The Lincoln Highway

Why does Towles alternate between first person and third person limited approaches depending on who the narrator of a particular section is? Who does he choose for each approach and why? How do these choices shape and inform the narrative?

As Warden Williams mentions to Emmett, there are different types of young men who find themselves at Salina, and Emmett is not like the majority of them. Emmett, Woolly, and Duchess all have drastically different backgrounds and upbringings; how do their origins dictate the circumstances that bring them to Salina, and how do those origins dictate how they fair afterwards? How are their experiences at Salina and their individual values connected to their upbringings related?

Sherriff Petersen recognizes how reactions to having been violent or having witnessed violence often manifest in two subsequent extremes, where the individual either internalizes or externalizes their subsequent responses. How does Emmett incorporate or exemplify his warning about needing to stick up for himself? How does Emmett recognize his need to balance passivity and self-preservation throughout the novel?

Sister Agnes insists that there is good in Duchess. In what ways is she right and in what ways is she wrong? Have his experiences irreparably changed Duchess in the time since she has known him, such that there is no goodness left? Examine Duchess’s actions, exploring them as weighing in favor of the argument for his pervading goodness or against it.

Though naive and trusting, Billy demonstrates empathy, insight, and wisdom beyond his years. In what ways does Billy contribute that his companions cannot? Consider Billy’s perceptive abilities and how they aid, inform, and propel others in their own development throughout the novel.

The Lincoln Highway features concepts and figures that are distinctly American; how does each character’s story uniquely exemplify this notion? How does each character relate to their identity as an American (regionally, historically, heritage) and their place in American society? How are these notions conscious or unconscious, and how are they shaped by the period in which these young men are growing up?

Consider the relationship between Woolly and Duchess. Duchess claims that he has been looking after Woolly since he first met him at Salina. Are Duchess’s motives purely parasitic and exploitative? Once he had access to the safe and knows Woolly cannot be of any further help, Duchess allows him to complete his suicide. Was Duchess only biding his time and using Woolly to meet his own needs and advance his own gains?

Mothers are pervasively absent for all characters in The Lincoln Highway, and fathers’ influences factor heavily in the outlooks and trajectories of the characters’ lives. Explore how this common thread between the characters shapes the story, and how these absences serve to strengthen the influence that fathers have on their children, and the nature of that influence.

Billy believes that Emmett is the hero of their story, and his opinion is framed within his understanding of heroes as outlined by Professor Abernathe in his Compendium. Examine Emmett’s story in the context of a mythical hero, comparing his experiences and personal growth to some of the classical figures Billy has become acquainted with in the Compendium. What similarities pervade in the arc of his journey and theirs?