How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"I don't know. Perhaps I am like Carrie Jensen, the sister of one of my hired men. She had never been out of the cornfields, and a few years ago she got despondent and said life was just the same thing over and over, and she didn't see the use of it. After she tried to kill herself once or twice, her fold got worried and sent her over to Iowa to visit some relations. Ever since she's come back she's been perfectly cheerful, and she says she's contended to live and work in a world that's so big and interesting. She said that anything as big as the bridges over the Platte and the Missouri reconciled her. And it's what goes on in the world that reconciles me." (2.4.26)
The grass is always greener, as they say. Alexandra seems perfectly aware that it's her awareness of and occasional longing for the hustle-and-bustle of the outside world that really keeps her going on the Divide. In other words, while she might envy someone like Carl, who has seen the big cities, she's not giving up on her commitment to the land any time soon.
Quote #8
Out of her father's children there was one who was fit to cope with the world, who had not been tied to the plow, and who had a personality apart from the soil. And that, she reflected, was what she had worked for. She felt well satisfied with her life. (4.1.4)
When it comes to Alexandra, is it really all for the love of the Divide? Well, not quite. Alexandra understands her own sacrifice in terms of the opportunities she believes she's giving to Emil, her younger brother. For most of the novel, she's convinced that she's persevering for his sake. But how true is that?
Quote #9
"There is great peace here, Carl, and freedom…I thought when I came out of that prison, where poor Frank is, that I should never feel free again. But I do, here." Alexandra took a deep breath and looked off into the red west. (5.3.21)
Now, let's all take a deep breath and bask in the symbolism. Alexandra is finally able to acknowledge the freedom living and working on the Divides have given her. When she stares off into the "red west," at the end of this passage, we have a perfect symbol of the American frontier dream—a seemingly boundless horizon of personal freedom. But do we buy it? How free is Alexandra? Does freedom really boil down to a feeling of belonging?