3. This poem is also a type of monologue, or one- sided conversation. The poet-speaker is confessing to a crime. He seems to embody the attributes of both victim and villain here. The hitcher seems to be something of a hippie, rootless and free, quoting a line from a Bob Dylan song. The speaker does "crack", or break down mentally. He "let him have it". This refers to the brutal battering of the hitcher with the "krooklok", the steel anti-theft locking device in his car. This violent attack is described with detachment and aloofness. The speaker is proud that he "didn't even swerve," and managed to calmly change gears despite the attack that he had just inflicted. The speaker then leans over, and "let him out", a euphemism for dumping the body. The speaker watches in his rear view mirror as the hitcher bounces off the kerb and vanishes down the slope. This accomplished, the speaker then clinically observes that he and the hitchhiker had been roughly the same age, and this hints that something about the hiker and the way he spoke and acted, pushed the speaker, figuratively, over the edge. Perhaps it was the casualness of the hiker, his lack of worry, his pursuit of truth, or his freedom. Any or all of these factors could have been the catalyst for the speaker's brutal actions. Consider the enjambment between the last line of the fourth stanza and the first line of the fifth stanza. There is a sense of tumbling over from the one to the other. The breeze is personified as having the ability to "run its fingers through his hair." In a grim summation, the speaker declares that, regarding the weather, "The outlook for the day was moderate to fair." It is simply too much for the speaker to bear! He cannot abide the thought that he is expected to be at work when people like this are carefree, and at liberty to stroll through life, "bumming" rides wherever they choose. The speaker calmly declares that the battered hitchhiker "can walk from there." The poet has adopted a persona. How is the person given credibility and realism? Look at the use of diction, colloquialism, and rhyme. Compare this crime to the one in Duffy's Stealing. What do the speakers have in common? How do they differ? Do you, at any point, sympathise with the poet-speakers? Give detailed reasons for your answer. The speaker seems to be experiencing an emotional breakdown of some sort. If you find out about diseases like ME, for example, you will get a better understanding of this type of condition. The speaker is not coping with work, and has used "sick notes" to get time off. When he is threatened by his boss, he seems to crack. He takes out his anger and bitterness (concealing his inner insecurity) on a hitcher. The use of colloquialisms makes the poem more realistic. It is almost as if you can hear the voice of the persona. The poem sounds conversational and is chilling in the way that the speaker confesses to a brutal crime in a very offhand manner. Both speakers appear to be misfits. They are not able to fit into conventional society, and lash out by committing crimes. They seem to be amoral, and quite smug about their deeds.