How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Now a traveler must make his way to Noon City by the best means he can, for there are no buses or trains heading in that direction, though six days a week a truck from the Chuberry Turpentine Company collects mail and supplies in the next-door town of Paradise Chapel: occasionally a person bound for Noon City can catch a ride with the driver of the truck, Sam Radclif. (1.1.1)
Talk about the middle of nowhere. The narrator gets really chatty with us in the beginning of the novel, using the present tense. It's as though Noon City, out there in the disconnected countryside, is still just like it was in the novel. That timelessness can be isolating.
Quote #2
Two roads pass over the hinterlands into Noon City; one from the north, another from the south; the latter, known as the Paradise Chapel Highway, is the better of the pair, though both are much the same: desolate miles of swamp and field and forest stretch along either route, unbroken except for scattered signs advertising Red Dot 5 ¢ Cigars, Dr. Pepper, NEHI, Grove's Chill Tonic, and 666. (1.1.2)
The vocabulary of the description makes us feel lonely just reading it: "hinterlands", "desolate", "unbroken"—the idea that Joel is traveling through this country all by himself as a young boy makes us nervous for him. He's going to where no one can hear him scream.
Quote #3
The proprietor avoided a yearning glance for help which the boy now cast in his direction by having wandered off to attend another customer. (1.1.29)
But you don't have to go out into the swamp to be isolated. Even in the café, Joel is lonesome because he has no one supporting him. Trying to get a little help from the owner gets him nowhere, and he learns quickly that he has to fend for himself.
Quote #4
He could not think why, nor did he bother wondering, but his father's more or less incredible appearance on a scene strangely deserted twelve years before didn't strike him as in the least extraordinary, inasmuch as he'd counted on some such happening all along. (1.1.38)
This is the first we hear that Joel's father had "deserted" his family "strangely," and it will become important later on when Randolph tells about how he shot Mr. Sansom and then Amy married him and took him to Skully's Landing. But the word deserted tells us the emotional weight his disappearance causes for Joel.
Quote #5
"But you'll make it fine; it's Saturday, lots folks living out thataway come into town on Saturday." (1.1.57)
Skully's Landing isn't exactly a hopping place; in fact, there are no neighbors for miles. But even in isolated conditions like that, human beings have a need to socialize. In fact, that's probably how towns got started—everyone would meet up to do their buying, selling, and socializing once a week or so.
Quote #6
New people rarely settle in Noon City or its outlying parts; after all, jobs are scarce here. On the other hand, seldom do you hear of a person leaving, unless it's to wend his lonesome way up onto the dark ledge above the Baptist church where forsaken tombstones gleam like stone flowers among the weeds. (1.1.60)
Noon City is kind of like the Hotel California: you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. The isolated town doesn't offer opportunity, but it's so lonesome that there's also not really a way to get out except through death.
Quote #7
Romeo ran ahead, gave the mule's rump a mighty whack and darted off; Joel felt a quick impulse to call him back, for it came to him all at once that he did not want to reach Skully's Landing alone. But there was nothing to be done about it now. (1.1.110)
When Romeo leaves Joel to his own devices in a mule cart, he realizes that he is now truly alone. His last connection to society has run off into the distance, and he's being pulled to a new life that he really can't even imagine. Unfortunately for him, his impulse to call Romeo was probably the right one.
Quote #8
It was night, and the wagon crept over an abandoned country road where the wheels ground softly through deep fine sand, muting John Brown's forlorn hoofclops. (1.1.111)
The road to Skully's Landing is abandoned, which is strange since people still live there. These little clues from the beginning of the novel are examples of foreshadowing: they're letting us, the readers, know that things are pretty dicey out at the Landing. It might as well be abandoned.
Quote #9
He felt separated, without identity, a stone-boy mounted on the rotted stump: there was no connection linking himself and the waterfall of elderberry leaves cascading on the ground, or, rising beyond, the Landing's steep, intricate roof. (1.3.15)
While Miss Amy and Randolph find themselves in the Landing, through the family memories and possessions passed down through generations, Joel feels like he's out to see. He has no connection to the people around him, which makes him feel disconnected even from himself.
Quote #10
Only how, how could you say something so indefinite, so meaningless as this God, let me be loved. (1.3.25)
Joel's deepest desire is for his isolation and loneliness to be cured. He knows that love is what's missing; especially after his mother's death, the feeling of being loved has probably been something he's longed for. But he doesn't seem hopeful that he will get it; he calls it indefinite and meaningless.