How Does Lucille Fletcher Build Suspense In The Hitchhiker

Help. That is what he needs while dangling in suspense. The main character in Lucille Fletcher’s The Hitchhiker unknowingly heads towards his death. Throughout this story, Fletcher uses the elements of exposition, climax, and resolution to create a suspenseful story. Fletcher begins to develop the suspense in her play with the exposition. The main character, Ronald Adams, is on his way to California from New York. He is nervous because it is a six day drive. His mother is nervous as well, and warns him of two things. “Don’t drive too fast-or pick up any strangers on the road” (1001). By saying these things the reader becomes curious. While crossing the Brooklyn Bridge Adams saw a man that was hitchhiking. Fletcher uses these descriptive words to make the man seem like an ordinary hitchhiker. “There were spots of fresh rain on his shoulders. He was carrying a cheap overnight bag in one hand. He was thin, nondescript, with a pulled down over his eyes. He stepped off the walk right in front of me and, if I hadn’t swerved

Adams, Fletcher brings the readers towards the resolution. Since Adams is far away from home he feels a familiar voice would soothe his nerves. “If only I could speak to someone familiar, someone I loved, I could pull myself together”(1010). Fletcher now has the reader thinking maybe everything was just a delusion. After going through the extensive process of a long distance call Adams finally reached his mothers home, but what he does not find his mother. “Mrs. Adams is not at home. She is still in the hospital”(1011). Fletcher makes a comforting phone call go wrong. Now Adams is even more distraught and panicking why his mother is in this hospital. Mrs. Whitney, the woman house watching, gives Adams his answer. “Nervous breakdown…It’s all taken place since the death of her oldest son, Ronald”(1011). By saying this Fletcher creates confusion in the reader because Ronald is on his way to