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7. Duchess (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
As Billy reads to Ulysses from his book, Emmett wonders why the author chose to put the stories of mythical heroes like Jason and Ulysses alongside the stories of real people, such as Galileo, da Vinci, and Edison. Putting these stories together, he believes, encourages Billy to believe in a fantastical, glamorous version of reality.
In their respective myths, Jason and Ulysses undertake grand adventures and quests, while Galileo, da Vinci, and Edison were men of science. Positioning all these men as equally heroic establishes that there are multiple ways to be a hero, but it also (as Emmett notes) encourages Billy’s naïve trust in the inherent value of adventure.
Themes
Emmett feels jealous of Billy and Ulysses’s easy friendship, a resentment that is worsened by the scolding Ulysses gave Emmett for leaving Billy alone. He is aware that these feelings are childish, so he focuses on trying to recall where Mr. Hewett lives, which is where he assumes Duchess is heading. However, Emmett is exhausted, and his thoughts soon slip to his childhood and Billy and Emmett’s mother.
Ulysses––who is an adult, a father, and an expert at riding the rails––more than earns his role as leader of the group. However, Emmett is used to being solely responsible for Billy, and his pride makes him unable to accept Ulysses’s help gracefully. When he loses focus, though, Emmett begins thinking of his childhood and his mother, which suggests that his maturity is conscious and deliberate, in contrast to an underlying childishness that he still possesses.
Themes
