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1. Duchess
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Lincoln Highway, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Stories, Truth, and Lies
Debts and Atonement
Maturity and Responsibility
Adventure
Pride vs. Humility
Summary
Analysis
The story flashes back again. Before Emmett leaves the motel, Billy runs outside and hides in the Studebaker’s trunk, following Duchess’s advice on how to get in and out effectively. He knows that Emmett prefers to leave Billy behind when going on adventures, but he thinks this is because Emmett doesn’t know about “Xenos,” one of the heroes in Billy’s book. “Xenos” is not an individual; it is Professor Abernathe’s designation for “the Other,” a friend in the hero’s story who plays a crucial role in helping the hero succeed. Billy believes Emmett is a hero, and he is eager to help his brother.
Billy continues to make sense of his own identity and the world around him through the lens of stories. The inclusion of “Xenos” in Abernathe’s book of heroes allows Billy to embrace his role as Emmett’s helper rather than the hero of his own story. With this framing, the helper is a hero, so Billy is not jealous of his brother. However, Billy’s faith in heroes and their stories leads to him endangering himself with unfounded confidence that he will be alright.
Themes
After Emmett leaves the Studebaker outside the house in the Adirondacks, Billy emerges. He recognizes places on the property from Woolly’s stories about the house, and notes a checklist of housekeeping duties for “closing the house.” Billy goes inside, finds the safe, and quickly calculates the various combinations that might open it. After 6 tries, he opens the safe, revealing hundreds of thousands of dollars. He locks the safe again and explores the house, where he finds an envelope from Woolly “to be opened in the event of [his] absence.” Billy continues looking for Emmett, and finds him fighting with Duchess. Billy believes Emmett has the same fatal flaw as Achilles: a temper that blinds him to the consequences of his rage when it is triggered. When Emmett shouts that there is no money in the safe, Billy, eager to be “Xenos,” opens the door to correct him.
Billy is able to accomplish in six tries what Duchess spent over a day trying to achieve. This emphasizes Billy’s intelligence, and it also highlights that Duchess is not quite the mastermind he believes himself to be. Billy is also emotionally intelligent, a trait he hones by reading stories. He understands Emmett’s anger issues because they resemble those of Achilles. This similarity also lets Billy understand the potential danger of that flaw, since Achilles died in battle after sustaining an injury to his one weak point.
Themes
When Duchess grabs him and pulls him inside, Billy realizes that no one is there to save him. He has been “forsaken,” just like Ulysses, so he kicks Duchess and hides in a small alcove Woolly told him about.
Ulysses’s story saves Billy once again, inspiring him to realize his potential and his burgeoning independence. Emmett has spent the story trying to protect Billy, but when the brothers are separated, Billy must step into his own and protect himself.
Themes
