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6. 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 finds Fitzy FitzWilliams in a bar, recognizing the man as a drunken “has-been.” Fitzy is startled to see Duchess and insists he doesn’t know where Mr. Hewett is. Duchess presses the issue, pointing out that Fitzy didn’t seem surprised that Duchess was out of Salina, and Fitzy apologizes for signing a statement that got Duchess convicted. He explains that he had been drunk and was only doing what Mr. Hewett told him to.
Fitzy apologizes to Duchess of his own volition, indicating that he feels genuine remorse for Duchess’s conviction. On the other hand, Fitzy also lies to Duchess upon seeing him, pretending that he didn’t know Duchess had escaped and that he hasn’t heard from Mr. Hewett. This is the kind of men Duchess grew up with: men who are willing to lie, even to those they care about, in order to protect themselves.
Themes
Duchess lifts a whiskey bottle and considers beating Fitzy with it. He says that if Fitzy reveals Mr. Hewett’s location, Duchess will consider them even, but if Fitzy does not, Duchess will find “some other way” for them to “settle up.”
Duchess defines “settling his debts” loosely, which allows him to extort Fitzy rather than simply beating him in revenge. Duchess does not have a strict moral code he adheres to; he does what he wants, and he constructs a false moral code to justify his actions.
Themes
