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6. Duchess
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
Ulysses helps Emmett and Billy disembark the train outside of Manhattan. He leads the boys to a camp on elevated railroads, where they can spend the night before they look for Duchess in the morning. Emmett is frustrated at how casually Ulysses has assumed leadership. As they walk along the tracks, Billy lags behind, staring in wonder at the New York skyline.
Ulysses continues to guide the boys through their adventure, providing adult supervision and protection as they venture into New York. Emmett still can’t come to terms with being led rather than leading, but the dual protection that Ulysses and Emmett offer Billy allows Billy to indulge in his natural appreciation for the world around him.
Themes
They reach the camp, where three men are making stew, and the men express surprise that Ulysses has found traveling companions. Ulysses starts to pay for Billy and Emmett to have a serving of stew, but Emmett offers the dollar bill he was tipped by a passenger. Only then does he realize it is actually a 50-dollar bill, which Ulysses tells Emmett to put away before proceeding to pay for all three meals. They eat together with the other men.
Though Emmett resents Ulysses’s leadership, his mistake with the money proves that he needs a guide with Ulysses’s expertise and connections. The other men’s surprise at seeing Ulysses with companions highlights how isolated he has been since his family left, and the fact that he is willing to pay for the boys’ meals makes clear how deeply Ulysses has come to care for Billy.
Themes
