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3. Woolly
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
Duchess has put Billy to work to distract him from Emmett’s absence, promising that Emmett will be back for dinner. During this time, Duchess also calculates the expenses he will pay Emmett for once the boys have Woolly’s trust fund. As the evening progresses and Emmett doesn’t arrive, Duchess calls the brothel. Ma Belle informs him that he drugged Emmett with too strong a dose of Woolly’s medicine and then forgot to leave an address. The story then catches up to the previous chapter, with the doorbell ringing, and the boys find Emmett on the doorstep.
Duchess’s preoccupation with settling debts borders on absurd, as he assumes that Emmett will forgive the ways in which Duchess has betrayed Emmett’s trust once Duchess pays him back his expenses. That desire to reconcile with Emmett, as well as Duchess’s call to Ma Belle, indicates that Duchess does care about Emmett in his own way. However, that care doesn’t stop Duchess from using Emmett as a pawn in his plans.
Themes
