O Pioneers!: Part 5, Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

The next afternoon, Carl and Alexandra are both in Hanover. They leave Mrs. Hiller’s after delivering a little present from Lincoln. Alexandra learns that Carl never received her letter but had learned about Frank’s trial from an old copy of the San Francisco paper. Carl hurried back as quickly as possible. Alexandra worries that he left his business, but Carl laughs at her prudency, assuring her that he trusts his partner in everything. Carl says that he would like to spend the winter with Alexandra. He asks her whether she needs him now, and Alexandra says that she needed him terribly when the deaths first happened. After she didn’t hear from him for a while, her heart grew harder, but as soon as she received Carl’s telegram, she felt the same as she used to. She tells Carl that he is all she has in the world.

Alexandra asks Carl whether he understands what happened between Emil and Marie. Carl explains that they probably tried very hard to resist their feelings. It’s the reason Emil went away to Mexico, for example. Carl mentions that he had a feeling there was something going on before, at the French Church, but he had gotten so angry over his argument with Lou and Oscar that he forgot to mention it to Alexandra. Carl tells Alexandra not to be so hard on Emil and Marie.

Carl describes the day he saw Emil and Marie hunting ducks by the pond, and how he felt they were young and charming and full of grace. He says that it happens sometimes that there are women who spread ruin around them just by being too full of life and love. Alexandra sighs and agrees that people couldn’t help loving Marie, but she wishes it had been another boy. She wonders why it had to have been Emil, and Carl answers that Emil and Marie were both the best they had on the prairie.

Alexandra tells Carl that she would like to accompany him to Alaska in the spring, but she will always return to the land. Carl agrees that she belongs to the land, now more than ever. Alexandra agrees and says that the land belongs to the future—to the people who love it and understand it. She doesn’t understand how she can will the land to Lou and Oscar’s children. Carl asks her why she is thinking of such things, and Alexandra responds that it was a dream she had before she went to Lincoln. She says that she will tell him about it after they’re married. Alexandra feels that she and Carl will be very happy, since they have been friends a long time and are safe. The two of them enter the house, leaving the Divide behind them.