How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
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)
When it comes to (wo)man and nature in O Pioneers!, it doesn't get much better than this passage. The Divide becomes personified here, as the great and powerful "Genius," that submits to Alexandra's "human will."
Quote #8
"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)
C'mon. We all know Alexandra is a pretty awesome farmer. She doesn't need to act like "the land did it." Is she just trying to be modest? Or does she actually see her will in harmony with the will of nature?
Quote #9
She seemed to feel the weight of all the snow that lay down there. The branches had become so hard that they wounded your hand if you but tried to break a twig. And yet, down under the frozen crusts, at the roots of the trees, the secret of life was still safe, warm as the blood in one's heart; and the spring would come again! Oh, it would come again! (3.1.42)
It often seems like nature, in O Pioneers!, acts like a metaphor for human experiences. Here, in the same way that "the secret of life" lies dormant beneath the frozen earth of winter, Marie's longing for Emil's return burns slowly in his absence.