How does the author use juxtaposition to define Alexandra’s perspective on buying more land?

Alexandra plays the primary role in the novel, even if Cather disputes her status as heroine, because she understands how to work with the land to bring out its riches. Once Alexandra has succeeded and has built up her farm, it is described as: There was something individual about the great farm, a most unusual trimness and care for detail. . .. You feel that, properly, Alexandra's house is the big out-of-doors, and that it is in the soil that she expresses herself best. At the same time, the farm life is physically and emotionally demanding on Alexandra taking a toll on her.