The Hitchhiker door Roald Dahl

Top of professional Title: The Hitchhiker. 1975
Author: Roald Dahl.

Background: Roald Dahl is born on 13 September 1916 in Llandalf (South of Wales) and died on 23 November 1990 in Oxford. His style of writing has been characterized by unexpected plots and bizarre personages. Many parents think his books are to awful for children but children themselves like his books very much. The story is set on the road to London, in a driving car. The time isn’t important, because the story hasn’t any relationship with the time.

Main characters: The Writer is a man with a fancy big new car (BMW). He’s a kind man, a good and professional writer and proud of his job. He’s interested in the hitchhiker and impressed by his fast fingers. He drives the car. The Hitchhiker is a ratty-faced man with fast fingers. His face seemed on that of a rat because he has dark sly eyes and sharp ears. He is a professional finger smith and also proud of his ‘job’. He only steals of rich men. He’s convinced that he will never been taken up. He is a conspicuous man. And during the ride he shows his tricks.

The plot: The story is about a writer who drives to London he took a hitchhiker with him. The hitchhiker was curious if the car really could drive so fast as the promised 129 miles per hour. The driver shows it to the hitchhiker but the police hold them on. The driver must give his license and name to the policeman. So did the hitchhiker. But he lied about his job. After that he told the writer about his great, fast fingers and to confirm this he showed the driver his stolen keys, license, papers. Finally he took the policeman’s notebook: now he isn’t able to give the driver a fine.

Personal appreciation: I think the title is well-chosen because the whole story goes about a hitchhiker. A different title could be ‘The finger smith’ or ‘Top of professional’. I like the tale because it’s much exaggerated and I like it because the hitchhiker helps the driver; that’s against the law.