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3. Emmett (2)
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 morning of June 20, Duchess and Woolly sneak out of Sarah’s house and drive off in Woolly’s convertible. They drive to Woolly’s family’s camp in the Adirondacks, and Woolly seems relieved to be back. The house is the only residence on the lake, and Woolly notes that the caretaker hasn’t visited for the summer. He finds a key under a flowerpot and lets himself and Duchess into the large house. Woolly gives Duchess a tour and tells him about his childhood, and Duchess marvels at the blatant wealth and privilege on display in the house.
Woolly has seemed out of place in all the locations he and Duchess have visited. He nearly got arrested on the highway, he was uncomfortable in New York City, and he clashed with Dennis at Sarah’s house. At his family’s house in the Adirondacks, though, Woolly seems truly at home. He knows where to find the key and recognizes that the caretaker hasn’t visited, and his tour of the house emphasizes the childhood experiences he had there.
Themes
Woolly brings Duchess to his great-grandfather’s study, which houses the safe full of money. Duchess gestures for Woolly to put in the combination, but Woolly is confused; the fact that the boys would need a combination didn’t occur to him. Duchess starts laughing until he cries.
Instead of the triumphant climax he envisioned, Duchess’s heist story ends with disappointment. He has finally reached the goal he’s been yearning for since the start of the story, only to be thwarted at the last minute. He brought Woolly all the way from Salina to use him for this theft, but Woolly is a person, not a tool, and he fails to help Duchess realize the final step of his plan.
Themes
