Selection Menu Unit 4, Part 2 The Hitchhiker Unit 4, Part 2 The Hitchhiker Click the mouse button or press the space bar to continue

Unit 4, Part 2

The Hitchhiker

Unit 4, Part 2

The Hitchhiker

Click the mouse button or press the space bar to continue

Unit 4, Part 2Unit 4, Part 2 MENU

(pages 812–826)

Before You Read

Reading the Selection

After You Read

Unit 4, Part 2Unit 4, Part 2


For pages 812–826

9.4 Understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of drama and provide evidence from text to support understanding.


Meet Lucille Fletcher

Click the picture to learn about the author.


What kind of settings do you find spooky or scary? With a partner, discuss a situation in which the location or conditions created an eerie setting.

Connect to the DramaLiterature and Reading Preview


The Hitchhiker was originally performed on the radio in 1941 as an installment of Orson Welles’ “Mercury Theater on the Air.” Welles was a pioneering radio and film star who had a reputation for producing compelling radio dramas. At the time, television was just beginning to develop an audience and radio was still a major source of dramatic entertainment. Although Fletcher’s drama is mainly dialogue, the broadcast also used music and sound effects to develop the story’s atmosphere.

Build BackgroundLiterature and Reading Preview


As you read, ask yourself, How does the situation in which you meet someone affect your impression of the person?

Set Purposes for Reading

Awkward Encounters

Literature and Reading Preview


An idiom is an expression whose meaning is different from its literal meaning. Although idioms may be easily understood by a region’s local speakers, they can be puzzling to outsiders. In The Hitchhiker, many of the characters use idioms when they speak. As you read, ask yourself, How do the idioms add realism to the story?


Idiom




Idiom


Click the image to view the animation.


When reading a drama, you can use what you read about characters and events to make and verify predictions about the plot. As you read, ask yourself, How does the writer hint at what is going to happen to the main character?

Literature and Reading PreviewSet Purposes for Reading

Make and Verify Predictions


Tip: Take Notes Use a two-column chart like the one below to list and verify your predictions.






Click the image to view the animation.


ominous adj. like an evil omen; threatening. The sudden appearance of clouds and thunder was an ominous sign.

beckoning v. signaling or summoning. They could see their mother on the shore waving her hands and beckoning them for dinner.

Click a vocabulary term to listen to the definition.



Click a vocabulary term to listen to the definition.


arid adj. dry; parched. After two months of drought, the land was completely arid.

prostrated adj. completely exhausted; helpless; overcome. After hearing the shocking news, she was prostrated and couldn’t do anything for days.


Tip: Word Usage When you encounter a new word, asking yourself a specific question about the word can help you to understand it. For example, when encountering the word ominous, you might ask yourself: How could I make a scary setting seem less ominous?




Idiom Why would this phrase be considered an idiom?

Answer: Because he is really saying that people want to feel scared, not that they literally want something to happen to their spines.


Make and Verify Predictions What do you already know about what will happen on his drive?

Answer: We know that he will reach New Mexico.


Make and Verify Predictions Based on this line of dialogue and the title, what do you predict will happen?

Answer: Adams will encounter a hitchhiker and may pick him up. Many will predict that the hitchhiker will cause problems.


Analyze the mood of the photograph and relate it to the mood of the selection. What mood does this photograph create?

Answer: ominous, foreboding


Which elements create this mood?

Answer: The blurred, dark image and the dark figure of a person standing alone on a street


Does the mood in the photograph effectively reflect the mood of the play?

Answer: Answers will vary. You might agree that both moods are dark and mysterious.


Awkward Encounters Why do you think Adams chooses not to pick up the hitchhiker here?

Answer: Because he thinks it is strange that he was able to get ahead of him and it makes him suspicious.


Idiom What does this phrase mean?

Answer: Adams is spooked or nervous.


In your opinion, how well does this photo capture the scene in which Adams talks to the mechanic?

Answer: You may feel this photo adequately represents the scene. You may also think the photo should be more ominous.


Awkward Encounters Why do you think Adams lies to the mechanic?

Answer: Because he is afraid that the mechanic will think that he’s crazy.


Make and Verify Predictions Do you think Adams will pick him up this time?

Possible Answer: No, I don’t think he’ll pick him up because he is even more scared of him now than before.


Make and Verify Predictions Do you think the man will help Adams? Why?

Possible Answer: I don’t think the man will help him because he is already cranky and it’s the middle of the night.


Awkward Encounters Why does Adams talk to Henry for such a long time even though Henry clearly wants Adams to leave?

Answer: He is beginning to get desperate and wants someone else to be worried about the suspicious hitchhiker.


Make and Verify Predictions In the end, who do you think the hitchhiker is going to turn out to be?

