Lucile Fletcher's 'Hitchhiker'

Eleanor Wong 3.22.24 Rianda 1 Author’s Craft Essay Man’s Mortality Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a renowned philosopher and follower of stoicism once proclaimed, “That man lives badly who does not know how to die well.” His poignant words offer insight into the reality of one’s demise, and how actions or a lack thereof often lead to regrets towards the end of one's life. Echoing these sentiments, the radio play The Hitchhiker, by Lucile Fletcher, explores a 36-year-old man grappling with the inescapability of death. Set across the United States, Ronald Adams ventures from Brooklyn to California by car. However, his journey is haunted by a strange man—a hitchhiker—whose every action unnerves Adams. Moreover, the hitchhiker appears to follow him. Fletcher

The unnamed girl questions his life choice of speeding through his journey, stating that she would "just enjoy,” and not repeat Adams' mistakes, personifying the protagonist’s errors and a life better lived. Readers discover that the woman Adams converses with is a hallucination, whose purpose throughout the text is to be a physical representation of his regrets. The author magnifies the man’s inner turmoil, for the more the girl speaks, the more information is gained about Adams’ mistakes in life. Fletcher’s deliberate use of personification enhances conflict, emphasizing the necessity of confronting fears before departure. Fletcher’s curated metaphors offer insight into characterization and magnify the idea that death is unavoidable. As the author sets the scene in the Alleghenies, Adams frantically avoids the hitchhiker: “I stepped on the gas like a shot. That’s lonely country through the Alleghenies, and I had no intention of stopping” (95). The protagonist steps on the gas ‘like a shot,’ which is a metaphor for Adams’ poorly lived life; his desperation alters his sane decision making, rendering him thoughtless. His actions contrast against what others, such as his mother, advise him to

To contribute to these thoughts, as Adams flies through New Mexico, “I was in the lunar landscape now—the great arid mesa country of New Mexico. . . I drove through it with the indifference of a fly crawling over the face of the moon” (100). The imagery above depicts a ‘fly,’ small and insignificant, as it is ‘crawling over the face of the moon,’ the bug—Adams— contrasted against a celestial being, or death itself. The in-depth description reflects the triviality of a human in the face of death, painting a portrait of the protagonist’s petty flight from the Reaper. Here, the author crafts tone, heading into the darker, more suspenseful final act. Fletcher’s masterful use of imagery stirs not only empathy within the reader, but shifts the tone to explore the fear surrounding death. Although critics contend that the personification of death as the hitchhiker may simplify the complexity of mortality, Lucille Fletcher’s use of this literary device serves a deeper purpose. As embodying death as a tangible presence that haunts Adams, “I could see