The Hitchhiker
By: Lucille Fletcher
Quizlet - Vocab
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In the 1930s and 1940s, families gathered around the radio to listen to their favorite shows. One of the top playes that audiences loved to hear was The Hitchhiker. It was originally produced and narrated by 23-year-old Orson Welles, who later became a well-known actor and movie director.

The Hitchhiker - Summary

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Before Ronald Adams sets out on a cross-country trip, his mother warns him to be careful driving. As Adams crosses the Brooklyn Bridge in the rain, he barely avoids running over a hitchhiker in the roadway. Over the next few days, Adams sees the hitchhiker wherever he goes and becomes increasingly anxious that the man is trying to kill him. Eventually, Adams wonders if he is going crazy and phones his mother from New Mexico. A stranger answers the phone and tells him that Mrs. Adams is in the hospital, recovering from her shock over her son's death in a car crash on the Brooklyn Bridge.
  1. Do you think The Hitchhiker is a good horror story?
  2. Where is Ronald Adams when the radio play begins?
  3. Why does the repeated sight of the hitchhiker give Adams "the willies?"
  4. What does Adams learn at the end of the play?
  5. What do you think has really happened to Adams?
  6. Who do you think the hitchhiker really is?
  7. What do you think would have happened if Adams had stopped and pick up the hitchhiker the first time?
  8. Why do you think horror stories are so popular?