Vocabulary
Adams assured his mother that he would be just fine on his road trip. What does ASSURED mean?
A guarantee, promise
When Adams is speaking with his mother before leaving, she says, "I know. But you'll be careful, won't you. Promise me you'll be extra careful. Don't fall asleep-or drive fast-or pick up any strangers on the road..."(65-68). What is being foreshadowed by the end of the playwright?
That Adams will pick up a stranger on the road. For example, the hitchhiker girl. Adams will also speed when trying to run down the phantom hitchhiker who is haunting his travels.
Adams is going on a road trip, where does he plan to end up?
In california
This story is told from what point-of-view?
1st person
"Adams: ...Unless I drove 85 miles an hour over those endless roads-he waited for me at every other mile. I would see his figure, shadowless, flitting before me, still in its same attitude, over the cold and lifeless ground, flitting over dried up rivers, over broken stones cast up by old glacial upheavals, flitting in the pure and cloudless air..."(460-468). What does these images foreshadow about Adams's future?
These lines suggest that Adams's future is cold, empty, sinister, lifeless, and a future without hope or even life.
Why does Adams choose to pick up the girl while driving?
He wants company while driving and hopes to gain evidence from her that the hitchhiker actually exists
Who is the narrator of the story?
Ronald Adams
While speaking with the mechanic, Adams learns that there was not "a drop of rain all week"(130) and that a hitchhiker on these roads would be a "sight for sore eyes"(141-142). What do these two statements foreshadow and why?
That the hitchhiker might not actually exist because when Adams saw the hitchhiker he was drenched with rain and the mechanic explains that there are never hitchhikers on Route 66.
What does the phantom hitchhiker symbolize in this playwright and why?
Death because we find out that Adams actually died in a car accident when he first left for his road trip. It could also symbolize Adams's paranoia or anxiety due to not accepting his death.
At the end of the play, Adams realizes that six days earlier he what?
Died in a car accident on the Brooklyn Bridge.
What type of figurative language is being used in the following lines: "He was as drab as a mud fence"(180)?
Simile
Adam swerves to avoid a hitchhiker on the Brooklyn Bridge and there is a terrible skidding sound (90-92). What does this foreshadow by the end of the playwright?
Adams learns that he dies in a car accident on the Brooklyn Bridge (540-542).
As Ronald Adams travels throughout the country, the only time he mentions anything about sleep is when he is in Pennsylvania, and he states, “I had a good night’s sleep in Pittsburgh” (lines 166-167). What might sleep symbolize and why?
It is absolutely impossible for him to stay awake as he travels from state to state, eventually ending his journey in Gallup, New Mexico. Perhaps Fletcher uses sleep as a symbol of death suggesting once again to the reader that Adams is no longer among the living.
What does Adams believe while he's stuck on the train tracks?
The hitchhiker is beckoning/leading him to death.
What type of figurative language is being used in the following lines: "The peaceful Ohio fields, brown with the autumn stubble, lay dreaming in the golden light"(171-172)?
Personification
What does the scene with the girl hitchhiker (lines 287-308) foreshadow about Adams's road trip?
That he will most likely die before reaching California because the hitchhiker is trying to kill him and Adam is now tired and desperate for evidence.
The hitchhiker appears at many points during Adams travels. At one point the hitchhiker appears at a detour sign. What does this sign symbolize in the story?
The detour sign symbolizes an unexpected turn for Adams life.
What does Adams do to prove that he is sane?
He states facts about himself, searches for evidence from others around him, and he reasons/rationalizes with himself.
The hitchhiker constantly following Adams around is an example of what type of conflict?
Internal = internal struggle with himself about accepting his own death
External = to Adams, the Hitchhiker is an external force (man vs. man) who will not leave him alone and keeps following him.