide alive, and like a human being, but it also has a will of its own. But really? Alexandra didn't have "much to do with it"?