HitcherSimon Armitage

Apple Inc.

1st Edition

.........................................................................................Context 3

...........................................................................The Class Game 7

...............................................................................Initial Activity 7

......................................................................S.M.I.L.E. Analysis 8

..................................................Sample Exam Question Part A 19

................................................................................Comparison 20

................................................Sample Exam Question - Part B 21

ContextSimon Armitage

Simon Armitage was born in Yorkshire in 1963, and is one of the UK’s most well-known contemporary poets. He started writing poetry from a young age, but studied Geography at university before working as a probation officer. His first book of poems was published in 1989, and he has published poetry regularly since then, as well as writing for film and TV.

Armitage’s poetry is written in a realist, modern and accessible style, and tends to address the emotions and experiences of everyday life in the UK. He frequently uses humour and wit in his poems.

Want to know more?

More information about Armitage is available at http://literature.britishcouncil.org/simon-armitage.

He also has a website a thttp://www.simonarmitage.com/

Pre-Reading Questions

How might you describe this man? What kind of things do you think he values? What kind of things might he not care about?

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How might you describe this man? What kind of things do you think he values? What emotions does it look like he is experiencing?

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Think about the routine of modern life (e.g. school / work, home). What kinds of stress might people face?

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Do you think everybody has in them the capacity for violence? Or are certain people predisposed to behave violently (due to genetics, their inherent character etc)?

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Hitcher

I'd been tired, underthe 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 eastwith just a toothbrush and the good earth for a bed. The truth,he said, was blowin' in the wind,or round the next bend. I let him have iton the top road out of Harrogate -oncewith the head, then six times with the krooklokin the face -and didn't even swerve.I dropped it into third and leant acrossto let him out, and saw him in the mirrorbouncing 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 fingersthrough his hair. It was twelve noon.

“Blowinʼ in the wind” - reference to a (good) Bob Dylan song of the 1960s. Listen to it athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?

Leeds and Harrogate are both places in Yorkshire.

The outlook for the day was moderate to fair.Stitch that, I remember thinking,you can walk from there.

Simon Armitage

What happens in the poem (hint - it is violent!)?

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What emotions does the narrator seem to feel about what he has done?

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Is there any hint in the poem as to why the narrator might have murdered the hitchhiker?

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Krooklock - steering wheel immobiliser.

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S.M.I.L.E. AnalysisRemember, to analyse a poem we need to look at:

-Structure

-Meaning

-Imagery (similes, metaphors, personfication)

-Language

-Effect on the reader

Meaning

“Meaning” is a good place to start when thinking about a poem, as here you can discuss the principal theme(s) of the poem and why you think the poet

has written it.

Meaning - Key points:

• In this dramatic monologue, the narrator is a man who confesses to having committed a murder.

• Having been depressed (“under the weather”) and faced difficulties at work (“one more sick-note mister, and you’re finished. Fired.”), the narrator recounts that he picked up a hitcher - a free-wheeling hippie who “was following the sun to west from east / with just a toothbrush and the good earth for a bed.”

• The narrator then suddenly murders the hippie, dumping his body at the side of the road. He seems to have no emotion about the murder and does not regret what he has done (see sections on language for elaboration on this point).

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Exploration - Meaning

Did stanza three surprise you? Were you expecting this poem to be about a murder when you started to read it?

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Why do you think the narrator decided to murder the hitchhiker?

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• In the poem, Armitage recounts a fictional narrative of mindless violence. He does not explain why the narrator did what he did, asking us to question what causes people to kill a stranger.

• The implication is that the narrator was jealous of the hippie’s freedom, and that the murder was borne from a man’s resentment of the stresses and pressures of everyday life.

• Despite this, Armitage does not make the narrator at all sympathetic - instead, he is emotionless about the murder and shows no regret for what he has done.

How do you think Armitage wants us to react to the narrator? Should we see him simply as a psychopath, or as a man driven to violence by the world around him?

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Why do you think Armitage wrote this poem? Is he trying to make a particular point about violence, or about the impact of the modern world upon people?

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Structure

Structure refers to the way a poem is set out and organised. Here, you write about things like rhyme scheme, length, repetition and the flow of ideas throughout the poem.

Structure - Key Points

• The poem is a dramatic monologue. This means that it in the form of a first-person speech given by a single character.

• There are five stanzas, and each stanza contains five lines.

• The murder occurs suddenly in the third stanza, in all likelihood surprising the reader. Once that has happened, the narrator details more calmly what he did afterwards, and then returns to speaking about the weather.

• There is some foreshadowing (where the narrator gives an indication of what is about to happen) in the second stanza, when he says the hippie believed the truth is “around the next bend.”

• Look at the shape of each stanza. The lines get longer towards the middle, and then shorter again towards the end.

“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”

Exploration - Structure

What is a dramatic monologue?

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What could the suddenness of the switch from describing the hippie in the

second stanza to the actual murder in the third stanza represent?

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• This lengthening and then shortening of the line length could represent the man being stretched to breaking point and pushed to the edge (the lines get longer). He then ‘snaps’ in violence at the end of the third line, before returning to appearing normal.

• Armitage uses enjambment throughout the poem, which contributes to a chatty, conversational feel. This makes the narrator’s admission that he murdered somebody even more shocking.

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What could be the significance of the line lengths?

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What is the effect of enjambment in the poem?

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Imagery

This is where you look at techniques such as similes, metaphors and

personification. What pictures has the poet tried to create in your head?

Imagery - Key Points

Imagery - Exploration

Why do you think the narrator of the poem does not use much imagery?

How could you relate this to his matter-of-fact tone and his attitude towards

the murder he has committed?

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• This poem does not use a large amount of imagery.

• There is one instance of personification when the narrator says:

“He'd said he liked the breeze  to run its fingers through his hair.”

This is a relatively cliched (ie commonplace, overused) phrase and it is used ironically by the narrator - the hippie has now got what he wanted, as the breeze is running its fingers through his hair as his body bounces down the verge.

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Language

This is where you comment on the language the poet uses. What choices has

he/she made, and why?

Key Points - Language

• The matter-of-fact language used by the narrator conveys his sheer indifference towards the murder that he has committed e.g.:

• He describes the murder in matter-of-fact detail and makes no effort to justify it or romanticise what he has done:

“once with the head, then six times with the krooklok in the face”

• He boasts that he ‘didn’t even swerve’ as he dumped the body on the verge, showing that he is cruel and uncaring.

• At the end of the poem, he mentions the weather, claiming “the outlook for the day was moderate to fair,” a use of pathetic fallacy in which the weather mirrors his good mood.

• The narrator concludes the poem with some cruel, sarcastic humour at the expense of his victim:

“ Stitch that, I remember thinking, you can walk from there.”

Exploration - Language

What is the effect on the reader of the factual, everyday language with which

the narrator describes his murder?

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Find some more examples of phrases within the poem that demonstrate the

narrator’s cruelty. How do these phrases show this?

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What is the role of humour within this poem?

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What is pathetic fallacy and what is it used to show in this poem?

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Effect on the reader

Have you noticed any similarities / differences with other poems in the

Clashes and Collisions collection? Which poem(s) might this best ‘fit’ with?

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What is your own personal response to the poem? Did you like it? Why or

why not?

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Sample Exam Question Part A

3. a) “Explore how the writer presents his ideas about the causes of violence in “Hitcher.”

Use examples of the language from the poem to support your answer. (15 marks).

NB - In the exam, you would have about 30 minutes to complete this question.

Write an answer to this question and email it to me.

Comparison“Hitcher” is rather an ‘odd poem out’ in the collection, which means that it doesn’t fit particularly well with any other poem, but that if necessary you could compare it with almost anything.

Like ‘Cousin Kate,’ ‘Catrin’ and ‘Your Dad Did What?’ it deals with a conflict between two particular individuals, but here, unlike in the other poems, the conflict is violent.

You could also fruitfully compare this poem with ‘Parade’s End.’ Here, as there, the different backgrounds of individuals cause conflict, but here we hear from an aggressor (a violent murderer), whereas in ‘Parade’s End’ we hear from the perspective of a victim of injustice.

Simon Armitage - “Hitcher”

Second poem.

Meaning

Structure

Imagery

Language

Effect

Sample Exam Question - Part B

Answer EITHER 3(b)i OR 3(b)ii

3 b) (i) Compare how the writers of “Hitcher” and “Parade’s End” present incidents of conflict in twentieth-century Britain.

3 b) (ii) Compare how the writers of “Hitcher” and one other poem of your choice from the Clashes and Collisions collection present their views about conflict in any setting. (15 marks)

Use examples from the language of both poems to support your answer.

NB - In the exam, you would have about 30 minutes to complete this question.

Write an answer to this question and email it to me.