The Hitchhiking Game (Style)

Style

Narrative Point-Of-View

This story is told from a third person limited perspective. This means that the narrator is not a character in the story but is not necessarily omnipotent in its perspective. The point-of-view of the story alternates between the internal thoughts and feelings of the young woman and those of the young man. This alternating perspective is central to the meaning of the story, because it is the discrepancy between the meaning and significance of the “game” to the young woman and to the young man, which has such dire consequences for their relationship. This narrative technique heightens the effect of the story in that the reader is all the more aware of the extent to which the young woman is not aware of the negative affect of her behavior in terms of the young man’s opinion of her until it is too late. This narrative perspective makes the ending of the story that much more sad because, while the reader is aware that the young man now hates his girlfriend, and is dreading the remaining days of their vacation, the young woman still has not realized the magnitude of his changed feelings for her. One can only imagine that she is going to spend the next 13 days attempting to win back his affection, unaware that his newfound hatred for her is irrevocable.

Setting

“The Hitchhiking Game” is set in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, and the story was first published in 1963. During this time, Czechoslovakia, under Communist rule, first enjoyed a period of democratic reform, and then suffered invasion and occupation by Soviet troupes. This setting is important because a central theme of Kundera’s stories is about the ways in which an oppressive society affects intimate interpersonal relationships. This context affects the young man’s decision to take a different road from that which he had originally planned. Spontaneously choosing to take a turn away from the direction he had planned six months ahead of time represents to the young man a rebellion against “the omnipresent brain that did not cease knowing about him even for an instant.” In other words, the societal pressures of the workplace which seemed to leave him with no privacy and no sense of spontaneity or personal freedom. The ugly power play which emerges from the “game” between the young man and woman is thus an expression of the young man’s sense of powerlessness in his societal circumstances.

Irony

The concept of the “game,” as emphasized by its use in the story’s title, creates a strong sense of irony. While a “game” is something that is supposed to be fun, trivial and playful, this “game” turns out to be cruel, significant and devastating for the young couple. In many of Kundera’s stories, games and humor often turn out to expose a dark, evil underbelly, with dire consequences for the lives of his characters. In this story, the “game” ironically turns into something ugly as it exposes deep-seated attitudes which structure the relationship between the young man and the young woman.

Metaphor

The “road” in this story functions as a metaphor for one’s path in life in the atmosphere of a repressive society. For the young man, his “road” in life seems to be planned, controlled and watched down to the last detail, for “the main road of his life was drawn with implacable precision.” Kundera tells us, “He had become reconciled to all this, yet all the same from time to time the terrible thought of the straight road would overcome him — a road along which he was being pursued, where he was visible to everyone, and from which he could not turn aside.” It is this metaphor of the road as applied to his life which leads the young man to spontaneously decide at a crossroads to turn in a direction other than what he had planned — for him, taking a different turn symbolizes an act of individual defiance against the controlled circumstances oflife in a repressive Communist society: “Through an odd and brief conjunction of ideas the figurative road became identified with the real highway along which he was driving — — and this led him suddenly to do a crazy thing.” While his decision to spontaneously change plans is motivated by the desire to veer from the “straight and narrow” road prescribed to him by society, it results in a decision to change the manner in which he treats his own girlfriend.