What really hurt the feelings of the narrator in the story, 'The Hack Driver'
Class X, THE HACK DRIVER
question from sample paper.
Answers
Name of the chapter - The Hack Driver
writter - Harry Sinclair Lewis.
Class 10
Answer -
The narrator was a junior assistant clerk in law farm. He was really fed up of his job. He hated his work. He though about running away to his own home town and become a lawyer right away.
He was always under the impression that the country people were honest, simple and helpful. He used to trust everyone. Such impression made him gullible because he was easily fooled by the hack driver who was himself the Oliver Lutkins.
Oliver took narrator around the village wasting his time looking for himself. He not only charged narrator money for his service but also subjected home to immense ridicule of his village folk and his mother.
Narrator felt like a fool who was easily coaxed into believing that Lutkins was someone else whereas Litkins was with him the whole day.
Narrator felt really shameful of his act and realised that he should have done his homework more carefully about finding out that details of Oliver Lutkins before hand.
The narrator was very excited to visit a small and beautiful town but his excitement ended by the dull appearance of the town. He saw a hack driver standing at the platform who was very cheerful and nice. He went up to him and enquired about Oliver Lutkins as he was new to the town and wanted to find him. The driver told him that Oliver was a nasty man who owed debt to many people. He also cunningly extracted information from the lawyer that he needed Lutkins for some court case. A deal was cracked between both- he decided to hire Bill’s hack and go on a search for Lutkins. Bill somehow traps the lawyer in his story and they visit different places in search of Lutkins. He always asks the lawyer stay behind. They go to Fritz’s to catch Lutkins while playing poker. But he tells them that he has gone to Gustaff for a shave. At Gustaff’s they weren’t able to meet him and were told that someone saw him at the pool room. Here also somebody said that he left the poolroom after buying cigarettes. Bill described Lutkins as a cunning man and guessed that he must have gone to gray’s for a shave. In the afternoon, Bill offered him to buy lunch from his wife as it would be less costly than at the restaurant. They had lunch at wade’s hill which was a very beautiful place. By that time the clerk was totally impressed by Bill’s nice and cheery nature. He had even started comparing village people to city people. Later on, they went to search for Lutkins at his mother’s house on the basis of information derived from one of his friends. There the lady was horrible and they hurriedly left the place as she was about to attack them with a hot iron rod. At last, the lawyer had to leave without serving summons to Lutkins. Next day he was scolded badly by his chief and was again sent to New Mullion with a companion who knew Lutkins. Upon reaching the station, the clerk happily pointed out that Bill was such a helpful person to him search Lutkins. At this time, the truth was revealed by his companion that the hack driver was none other than Lutkins himself. The clerk felt so bad and ashamed of how he had been fooled by a villager.