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7. Ulysses
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 Woolly by the Studebaker with a police officer, who intends to arrest him. Duchess pays the ticket and convinces the officer that Woolly is mentally troubled, and Duchess is employed by Woolly’s parents to look after him. The policeman lets the boys go, and Duchess confiscates Woolly’s only remaining bottle of medicine before setting off to find Ackerly. When they reach the house, Duchess takes the keys and is about to leave Woolly in the car when Woolly requests they visit his sister Sarah. Since Woolly rarely asks for anything, Duchess agrees.
Duchess continues to fabricate stories to distort other people’s perception of him and to get himself out of trouble. His story positions Woolly as Duchess’s responsibility rather than his friend and equal, and Duchess suggests that he sees some truth in this when he authoritatively confiscates Woolly’s medicine. He does care for Woolly to some extent, though, since he agrees to visit Sarah.
Themes
Duchess breaks into Ackerly’s house and takes a cast-iron skillet as a weapon. He approaches Ackerly, who is napping on a sofa, but hesitates to hit him when he sees a photograph of Ackerly with his grandsons. Duchess decides that since the Bible declares that sons do not bear the sins of their fathers, a father doesn’t bear the innocence of his sons. Duchess strikes Ackerly with the skillet and leaves, pleased to have settled that debt and looking forward to the two debts he has left.
The only way Duchess knows how to settle his debts is through violence. This speaks to a certain immaturity in his character. His grievances against Ackerly are legitimate, but Duchess lacks the emotional intelligence to work through them in a responsible way. His consideration of the relationship between fathers and sons also speaks to Duchess’s troubled relationship with his own father. In Duchess’s mind, he is innocent and his father is guilty.
Themes
