The Hitchhiking Game

A mind game that starts between a couple on the first day of their vacation of two weeks, turns getting sour. In the Hitchhiking Game, another brilliant short story from Milan Kundera's 'Laughable Loves', the young woman becomes the hitchhiker, and the young man becomes the stranger who has picked her up from the roadside. The game continues till the end of that day, and both of them, at one point or the other wish to stop the game, so as to "return" to their original selves. But somehow, quite fortuitously, the game continues, and the sexual relationship between the two takes the shape of a power struggle. The game drags on, becomes bitter, still drags on, and ends with the end of the day, changing the perspective both had for each other. The meaning and implications of the "game" for both the young man and the young woman are also based on the traditional virgin/whore dichotomy, whereby women are categorized according to their sexual behavior as either "good girls" or "bad girls".