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Woolly Wolcott
Sally Ransom is a family friend and neighbor of the Watsons’. She looked after Billy while Emmett was in Salina, and watches him throughout the story when Emmett needs to leave him behind. When they were younger, Sally and Emmett had a romantic relationship, and Emmett is reluctant to thank her for helping his family because he doesn’t want to encourage her “expectations” that their romance will continue. Sally, though, has no desire to be with Emmett romantically, and she becomes frustrated by his ingratitude. Though Mr. Ransom and the boys all depend on Sally’s labor—she cooks, cleans, makes jams, and provides emotional support—they take her for granted. At the end of the novel, she sets out with Emmett and Billy to start a new life for herself. Her desire for independence and willingness to stand up for herself highlight that Sally’s unabashed femininity does not make her weak.
Sally Ransom Quotes in The Lincoln Highway
The The Lincoln Highway quotes below are all either spoken by Sally Ransom or refer to Sally Ransom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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9. Emmett Quotes
But Emmett hadn’t given [Sally] much cause for expectations since he went to Salina. […] He hadn’t asked her to do a thing.
Was he grateful to discover she had chosen to do these things on his and Billy’s behalf? Of course he was. But being grateful was one thing, and being beholden, that was another thing altogether.
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6. Sally Quotes
––[…] after fifty-five years in Nebraska, I think I can tell a stayer from a goer.
––Is that so, I said. Then tell me, Mr. Ransom: Which am I?
You should have seen his face when I said that. […]
––I have indulged you in your manner and your habits; indulged you in your temper and your tongue. But Sally, so help me God, I have come to see that I may have done you a terrible disservice. For by giving you full rein, I have allowed you to become a willful young woman, one who is accustomed to nursing her furies and speaking her mind, and who is, in all likelihood, unsuited to matrimony.
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3. Sally Quotes
So, if the will to move is as old as mankind […], what happens to a man like my father? What switch is flicked […] that takes the God-given will for motion and transforms it into the will for staying put?
[…] If you asked them what brought about the change, they will cloak it in the language of virtue. They will tell you that the American Dream is to settle down, raise a family, make an honest living. […] But maybe the will to stay put stems not from a man’s virtues but from his vices. […] I do believe that the Good Lord has a mission for each and every one of us […]. But maybe […] what He hopes for us is that––like His only begotten son––we will go out into the world and find it for ourselves.
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3. Emmett (2) Quotes
And it was a comfort to be doing this work, to be doing this work in Sally’s company without either of them feeling the need to speak.
Emmett could tell that Sally was ashamed as he was, and there was comfort in that too. […] the comfort of knowing one’s sense of right and wrong was shared by another, and thus was somehow more true.
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1. Duchess (2) Quotes
Sitting together on a nearby bench were Woolly and Billy, smiling at the floor plan of the house in California. And there was Sally leaning over a pram to tuck in the blanket of the child in her care. And there by the flower cart was Sister Sarah looking wistful and forlorn. And right there, not more than fifty feet away, standing by the door of his bright yellow car, was Emmett, looking honorable and upright.
[…] I could hear the distant chiming of a clock. Only it wasn’t a clock, and it wasn’t distant. It was the gold watch that had been tucked in the pocket of my vest […].
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Sally Ransom Character Timeline in The Lincoln Highway
The timeline below shows where the character Sally Ransom appears in The Lincoln Highway. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
10. Emmett
Back in 1954, Emmett finds Mr. Ransom and thanks him and his daughter Sally for taking in Billy. Mr. Ransom hesitantly brings up Jimmy Snyder, the boy Emmett accidentally...
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10. Duchess
...picture of at Salina. Emmett tells Billy to go inside with Woolly and heat up Sally’s casserole while Emmett talks to Duchess.
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Duchess, who comes from the East Coast, enjoys Sally’s “country cooking” and the Watsons’ quaint lifestyle. As they dine on the casserole, Woolly asks...
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9. Emmett
When Emmett wakes up, Sally is cooking breakfast for the boys, and Emmett is unused to waking up on a...
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Emmett takes a drive in his Studebaker, wondering how responsible he is for hurting Sally’s feelings. He used to flirt with her, but he hasn’t reached out with any kind...
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9. Sally
Like Duchess, Sally narrates her chapters from a 1st person perspective. She reflects on a Bible story in...
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9. Duchess (2)
...to sit on Emmett’s bed, but he decides not to when he notices how neatly Sally made it. Instead, he sits on the floor and thinks about the Watson brothers, flashing...
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...The driver leaves something on the porch, then drives away. Duchess steps out and finds Sally has left him a box of jam.
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8. Emmett
...Duchess and Woolly have “borrowed” the Studebaker for a trip to New York. Emmett calls Sally, who agrees to take in Billy while Emmett takes a train to New York to...
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...asks the nun not to encourage Billy’s hope that they will reunite with their mother. Sally picks up the boys and drives them to the train station, where Emmett tells Billy...
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6. Sally
Sally confronts her father, Mr. Ransom, for buying the Watsons’ farm so quickly after it went...
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4. Sally
Sally is cooking for Mr. Ransom, who tries to help but just slows her down. He...
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3. Sally
The story flashes back to the day Sally calls an Episcopalian priest, since she knows Woolly is Episcopalian. The day is a Friday,...
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The drive to New York takes 20 hours, and Sally compares her “will to move” to the heroes of the Bible and of history. She...
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3. Emmett (2)
...tells Emmett to leave the mess for the housekeeper, he starts to clean up, and Sally helps him. He feels comforted to know that Sally shares his sense of right and...
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1. Emmett
Emmett makes plans to meet Billy and Sally later in the morning, then he takes the train to Harlem to retrieve the Studebaker....
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Emmett meets Billy and Sally, intending to pick up Billy and head for California, but Sally tells Emmett that her...
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1. Sally
Emmett checks Sally and Billy into a motel for them to spend the night while he tracks down...
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Emmett leaves, and Sally recalls a day when Billy’s principal called her to complain that Billy had refused to...
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1. Emmett (3)
...They say a final goodbye to Woolly, then return to the Studebaker to pick up Sally. Emmett agrees to take a detour so they can travel along Billy’s plotted route on...
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1. Duchess (2)
...on a crowded street full of people he knows standing frozen in place: Woolly, Billy, Sally, Sarah, and Emmett. Duchess bows to each one of them and wonders which Shakespeare play...
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