More than most places, Pennsylvania is what lies beneath.”
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The narrator states that the identity of Pennsylvania, and of Bakerton specifically, exists underneath its surface. While this works metaphorically to suggest that Pennsylvania has more to offer than is immediately visible, it also functions as a literal explanation. Pennsylvania and Bakerton have identities dependent upon the natural resources that exist beneath the Earth’s surface.

The town is named for its coal mines. The prison guard is named for his father. Both feel the weight of their name, the ancestral burden: congenital defects, secondhand hopes. Condemned, like all namesakes, to carry another’s history, the bloopers and missteps, the lost promise. The concessions of age, its bitter surrenders; the rare and fleeting moments of grace.”
-- Narrator (chapter 3)

Importance: Here, the narrator identifies the significance of legacy, a theme that is persistent throughout the novel. Each town and person is the product of what...