Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Jack Kerouac’s "Hitchhiker" is a compact yet deeply expressive piece that encapsulates the alienation, paranoia, and absurdity of life on the road. Drawing from his own experiences as a hitchhiker traversing America, Kerouac crafts a vivid snapshot of the way society perceives and projects onto the outsider. The poem, like much of his work, operates on multiple levels: it is both an internal monologue of the hitchhiker and an external commentary on how he is viewed by those passing him by.

The opening line, "Tryna get to sunny Californy"—Boom, immediately sets the tone. The informal diction and the truncation of "trying" reflect a casual, almost folksy way of speaking, suggesting an everyman character chasing an idealized destination. "Sunny Californy" conjures images of freedom, warmth, and the American Dream—yet this dream is abruptly shattered by "Boom", a sudden jarring interjection that signals the underlying tension of the journey. The speaker's attempt to reach this promised land is not smooth or romantic; instead, it is marked by difficulty and rejection.

The focus quickly shifts to the hitchhiker’s "awful raincoat", a garment that becomes symbolic of his predicament. The raincoat, meant to protect, instead isolates him, making him appear disheveled and suspicious. He describes it as making him look like "a selfdefeated self-murdering imaginary gangster, an idiot in a rueful coat". This self-perception is both self-deprecating and profound—Kerouac’s hitchhiker is acutely aware of how he is seen by the passing motorists, and he internalizes their judgments. The raincoat transforms him into a tragicomic figure, someone at once absurd and pitiable, drowning in society’s assumptions.

The poem then shifts to an imagined—or perhaps overheard—dialogue between drivers passing him by:
"Look John, a hitchhiker"
"He looks like he's got a gun underneath that I.R.A. coat."
Here, the hitchhiker becomes an object of suspicion. The reference to an "I.R.A. coat" places him in a space of political paranoia; he is no longer just a traveler but a potential threat. The casual way the drivers assign menace to his image speaks to broader societal fears—strangers are dangerous, the unknown is to be feared.

This paranoia escalates further:
"Look Fred, that man by the road"
"Some sexfiend got in print in 1938 in Sex Magazine"
The hitchhiker is no longer just a suspicious figure but is now conflated with historical sensationalism and moral panic. He is imagined as a criminal, someone who might have been infamous decades ago. The drivers, conditioned by media-fueled fears, associate his disheveled presence with the worst-case scenario, their minds jumping to dark conclusions.

The final lines cement this irrational fear:
"You found his blue corpse in a greenshade edition, with axe blots."
This is a striking, surreal ending. The imagery of a "blue corpse" in a "greenshade edition" suggests a pulp novel or tabloid crime story, where lurid violence is consumed as entertainment. The "axe blots" add to the exaggerated, nightmarish quality. In this imagined narrative, the hitchhiker is no longer even alive—he has become a character in a story, an archetype of roadside doom.

Kerouac masterfully layers humor, paranoia, and social critique in this brief poem. On one level, it is a wry commentary on how easily people project their fears onto strangers. The hitchhiker, cold and wet, is simply trying to get a ride, but to those speeding past, he becomes a potential gunman, a sex criminal, a pulp fiction corpse. On another level, the poem captures the loneliness and existential absurdity of being on the road—how the hitchhiker, vulnerable and exposed, becomes a moving target for suspicion.

The poem also reflects Kerouac’s own struggles with being an outsider. As a Beat writer and a drifter, he often found himself viewed with suspicion by mainstream America. "Hitchhiker" thus operates as a personal meditation on the experience of being misunderstood and rejected, a fleeting yet profound moment of existential reflection from the side of the road.

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