Possible Answer: I think he is going to turn out to be a ghost in the end.


Idiom What does the girl mean by “dogs”? How do you know?

Answer: Context clues from the previous sentence (“Mind if I take off my shoes”) suggest that she means her feet hurt.


Awkward Encounters How do you think the girl views Adams at this point?

Answer: She thinks he is a little strange or not quite right.


Make and Verify Predictions Do you think he is going to make it all the way to California? Why?

Possible Answer: No, because I think he’ll go crazy before he reaches California.


Awkward Encounters What would you do if you were in the girl’s situation?

Answer: I would definitely not go with him and I would get out of his car right away.


Awkward Encounters After encountering the hitchhiker this many times, do you think Adams should finally pick him up? Why?

Possible Answer: Yes, he should just pick him up because he should finally find out what he wants.


Make and Verify Predictions What do you predict will happen on this phone call?

Possible Answer: I think he is going to find out that someone he loves has just died.


How would you describe the overall mood of this photo? Is this photo appropriate for The Hitchhiker? Why or why not?

Answer: The mood of the photo is lonely and isolated. You may note that the desolate scene is appropriate for the play.


Make and Verify Predictions Did you predict this ending? Explain.

Possible Answer: I thought the hitchhiker was a ghost, but I didn’t think Adams was dead.



1. What part of the drama did you find mostsuspenseful or frightening? Explain.

Answer: Answers will vary.

Respond and Think CriticallyRespond and Interpret


2. (a) What is Adams’ mother worried about at the beginning? (b) Why is this important to the story?

Answer: (a) She is worried that something will happen to Adams while driving. (b) This is important because it sets up the ending of the story and foreshadows what happens to Adams.



3. (a) What does Adams decide to do about the hitchhiker when he sees him at the railroad tracks?

Answer: (a) He asks if it has rainedrecently.



3. (b) What does this tell you about Adams’ state of mind?

Answer: (b) It leads him to suspect that there is something “unreal” about the hitchhiker; because he had rain on hisshoulders even though it hadn’t rained recently.



4. How does Fletcher slow down the action and build suspense in the moments before the drama’s final climax?

Possible answer: She plays out the entire sequence in which he places the call with the operator and deposits the change. With each step of the process, the suspense builds.

Respond and Think CriticallyAnalyze and Evaluate


5. Fletcher builds her drama around the repeated appearances of the hitchhiker. Do you think this repetition lessens the suspense or adds to it? Explain.


Respond and Think CriticallyAnalyze and Evaluate


6. How do the other characters’ reactions to Adams’ behavior change as the story progresses?

Answer: As the story progresses, thecharacters seem more alarmed by Adams’ behavior. The mechanic in the beginning is merely puzzled by Adams, and the girl is terrified by him.

Respond and Think CriticallyConnect Awkward Encounters


7. Connect to the Author In addition to radio plays, Lucille Fletcher also wrote short stories, novels, and screenplays. Why do you think The Hitchhiker was performed as a radio drama?


Respond and Think CriticallyConnect


An idiom is colorful language that expresses something in a figurative way. Idioms can be used in dialogue to help reveal a character’s personality.

Idiom


Possible answer: When Adams says, “keep your eyes peeled on the road,” he means keep your eyes open and look carefully. The phrase “taking a nip” means he has been drinking.

1. List two examples of idioms in the drama and explain what they mean.

Idiom


Answer: The idioms reveal that these are simple, rural, small-town people.

2. What do the idioms in this drama reveal about characters that Adams encounters?

Idiom


Answer: The idioms help the dialogue mimic the way people talk.

3. How do the idioms add to the realism?

Idiom


Review the predictions you recorded in your chart, and then answer these questions.




1. When Adams first picks up the girl, what did you think was going to happen? Why?



Answer: His mother’s tears and warning about not picking up any strangers are clues to the ominous nature of the hitchhiker. Also, in Adams’ beginning narration, he says “At any moment the link with life may break” suggesting that his life is ending.

2. What clues about the end were provided at the beginning of the drama?



Practice with Word Usage Answer these questions to help you explore the meanings of vocabulary words from the selection.


1. What is the difference between an annoying situation and an ominous one?

Answer: An annoying situation would only present a small problem, but an ominous situation could be serious.


2. If someone is beckoning you, what kind of a response does that person want?

Answer: The person is looking for you to come over to him or her right away.


3. Why would an arid season probably be harmful to a farm?

Answer: It would be harmful because it might be too dry for the crops to grow.


4. What kind of event might cause someone to become prostrated?

Answer: A sad or shocking event, like the loss of a loved one


Write a Dramatic Scene What do you think would happen if Adams were to make it to California? Write a dramatic scene about his arrival in Hollywood. In your scene, show how Adams’ state of mind and his understanding of his situation have progressed since the auto camp in New Mexico.


