How does Joel connect with his old life in New Orleans? What does it mean that he leaves his old self behind at the end of the novel?

Joel's illness after the carnival is a period of bizarre hallucinations that symbolizes a rite of passage into another life. A rite of passage is a ritual often involving hardship and deprivation from which a person emerges changed in a sexual or social behavior. Typically rites of passage involve boys undergoing trials and emerging stronger as young men. Joel's transformation involves rejecting any feelings for girls such as Idabel and transferring all his affections to Randolph. Even when it becomes clear that Randolph has manipulated the situation so that Joel would not be home when Aunt Ellen came in order to keep Joel with him, Joel still chooses Randolph, both out of loyalty and newfound homosexual feelings. Randolph, dressed as a woman and beckoning to Joel from the bedroom window at the end of the book, represents both male and female love interests for Joel, who is now confident in his choices and his fate for coming to live at the Landing.