How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Men turned away from him, women would not look, children stopped and watched him. It did not seem to matter to the idiot. He expected nothing from any of them. (1.1.2)
This line launches Lone's loneliness. Pardon all the L's. Point is, Lone starts off the story detached from everyone else due to his "idiocy," strangeness, and lack of expectations for others. If that's not lonely, we don't know what is.
Quote #2
It was all there, waiting for that single symbol, a name. All the wandering, the hunger, the loss, the thing which is worse than loss, called back. There was a dim and subtle awareness that even here, with the Prodds, he was not a something, but a substitute for something.
All alone. [...]
"Lone?" said Prodd. [...]
It could be seen that the syllable meant something to Prodd, something like the codification he offered, though far less.
But it would do. (1.11.5-12)
Tearjerker. This passage sums up Lone's isolated life pretty well. He's so lonely that he can only come away with a partial version of the name he wants.
Quote #3
There were two boys for whom the smell of disinfectant on tile was the smell of hate.
For Gerry Thompson it was the smell of hunger, too, and of loneliness. All food was spiced with it, all sleep permeated with disinfectant, hunger, cold, fear . . . all components of hatred. (1.12.1-2)
Loneliness is certainly cast as a bad thing here, so bad that it is even identified as a source of hatred. This passage shows us that Gerry's loneliness at the orphanage is one of the root causes of his hatred, a defining force of his character.