Follow Fletcher’s example and write the scene for a radio broadcast, including directions for sound effects and music.



Vocabulary Workshop

Denotation and ConnotationDenotation and Connotation

9.1.B Analyze textual context (within a sentence and in larger sections of text) to distinguish between the denotative and connotative meanings of words.


Vocabulary Workshop

Literature Connection In the following quotation, Lucille Fletcher conveys more than the denotation (or the literal meaning) of the words; she also conveys the connotation (or the feelings suggested) by them.


“He merely stood there, waiting, almost drooping a little, the cheap overnight bag in his hand.”

—Lucille Fletcher, from “The Hitchhiker”


Vocabulary Workshop

The description of the hitchhiker provides the reader with an image of a pathetic man. Even his overnight bag is “cheap.” The denotation of the word cheap is “inexpensive,” and Fletcher could have used another word, such as low-priced, to convey that meaning. However, the connotative sense of the word cheap—“shabby” or “of poor quality”—adds to the sad and dismal image of the hitchhiker.



Vocabulary Workshop

A semantic chart like the one below can help you analyze connotations.



Vocabulary Workshop


In the first column of the chart, write the words you will analyze.

Find the definition of each word in a dictionary and record it in the denotation column.

In the third column of the chart, record each word’s connotations. For example, if one of the words were frightful, you might associate it with events in a horror movie or with the screeching sound some people make when something frightful occurs.


Vocabulary Workshop

Practice

1. Complete the chart on a separate sheet of paper. Discuss the denotations and connotations of the three words. Explain why Fletcher chose finality instead of ending or completeness.



Vocabulary Workshop

Practice


Answer: finality: (denotation) end, finish, completeness, entirety; (connotation) ominous terminality lonely: (denotation) alone; (connotation) uncomfortably desolate

Fletcher may have chosen the word finality, rather than ending or completeness, to convey an ominous connotation.


Vocabulary Workshop

Practice

2. Find another word in “The Hitchhiker” for which you can name two or three synonyms. Explain

how the connotations help convey shades of meaning.



Vocabulary Workshop

Practice


Answer: Answers will vary. Sample answer: drab; synonyms: dull, dingy. Dingy gives a sense of dirtiness; dull suggests not only uninteresting, but also worn out; and drab indicates something depressingly uninteresting.


Vocabulary Workshop

Denotation and Connotation The denotation of a word is its literal meaning; the connotation of a word is its implied meanings and associations.



Vocabulary Workshop

Tip If you are asked for the denotation of a word, do your best to supply its dictionary definition. If asked for connotations, think of your own associations with the word, especially positive and negative feelings. Also consider situations in which you might use the word and images the word brings to mind.



Look at pictures of the headlines of mass panic following the War of the Worlds broadcast of 1938. Orson Welles performed this play so well that several people took the story as fact and thought the world was being invaded by aliens. Do people still mistake fact and fiction today? What are some examples?


Because I wanted to suggest sarcasm, I omitted the exclamation point.

Although an exclamation point is used to show expression, it should not be used too frequently.

When the word wow is used in writing, it is usually followed by an exclamation point.


Where does Adams first see the hitchhiker?

A. Brooklyn

B. on the Brooklyn Bridge

C. New Jersey

D. Gallup, New Mexico


What does the mechanic in Pennsylvania say about hitchhikers on the turnpike?

A. The hitchhikers he sees are usually on business trips.

B. The hitchhikers only take rides in fast cars.

C. Hitchhikers usually travel through Pennsylvania at night.

D. Hitchhikers rarely travel on the turnpike.


What is it about the hitchhiker that irks Adams as he waits for the train to pass in Oklahoma?

A. the spots of rain on the hitchhiker’s shoulders

B. the hitchhikers silent brooding

C. his disinterested expression

D. his continual reappearance


Why does Adams ask the girl whether she can hitchhike faster when traveling with a fast driver?

A. Adams wants there to be a logical explanation for why he sees the same hitchhiker over and over.

B. Adams is just making polite conversation with the girl.

C. Adams thinks that the girl is a female manifestation of his hitchhiker.

D. Adams has started to lose his mind.


Why is Adam’s mother in the hospital at the end of the radio play?

A. She was in a car accident in Brooklyn.

B. She had always been an anxious person who needed to be hospitalized.

C. She has a nervous breakdown upon learning that her son Ronald Adams was killed in a car accident.

D. She is evicted from her home and cannot cope with the situation.


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Selection Menu Unit 4, Part 2 The Hitchhiker Unit 4, Part 2 The Hitchhiker Click the mouse button or press the space bar to continue