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5. Ulysses (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
Duchess breaks into Sarah’s house and surprises her when she comes to the kitchen at night. As Sarah tends to the injuries he sustained from Townhouse, Duchess assesses that Sarah likely suffers from regular bouts of insomnia. She asks how Duchess ended up at Salina, and the story flashes back to 1952.
Duchess once again demonstrates his savvy at reading people as he deduces Sarah is an insomniac. Sarah also continues to prove her unrelenting generosity, tending to Duchess’s wounds and asking about his past after he breaks into her house. Her selflessness contrasts with Duchess’s rigidly transactional sense of ethics.
Themes
Duchess, who has recently turned 16, is back with Mr. Hewett and Fitzy. He befriends Marceline Maupassant, who was a famous clown in Europe in the 1920s. He was ruined by the stock market crash of 1929, leaving him a has-been like Mr. Hewett and Fitzy. One day, Duchess discovers that Marceline has hanged himself. He tells Mr. Hewett, who then steals the valuables from Marceline’s room. When the police suspect theft, Mr. Hewett plants the stolen goods on Duchess. The police open an investigation into several thefts in the area, all of which Mr. Hewett blames Duchess for. Back in 1954, Duchess tells the story to Sarah, who cries in sympathy.
Duchess’s upbringing robbed him of his ability to meaningfully connect with other people. He forms a friendship with Marceline that is based purely on his like for the clown with no ulterior motive, but that friendship is cut short by Marceline’s suicide. Not only that, Duchess’s friendship with Marceline is indirectly the cause of his arrest, which has likely hindered Duchess’s desire to make similar friendships. Mr. Hewett’s betrayal cements Duchess’s belief that he can only depend on himself—and, in turn, that he should only look out for himself. Even in 1954, Duchess only tells the truth of his arrest to Sarah, whom he has no real bond with, rather than to one of his friends.
Themes
