The narrator picks up a hitchhiker while driving his rented car. The hitchhiker is following the sun from east to west with just a toothbrush. Frustrated with his job and life, the narrator violently attacks the hitchhiker, hitting him with the car door and his head and face multiple times before driving away, leaving the injured man on the side of the road. Though they are around the same age, the narrator envies the hitchhiker's freedom and lack of responsibilities. The poem explores the narrator's inner conflict and violent outburst against the stranger he picked up.

1. Hitcher

2. Hitcher
I'd been tired, under
the weather, but the ansaphone kept screaming:
One more sick-note, mister, and you're finished. Fired.
I thumbed a lift to where the car was parked.
A Vauxhall Astra. It was hired.
I picked him up in Leeds.
He was following the sun to west from east
with just a toothbrush and the good earth for a bed.
The truth he said, was blowin' in the wind,
or round the next bend.
First person
narrative;
immediacy Fed up with his job?
colloquial
Sounds
romantic. The
hitcher has
freedom and no
responsibilities
Echo of Bob
Dylan song
“blowin’ in the
wind”
Rhyming words
reinforce his
dissatisfaction
personification

3. I let him have it
on the top road out of Harrogate - once
with the head, then six times with the krooklok
in the face - and didn't even swerve.
I dropped it into third
and leant across
to let him out, and saw him in the mirror
bouncing off the kerb, then disappearing down the verge.
We were the same age, give or take a week.
He'd said he liked the breeze
to run its fingers
through his hair. It was twelve noon.
The outlook for the day was moderate to fair.
Stitch that, I remember thinking,
you can walk from there.
Takes his
frustrations out
on the hitcher.
The narrator
envies him Stark violent
images
Enjambment
Echo of the
Hitcher’s voice,
different
language from
the narrator
Colloquial
Return to
normality,
details of time
and weather

4. Links to Other Poems
• Violence
O What is that Sound, Belfast Confetti, Our
Sharpeville, The Drum
• Conflict between people:
Catrin, Parade’s End, Our Sharpeville, Your Dad
did What?, Cousin Kate

5. Exam Style Questions…
1. Explain how Armitage presents conflict
and violence in the poem “Hitcher”. Use
examples from the poem to support your
ideas.
2. Compare how the writers of Hitcher and
one other poem of your choice present
actions against others. (model essay hand-
out)