“The Hitchhiker”

• Genre: Fiction; radio drama; suspense/thriller
• Originally Published: 1941
• Reading Level/Interest: Grades 7-12; college/adult
• Structure/Length: One act; approximately 30 pages; approximately 39 minutes of running time
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: The drama unfolds around Ronald Adams, a 36-year-old man driving from New York to California. He continually sees the same hitchhiker on his journey, although the man never seems to travel. The central conflict arises from Ronald's growing terror and paranoia over the persistent apparition and his inability to understand or escape it.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Contains suspenseful and potentially frightening situations; themes of death and paranoia

Lucille Fletcher, Author

• Bio: Born 1912; died 2000; graduated from Vassar College; worked for CBS radio as a music librarian, where she met her first husband, Bernard Herrmann; largely focused on radio dramas and later moved into mystery novels; faced initial resistance as a woman writing in the suspense genre; known for crafting tense, suspenseful narratives
• Other Works: Sorry, Wrong Number (1943); Night Man (1951); The Strange Blue Yawl (1954); Eighty Dollars to Stamford (1956); The Girl in Cabin B54 (1958); And Presumed Dead (1963); The Roots of Evil (1979)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide:

• The Inevitability of Death
• How Perception Shapes Reality
• The Corruption of the Mundane

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Guide, students will: