“The Hitch-Hikers,” written in 1940 by Eudora Welty revolves around the helplessness of a salesman, Tom Harris. His profession gives him the freedom of traveling around places. Although he is free to go anywhere, his freedom turns out to be his helplessness. He is always on the road, always moving from somewhere to somewhere.
As the narrator puts it, “on a long straight stretch of road, he slowed down for some hitch-hikers,” which specifies that he is usually on the middle of road or some place. Constantly traveling on the road indicates that his life is always in motion and not stable. The notion of on going, not stopping, and not stable points out the significance of helplessness in his life. As a traveler, Tom doesn’t have a choice to stay at one place or have a steady life. He can’t stay at the place and with the people he like or dislike, which shows his helplessness. “That’s Mr.
Tom Harris’s car, look at the out-of-state license and look at all the stuff he all time carries around with him all bloody,” said Mr. Gene, the proprietor of the hotel. This suggests that Tom doesn’t have any permanent home and has out of state license. Thus, he doesn’t have a firm place to live and keep his stuff in there. Therefore, he always carries his belongings with him in his car. It seems like his car and the on going road is his home.
Hence, his mobility specifies the importance of helplessness in the story. Along with his belongings, he also carries himself with him. Every town he goes, every person he meets is new and different to him. There is nothing of his own, absolutely nothing belonging to him.
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As narrator says, “none of any of this his, not his to keep, but belonging to the people of these towns he passed through, coming out of their rooted pasts, out of their remaining in one place, coming out of their time.” This illustrates the notion that neither he belongs to anybody nor does anybody belongs to him. Tom feels that nothing was his own to keep, which portrays the sense of his not belonging to anything or anybody. “But it was too like other evenings, this town was too like other towns, for him to move out of this lying undressed on the bed, even into comfort or despair,” said by narrator. This indicates that there is nothing unique about the town or the people that he passes through. Everything is similar to him including the towns, hotels, people, and events.
There is no sense of belonging ness in anything. Thus, there is nothing special about anything, which he could feel that it belongs to him. This sense of not belonging directs to the notion of helplessness. Harris is famous around the people of the town that he visits; however, they don’t really talk to him directly.
As an example, “So this is the famous ‘he’ that everybody talks about all the time.” This reveals that he is not really connected with the people that he meets in the towns on his visits. “I wish they’d call me ‘you’ when I’ve got here, he thought tiredly,” Tom’s reaction towards this people. Although Harris wants people to call him you while he is present in front of them, they still respond to him as ‘he’ rather than ‘you.’ He wants people to address him as ‘you’, thus he wants stability, but he never gets that steadiness which would bring people near to him. Hence, this conversation reflects that he is not connected with the people.
Thus, his helplessness is people’s not belonging to him. Unsteadiness is Tom’s helplessness. His staying on road most of the time and not staying at a concrete place reveals his helplessness. The narrator describes, “standing still with nothing around him, feeling tall, and having the world come all at once into its round shape underfoot and rush and turn through space and make his stand very precarious and lonely.” This suggests that his stand and his self-control is precarious meaning unstable.
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His not being stable and being in motion all the time leads to the consequence of helplessness. An event that describes the idea of Tom not in his self-control reflects to his helplessness. Throughout the story his cheek keeps on twitching couple times. For example, “At the unexpected use of the word, Harris’s cheek twitched, and he handed over his pack of cigarettes,” as the narrator described.
Thus, this twitching of his cheek is not intentional; it’s just natural. This is his helplessness that he is not able to control his own body. Therefore, this involuntary twitching of his cheek in the story contributes to the sense of his helplessness. In the story, one of the hitch-hikers shots the other one in Tom’s car.
Although the scene was held in his car, he was not able to do anything about it, except taking the guy to the hospital. He wasn’t able to avoid the shooting scene. He was unable to control things that were happening around him in his life. Things happen with him that he doesn’t want and rather than avoiding it he just moves on.
Thus, he is not able to have any control over situations and his life. His not being capable to control things around him guides to the notion of helplessness. It is his helplessness that he is not able to control over things, which happens with him while going on the road. As a salesman, Harris spends most of his time on road. This very mean that he is on road connects with the thought that he doesn’t have any roots. As the narrator puts it, “none of any of this his, not his to keep, but belongings to the people of these towns he passed through, coming out of their rooted pasts, out of their remaining in one place, coming out of their time.” This depicts that he doesn’t have any origins or roots that he might belong to.
As a consequence, having no belonging, no roots, and no origins indicates his helplessness. The involvement of hitch-hikers in the story refers to the notion of uproot. Hitch-hikers moves on and travel without having any base. Similarly, Tom Harris moves on without having any roots. As the narrator describes, “One of them stood still by the side of the pavement, with his foot stuck out like an old root.” This shows that one of the hitch-hikers was standing like he had an old root, even though he stood there just for a while.
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However, Harris never had any old roots like hitch-hiker. Thus, he was uprooted and had no base. The notion of uproot is also mentioned again, when Tom goes out with Carol, the girl who remembers him from his last visit. “They sat under a calendar with some pictures of giant trees being cut down,” stated by narrator. These points out towards the concept of uproot. As the trees are being cut down and displaced from their roots, its getting uprooted.
The very mention of this scene in the story relates to the concept of uproot, which correlates with Harris who has no roots. Hence, Tom’s life is uprooted just like the trees had been displaced in the picture. This event in the story contributes to the sense of helplessness of Tom. His having no roots and base leads to the sense of his helplessness. As Tom has no roots and origins, he doesn’t remember his past very well. When Carol was trying to remind him of his first visit to the town Clearwater, he had met Carol but he forgotten about her.
Carol states, “Oh it wasn’t so long ago-five years,” and Tom responds that, “I’d forgotten that, is one thing sure.” This event imply to the thought that he doesn’t really have any connection with people. He simply doesn’t remember people and their stories as he doesn’t have any roots, past, or base related with those people or the town. Thus, this proves that he is not connected and not rooted, which shows his helplessness. The town that he is visiting in the story is Clearwater.
The name of the town suggest about the liquid that has been described in the story. Liquid is always in motion, it never stops, it always goes from places to places. For instance, “Even the rain-there was often rain,” revealed by the narrator. The mentioning of the rain relates to the notion of liquid, which indeed reflects towards the sense of motion. Similarly, Tom Harris is always in motion, always going from place to place. Rain has nothing of its own, it simply moves through the way it comes across.
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Likewise, Harris has nothing of his own; he travels through the road he comes across. Therefore, his being in motion and not stable at one place contributes to the sense of the helplessness of his life. Throughout the story, the events, setting and characters explore the significance of helplessness. Tom Harris’s being nowhere, uprooted, not belonged, and not in control brings readers to the sense of his helplessness. At the end of the story, he starts to move on again to some other place like nothing has happened and he is back to where he was before.
Again, he is in motion, traveling places to places, putting his past behind and living in present with his helplessness of his life.
