How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
But Joel didn't much like God, for He had betrayed him too many times. (1.2.79)
In a novel full of betrayals, disappointments, and lies, God is the number one offender for Joel. And if you can't trust God, whom can you trust? This deception is related to Joel's general mistrust for all adults and authority figures, and you can't really blame him, can you?
Quote #2
"[. . .] You ever see the snow?"
Rather breathlessly, Joel lied and claimed that he most certainly had; it was a pardonable deception, for he had a great yearning to see bona fide snow: next to owning the Koh-i-noor diamond, that was his ultimate secret wish. (1.2.86-87)
For some reason, Joel is just a big fat liar. It seems to just flow out of him. And here we get a key to what might be causing it. He links his "yearning" and "secret wish" to forgiving his deception. His desires are real, that's for sure, so somehow he sees treating them as fulfilled as a kind of honesty. Not sure if that would stand up in a court of law, though.
Quote #3
Missouri denounced him with considerable disgust. "You is a gret big story."
"Honest, cross my heart," and he x-ed his chest.
"Uh uh. You Mama die in the sick bed. Mister Randolph say so."
Somehow, spinning the tale, Joel had believed every word; the cave, the howling wolves, these had seemed more real than Missouri and her long neck, or Miss Amy, or the shadowy kitchen. (1.2.92-95)
Zoo has a funny way of rejecting Joel's lies, not calling his words a story but calling him a great, big story. It's as if Joel himself were a lie. And the next paragraph shows that, in some ways, he is. He has convinced himself of a lie because it's easier to believe than the awful truth.
Quote #4
"You won't tattle, will you, Missouri? About what a liar I am."
She patted his arm gently. "Course not, honey. Come to think, I wish I had me a two-bit piece for every story I done told. Sides, you tell good lies, the kind I likes to hear." (1.2.95-96)
Good, old Zoo. Joel knows that he's a liar, that it's wrong, and that he could get into trouble for it. So at least he's honest. Wait…does that make sense? Anyway, what's really funny is that Zoo pardons his lies because they're entertaining. We can almost see a little bit of a writer like Truman Capote in Joel, entertaining people with made-up tales.
Quote #5
She was not coming, and it was all some crazy trick. (1.2.120)
Joel often feels like the butt of a bad joke when he's at Skully's Landing. And though he doesn't know it yet, he's right. Amy hasn't lied about coming back to the table; what she and Randolph have lied about, though, is his father's condition. Joel can sense the deception, but he doesn't know what it is yet.
Quote #6
Now here again he'd locked the door and thrown away the key: there was conspiracy abroad, even his father had a grudge against him, even God. Somewhere along the line he'd been played a mean trick. Only he didn't know who or what to blame. (1.3.15)
There's that confusion again. Now Joel lines up the traditional authority figures and shoots them down: God, his father. The pain of growing up, seeing that things aren't as one hoped they would be, can often seem like a dirty trick. And the worst part is, as Joel is learning, there's no one to blame for it.
Quote #7
The old trigger-quick feeling of guilt came over him: a liar, that's what the two of them, Amy and Randolph, were thinking, just a natural-born liar, and believing this he began to elaborate his description embarrassingly: she had the eyes of a fiend, the lady did, wild witch-eyes, cold and green as the bottom of the North Pole sea; twin to the Snow Queen, her face was pale, wintry, carved from ice, and her white hair towered on her head like a wedding cake. (1.4.45)
Mistrust seems to breed lies. Joel is telling the truth about the lady in the window, but when he senses that Amy and Randolph don't believe him, he becomes a liar in their eyes and his own. And so he starts lying: embellishing the true story with details from fairy tales.
Quote #8
While talking, Joel had noticed with discomfort her cousin's amused, entertained expression: earlier, when he'd given his first flat account, Randolph had heard him out in the colorless way one listens to a stale joke, for he seemed, in some curious manner, to have advance knowledge of the facts. (1.4.47)
Joel is not exactly lying, more like embellishing, and he notices the effect the changes in his story have on Randolph. His description of the lady the first time hadn't really surprised Randolph (he seemed to have advance knowledge), so the second time, with its fairy-tale extras, the story is amusing to him. Measuring the reactions is a hint for us that Randolph is the lady in the window.
Quote #9
He couldn't believe in the way things were turning out: the difference between this happening, and what he'd expected was too great. It was like paying your fare to see a wild-west show, and walking in on a silly romance picture instead. If that happened, he would feel cheated. And he felt cheated now. (1.4.79)
This simile between the angry moviegoer and Joel is almost silly. He feels like someone who walked into the wrong movie, which is, at the end of the day, a fairly minor problem. But it's his life that is the wrong movie: he was invited to live with his father, and his father is nowhere to be seen.
Quote #10
But searching for i's not dotted, t's uncrossed, it came to him that almost all he'd written were lies, big lies poured over the paper like a thick syrup. There was no accounting for them. These things he'd said, they should be true, and they weren't. (1.5.4)
That little word "should" has caused so much heartache throughout history. Joel has written a letter to his buddy back in New Orleans, and it describes the life that he should be living, which has absolutely nothing to do with the way things really are. Maybe this is another case of wishes being confused with truth.