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2. Abacus
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
While Emmett is asleep, Billy opens his copy of Professor Abernathe’s book of heroes and ponders where to start his story so that it begins in media res (in the middle of things). He considers starting at the 4th of July picnic that inspired Billy and Emmett’s mother to leave them. Billy doesn’t remember the picnic, but he found a photograph of it with their mother’s postcards and has been saving it for when Emmett is no longer angry at their mother. Since that night is the beginning of the story, not the middle, Billy continues to think through his life until he decides to start the story with Emmett leaving Salina.
Billy conceives of his life in terms of a story, which helps him make sense of it. He understands the effect that their mother’s absence had on Emmett, but he still has faith that Emmett will forgive their mother for leaving, which speaks to Billy’s simultaneous empathy and optimism. His choice to start his story with Emmett leaving Salina mirrors the way the book begins, which calls attention to the novel’s own structure and status as a story.
Themes
