How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"The pillars… Randolph adores them, too; they were once part of that old side porch," she told him in a reminiscing voice. (1.2.35)
The "reminiscing voice" that Miss Amy uses to talk about her family's glory days is a positive one. For her, the past is good and the future is…well, don't even think about it. We're not even sure if the memories she's sharing are hers or just passed down through the generations.
Quote #5
Joel gazed down on the jumbled green, trying to picture the music room and the dancers ("Angela Lee played the harp," Miss Amy was saying, "and Mr. Casey the piano, and Jesus Fever, though he'd never studied, the violin, and Randolph the Elder sang; had the finest male voice in the state, everyone said so"), but the willows were willows and the goldenrod goldenrod and the dancers dead and lost. (1.2.40)
Miss Amy is able to conjure up the past with her words and memories, bringing up old parties and guests so that she doesn't feel so lonely. Somehow Joel is disconnected from that past though; he sees things as they are, which might be why he seems to be the only one who's sane in the whole house.
Quote #6
Somewhere in a school textbook of Joel's was a statement contending that the earth at one time was probably a white hot sphere, like the sun; now, standing in the scorched garden, he remembered it. (1.2.123)
Joel relates the garden at Skully's Landing to one of his memories, which is of the earth's deepest past. It's as though he the earth was born at Skully's Landing, with its heat and ancient stories. The memories that pervade the place also help to create a sense of the past.