While reading, The Hitchhiker, by Lucille Fletcher, I realized towards the end that the Hitchhiker is death, himself. This story just became very fascinating to me, after i realized the moral of the story, because i had finally got what the author was talking about. She was saying that he was so caught up in the moment and not wanting to die, that he didn’t process the fact the ghost he kept seeing while he was driving was really just death, giving him a hint he was dead. In the story, the setting is a very big role, very creepy, deathly, dark, lonely and scary. An evidence from the text for this is, The author says, ‘But I must speak quickly. At any Moment the link with life may break. This may be the last thing I ever tell on earth – the last night I ever see the stars. Six days ago I left Brooklyn to drive to California.’
Also, you get a hint of maybe how he dies when the author say, ‘He stepped off the walk and if I hadn’t swerved – if I hadn’t swerved – I’d have hit him.’ In the story the main character, Ronald Adams, is taken in by death, but he doesn’t want to accept the fact that he is dead. This reminds me of real life problems where a family member or a good friend dies and no one wants to accept the fact that they are gone. In this story the setting means everything because it is a big part of making sure the readers understand what is going on and the setting helps give hints of the mood. When the story says,
‘My name is Ronald Adams; I’m thirty-six years of age, unmarried, tall, dark with a black moustache. I drive a 1940 Ford V8, license number 6V7989. I was born in Brooklyn. All this I know. I know I’m at this moment perfectly sane, that it is not me that’s me that’s gone mad, but something else, something utterly beyond my control’,
This little phrase already gives me hints that something bad has already or is going to happen to the Hitchhiker. The moral to this story is that there are death signs all over this world, some more obvious than others, some right in front of our faces and other’s hidden only to be found sometimes when it is to late. I think this story has great meaning, and i love how the author is always feeding you more and more and every time you get board she throws something else in to mix things up that makes you want to read more and more. Lucille Fletcher is a great author, and in this story the author gives amazing sentences and great description. In this story my golden line would have to be when Ronald is describing the weather when he is driving,
‘It was a bright sunshiny afternoon. The peaceful Ohio fields, brown with the autumn stubble, lay dreaming in the golden light.’
I think it is absolutely important for every reader to have a golden line, and this is mine because it has great detail and explains, I also love love love the word choice. I would recommend this ,short story to anybody who loves a thriller and a story that makes you figure out on your own what is going on. While reading, The Hitchhiker, by Lucille Fletcher i learned these things and i learned what a great author she is.
