The Crying of Lot 49 Isolation Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

She was overcome all at once by a need to touch him, as if she could not believe in him, or would not remember him, without it. (5.107)

Why is Oedipa so drawn to the tattooed sailor? Is it just that she feels isolated from other human beings or that she feels isolated from reality itself?

Quote #5

"In the dream I'd be going about a normal day's business and suddenly, with no warning, there'd be the sign. We were a member of the National Automobile Dealers' Association. N.A.D.A. Just this creaking metal sign that said nada, nada against the blue sky. I used to wake up hollering." (5.322)

There are not too many fully drawn realistic characters in Lot 49: Does Mucho's terror seem real or silly? Does it explain why he turned to LSD to escape the feeling?

Quote #6

They are stripping from me she said subvocally—feeling like a fluttering curtain in a very high window, moving up to then out over the abyss—they are stripping away, one by one, my men. (6.41)

Who is "they"? What do you make of the fact that Oedipa is systematically abandoned by every significant man in her life as the novel winds to a close?