Text Analysis | Hitcher - Simon Armitage

Hitcher is a chilling poem which presents a deeply disturbed driver in both serious and comical ways as he viciously murders the hitcher in his car. It shows how the stresses of a competitive society and conflict in personalities can lead to random acts of violence due to jealousy and clashes in ideas. Hitcher also explores ideas around materialism and idealism and which results in a happier lifestyle.

The author shows the depressed nature of the driver at the start but changes the tone over the course of the poem making readers less sympathetic as they see his true, cold nature. Readers feel sorry for the driver at the start of the text as he is “Tired, under the weather” and doesn’t like his job as shown by “One more sick note. mister, and you’re finished. Fired”. This shows the boss is not convinced by the drivers sick notes which suggests that the driver has been using sick notes to get off work due to hating his job. The driver is a victim of a competitive society where he has to work even if he doesn’t enjoy his job and his job makes him unhappy. The sickness of the driver at the start of the text foreshadows the drivers murder as this person is both physically and mentally sick. This previously sympathetic view of the driver changes as the driver brags when killing the hitcher. This can be seen in “six times with the krooklok in the face, and didn’t even swerve.” This brutal act by the driver is his way of taking out his issues on a scapegoat. He dislikes how the hitcher doesn’t have to work and can travel freely with not a care in the world. The hitcher does not have financial worries like the driver does and he envies his freedom. The phrase “and didn’t even swerve” shows the ruthlessness of the driver as he brags about his skills and the use of the krooklok to kill the hitcher is ironic as krookloks are meant to represent safety yet the hitch is killed by blunt force. The hitcher lives more happily in this text than the driver and perhaps the author is using this ironic joke to show the irony in the situation. The man with nothing is happier than the man with a job.

The author shows the psychotic nature of the driver to show the drivers lack of remorse and how it relates to loss of morality. In the 5th stanza in “It was twelve noon. The outlook for the day was moderate to fair.” Here the author is showing the lack of impact of the passengers death has on the driver as he continues about with his normal daily activities to show a psychopath with no remorse. The driver is not remorseful as he was able to justify the killings in his mind and was therefore not impacted by it. This explains how serial killers can kill so many people as they feel no remorse and justify it through their own set out beliefs as they believe they are visionaries or are mission oriented and have a goal. A regular person would not be able to justify the killings. This made me think about shows such as Dexter which follows the life of a mission oriented serial killer who justifies his killings by arguing they were bad people even though most of his victims never see the court of law. Dexter started out making sure all his victims were guilty but as he continued he didn’t need as much evidence to believe someone was guilty. This made me think about why serial killers and psychopaths lose their morality and rational thinking. In this case I think the driver is extremely jealous and it clouds his views over what is right. This is not the only factor of course as it takes a lot more that jealousy to kill someone.

“You can walk from there” reinforces the image of the driver who is dark humored. The driver is being ironic as the hitcher is dead and cannot walk from the verge he has been tossed down by the driver. Perhaps the character is using comedy/jokes as some sort of justification for the killing of the passenger. The joking of the driver following the killing suggest his personality is more damaged that we thought at the start of the text. To kill someone is one thing. To kill someone and laugh and joke about it shows a skewed humor and a lack of moral compass. The joking from the driver show how he doesn’t value the hitchers life and has lost his morality.

This text demonstrates how clashes in ideas and personalities can create conflict and turn violent as a result. Personalities clash is the driver is going to work while the hitcher does not work. Despite the hitcher not working, the driver is jealous because he has everything he wants without working. Another clash is between where they were hitching to. The driver has a specific location he is going to while the hitcher is simply following the sun which reinforces the carefree attitude of the hitcher. The biggest clash perhaps is that the driver is unhappy whereas the hitcher is happy. The combination of these clashes leads to the violent attack from the driver as he is insulted by the conflict. There is also a clash in how each person speaks. The hitcher is all about ideas and metaphors such as “The truth, he said, was blowin' in the wind” while the driver takes a very materialistic view on life as shown by the authors use of diction with “Vauxhall Astra” and “Ansaphone”. The author may be trying to show here that if you have a materialistic view on life you will be less happy than if you appreciate what you have like the hitcher. The author is also suggesting that working long hours for money is not what is important and it is instead the outlook on life. The hitcher has everything he needs, and doesn’t let his wants affect his happiness whereas the driver also has everything he need but the wants get the better of him. In saying that you may be more happy, this poem also poses as a warning to people with the mindset of the hitcher and the risks of expressing such extreme views. This hitcher is ultimately killed for his outlook on life and the author may be suggesting that these views on happiness and materialism will not change other peoples views and he will always be viewed as an extremist and a hippy.

Hitcher by Simon Armitage is more comical than it is serious but I believe it is suggesting that while this is fictional story, the truth is not so far away and this poem is instead mocking our society's way of thinking about possessions and the skewed reason we hold value on items..

Tim Armstrong