The mood of the novel is at once gloomy and cautiously optimistic. A disproportionate amount of the book is set during the winter or fall, and the narrator emphasizes the harsh seasonal conditions. For instance, Part 5, Chapter 1 opens on Ivar mending a harness by lantern light on an unseasonably dark afternoon:
It was only five o’clock of a mid-October day, but a storm had come up in the afternoon, bringing black clouds, a cold wind and torrents of rain.
It has been three months since Frank shot Emil and Marie, destroying all three of their lives. This part of the novel focuses on Alexandra, whose hopes for the future have been dashed by the loss of her brother. The stormy sky helps the reader get a feel for the gloom that has settled like a funeral pall over the Divide. Harsh weather and death have recurred throughout the book, especially at several of the parts' beginnings, so there is the sense that this pall has been trying to cover the Divide for many years.
Along with this gloom, however, there is also a sense that even Marie and Emil's deaths might not be enough to keep the Divide forever in shadow. Alexandra and Carl go on to discuss the altered future they might have together. Alexandra can no longer hope for Emil to live a life free from the homestead, but she can hope for a productive life with Carl. She can even hope to be buried in the soil to which she has dedicated her life. The modest hope for a life well-lived and a dignified death is, according to the novel, an admirable goal that readers ought to regard with deep respect.
