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Summary
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
On June 12, 1954, 18-year-old Emmett Watson rides through Kansas to Morgen, Nebraska in a car driven by Warden Williams, as Williams brings Emmett home from a work camp called Salina. When they reach Emmett’s family’s farmhouse, Williams pauses to tell Emmett that he is not like the other boys who come to Salina, since his crime––the killing of a boy––was an accident. Despite this, “a civilized society” demands that such a crime sees retribution, and Williams believes that Emmett has “paid his debt” and can now move on with his life. Emmett agrees with most of the warden’s sentiment, but he doesn’t think that his debt is paid.
The story begins in the aftermath of violence, both the violence of World War II and the more intimate violence of Emmett’s crime. Williams’s reference to “civilized society” suggests that Salina’s priority is to redeem its inmates in the eyes of society rather than in their personal views of morality. Emmett certainly does not feel that his sentence at Salina has redeemed him, and his framing of his guilt as a “debt” establishes the theme of unfinished business and unpaid debts that runs throughout the story.
Themes
Emmett’s neighbor Mr. Ransom greets him and Warden Williams at the farmhouse, and Emmett and Mr. Ransom go inside to meet with a banker. The banker explains that the bank is foreclosing on the property due to the debts of Emmett’s late father Charlie. Emmett signs the banker’s papers without argument, but when the banker expresses interest in repossessing a Studebaker (a kind of car) on the property, Emmett insists the car is his own and refuses to sign it away.
In addition to the unpaid debt of Emmett’s guilt, he is now saddled with the literal financial debts of his father. He must simultaneously work through his troubled emotions and manage his father’s estate, which speaks to the difficulty of coming of age while already facing adult responsibilities.
Themes
After the banker leaves, Emmett walks through the house as he waits for his 8-year-old brother Billy to come home from the Ransoms’ house. He thinks of his father, Charlie, who moved with his wife to Nebraska from Boston in 1933, intent on becoming a farmer. Nature and weather seemed to work against Charlie, and though he desperately changed his crops every few years, he never found success. Even as a child, Emmett recognized his father as a man out of his depth, and the story flashes back to a 15-year-old Emmett finding employment as a carpenter, a job that will guarantee work no matter the weather. Emmett reflected that most fathers would be offended if their son went to another man for a job, but Charlie gave Emmett his blessing.
Because Charlie could not provide for the family on his own, Emmett had to take on adult responsibilities even before Charlie’s death. Charlie’s failed ambitions represent the danger of adventure. He threw away a life of privilege to follow his dreams, and he never found success. Despite his failings, Charlie is not hindered by pride, and he recognizes Emmett’s wisdom in choosing a career outside the farm.
Themes
Back in 1954, Emmett finds Mr. Ransom and thanks him and his daughter Sally for taking in Billy. Mr. Ransom hesitantly brings up Jimmy Snyder, the boy Emmett accidentally killed, and informs Emmett that the Snyders and their friends are furious that Emmett has been released from Selina. Emmett reassures Mr. Ransom that he will be taking Billy out of Nebraska, and he rejects Mr. Ransom’s offer of money. Sally arrives with Billy, who runs to Emmet for a hug while Sally explains that she’s cleaned the house and prepared the boys a casserole. The brothers go inside, and Emmett is happy to see that Billy has not changed much since Emmett had to leave him.
The warden claimed that Emmett has repaid his debt to society, but the people involved in Emmett’s crime––including Emmett himself––feel otherwise. Jimmy Snyder’s death has had such a profound impact on Emmett that the only way he can move forward is to start a new life away from the Snyder family. He rejects Mr. Ransom’s offer of help for this new life, and he doesn’t directly thank Sally for watching Billy or preparing the house for Emmett’s arrival. This hints at Emmett’s discomfort with requesting and receiving help.
Themes
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Emmett tells Billy that they need to leave town. He is worried that Billy will be upset, but Billy is also eager to leave. He shows Emmett a box he found in Charlie’s closet after his death, which contains postcards to the boys from Emmet and Billy’s estranged mother. Emmett is briefly angry at his father for hiding the postcards, but he quickly understands Charlie’s decision to cut ties with a woman who left her family. Billy opens a map and shows Emmett the Lincoln Highway, the first road to stretch from one side of America to the other, and uses their mother’s postcards to plot her course along the highway to California. He insists that he and Emmett should follow their mother to San Francisco. Emmett intended to move to Texas, but he is impressed with Billy’s reasoning and agrees to consider his plan.
Billy is anxious to reunite with the boys’ mother, while Emmett is wary of looking for the woman who left them. Billy’s eagerness to find their mother leads to his enthusiasm for the Lincoln Highway itself, which to him represents adventure and a way to symbolically reconnect with his mother. Emmett, who is less excited about finding their mother, does not share Billy’s passion for the highway. He only agrees to consider driving along it because Billy has plotted a specific route and presented a reasonable argument.
Themes
Later, Emmett tells Billy that he has packed a small bag and is ready to leave, though the boys still haven’t decided where to go. Emmett finds a letter from Charlie in his Studebaker. The letter acknowledges that Charlie lost the fortune earned by his ancestors, but expresses pride that Emmett will make the most of Charlie’s legacy. With the letter is $3,000 in cash and a page torn from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays, which surprises Emmett, since Charlie viewed the act of defacing a book as sacrilege. Emmett is annoyed that the Emerson passage, which speaks to the importance of self-determination and exploration, seems like Charlie’s excuse for becoming a farmer. However, the passage also seems to grant Emmett permission to live his life how he chooses. Billy directs Emmett’s attention to two figures standing in the doorway of the barn.
Charlie’s letter highlights that although he failed his fatherly duty to protect and provide for his sons, he did love them and wants them to lead fulfilling lives. The Ralph Waldo Emerson passage that Charlie leaves for Emmett is from Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance,” which has been both praised and criticized for its romanticization of the American ideal of individualist achievement. This echoes the questions Emmett will face of individual responsibility and the necessity of asking for help.
Themes
