What is the significance of the two major settings in Miss Lonelyhearts?

The environment in Miss Lonelyhearts runs through many transformations. Sterile and arid at first, it prompts Miss Lonelyhearts's half-joking wish for his readers to fertilize the soil with their tears. It also contains signs of violence; a shadow "pierced [Miss Lonelyhearts] like a spear." Miss Lonelyhearts notes the defense mechanism—a preemptive attack of sorts—that man employs in this violent environment, positing that man has broken stones for use in skyscrapers to prevent the stones from breaking him. Miss Lonelyhearts's real gripe with his environment, however, is not with its sterility or violence, but its teeming chaos. To him, Betty is the symbol of order, but even their getaway to the country is chaotic—the deafening sounds of the crickets at night are no less grating than those of people on the streets. The only tactic that works for Miss Lonelyhearts is religion. He frequently imagines religious imagery—either a cross or his Christ-figure—collecting, almost magnetically, the detritus of the modern world.