How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
Then, as though he had come down from a high hill into a valley of people, he heard the audience yelling. (43)
The protagonist has retreated so far into his own head and his own thoughts that he has completely dissociated himself from his surroundings.
Quote #2
The last voice was not unfriendly, and he turned and smiled dreamily into the yelling mouths. Then he turned his back squarely on them. (47)
This marks the protagonist's deliberate rejection of the crowd.
Quote #3
Those folks did not understand what had happened to him. They had been playing the bingo game day in and night out for years, trying to win rent money or hamburger change. But not one of those wise guys had discovered this wonderful thing. (49)
Only the protagonist has made the cognitive leap to understanding the wheel as a matter of life or death – and that it can be controlled.
Quote #4
Those fools, he thought. I'm here trying to tell them the most wonderful secret in the world, and they're yelling like they gone crazy. (50)
The protagonist is trying to share with the audience – perhaps his earlier rejection of the crowd did not reflect his true feelings.
Quote #5
Didn't they know that although he controlled the wheel, it also controlled him, and unless he pressed the button forever and forever and ever it would stop, leaving him high and dry, dry and high on this hard high slippery hill and Laura dead? (65)
Notice the language here – the protagonist imagines himself as being elevated above the rest, but also alone. What might "high and dry" be alluding to?