How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
She can't stop from searching, no matter how irrational it is to believe she might one day find him. (1.4)
Isolation can take on many forms; for Pressia, she feels mentally and physically isolated from her father. And because of this, she feels isolated from herself as well.
Quote #2
But, by God, he feels trapped, and worse than the feelings of being trapped is boredom. (2.3)
One of the worst parts about being isolated from everyone else is boredom. Isolation can lead to madness.
Quote #3
"I grew up alone. I can strike up a conversation with anything." (4.33)
Um, good for you, Bradwell. Good for you. You keep on talking to those inanimate objects.
Quote #4
Her held breath starts to burn her lungs. Just another second of peace, she thinks. Just one more. (5.51)
Sometimes isolation means peace and quiet. Lyda submerges herself underwater here, which is a literal isolation of her and the world.
Quote #5
But there it is: Everyone is alone, for life, and maybe that's not a bad thing. (9.23)
In the long run, we're all alone. We can be fused, or married, or connected, but we're still individuals who make our own decisions. And like Lyda says, that's not a bad thing.
Quote #6
"I just knew in that moment that I was a girl in a dome shaking a dome with a girl in it."
"That's the way I always felt at the zoo. A boy in a cage staring at animals in cages." (14.14)
The Dome isolates its people from the rest of the world. They're all just animals in a zoo, or like figurines in a snow-globe.
Quote #7
He finds a door, pushes it open, ready to breathe the cold air. And then he's outside. But that's just it. No one's every really outside here. (42.82)
If you can never really go outside, then you never have the comfort of coming inside. You can never feel the coziness of being out of the elements. The Dome is a false representation of a community.
Quote #8
[…] she's trapped again, except there isn't even the watery swirl of fake, wet snow. (74.7)
What makes things worse for Lyda when she goes back to the Dome is that she's not even in an artificial location. She's straight-up trapped in a room with no windows. Now that's the most literal definition of being isolated.
Quote #9
She knows that he's giving her privacy. He's telling her that now is the time to say what she needs to say—including good-bye. (75.31)
Another word for "isolation" can be "privacy," which is something we all need sometimes. El Capitan knows that Pressia needs privacy when Bradwell is dying.