About Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Literature has often been seen as a reflection of the community/society. The setting in which the author is situated inspires the material used in literary literature. Thompson is not an anomaly when he uses the context in which he has been put to express his opinions on American society. Hunters use his storytelling imagination to focus on America. In his novel, he explains America as a hypocritical culture that extends from political officials to ordinary people. Duke and his counsel, for example, are holding a meeting on dangerous substances and opioids. It is quite hypocritical that they are attending a conference which they already decided not to teach anything at the conference. Thompson rebukes this unpatriotic behavior and emphasizes that citizens are obligated to being part of the solution for issues that affect their country (Thompson 49).

Between 1964 and 1972, the norms of America’s mainstream culture had been rejected and dropped by most youth. The book reflects on literature in the 1960s counterculture. He also dissects a new type of journalism referred to us Gonzo that is based on Subjectivity, unlike the previous work that relied on objectivity. He describes a journey that America was headed to an era that fuelled by extreme capitalists. Through his character, Duke, Thompson describes the loopholes in America’s social system that is built on a philosophy of equality. The author associates the countercultural movement with excessive drug consumption. Duke and his attorney have loaded their convertible with drugs. The excess consumption of drugs is meant to induce a different state of mind while experiencing distorted reality. This creativity helps to break the chains of conservatism and demonstrates individualism plus unity in a nation that has been divided by a capitalist system, war, and racial inequality. Thompson utilizes his characters to demonstrate an attitude that is rebellious towards dominant ideologies in America and offers a distorted version of the harsh realities of the American mainstream culture. Thompson admits how much he hates drugs, but he continues to consume them to escape from reality (Little 56).

Consumption of drugs is a key element in Thompson’s book as it plays a major role in understanding America’s countercultural nature. However, its main theme is to portray the concept of the American dream. Civil rights in the US had begun to increase during the counterculture, which advocated for the adoption of nonviolence measure to promote the application of equal rights to all Americans. Using Duke’s voice, the author portrays a country that is filled with cynicism towards achieving the American Dream. He uses drugs, fancy hotels, and cars to immerse the character in an alternative dream and describing a superficial nature of the American Dream. Thompson reveals a ‘go with the flow’ character that emphasizes his views on inequality that stabs consumerism in the country (Wedekind 17).

Las Vegas is a city with adequate representation of opulence that promotes the idea of ‘from nothing to something.’ The novel symbolizes a true American society that is filled with immigrants and political refugees in search of greener pastures.

Thompson’s novel “Fear and loathing in Las Vegas” highly utilized creativity as it tried to describe the American society. The author tried to bring out the hypocrisy in the society in both the American citizens and even leaders. Citizens attend conferences on drugs and narcotics but still engage in drug abuse. The conferences were aimed at providing knowledge to people concerning drug abuse as a way of bringing change in the society. However, people attending the conference are hypocrites in that, they seem to be helping others in solving the problem, but rather they are not ready to teach others about the importance of change. In fact, the author brings out non-patriotism among American citizens. Considering the rotten and blacked out America, citizens need to have a moral obligation in solving such problems. The author describes America as characterized by the black market, alcoholism, and drug abuse. It is indeed evident that Thompson had a lot of value to talk about in his novel rather than the beacon of dissent as described by John Cusack (MacFarlane 140).

The author brought out most undesirable trends in the American society including greed, hypocrisy and even the love and desire of instant gratification. In fact, Thompson described himself as a man with no mercy or sympathy for criminals. He compares himself to the army regarding advocating for good conduct and ethics. What Thompson is doing is condemning the poor American culture and at the same time advocating and urging for change. This proves that Thompson in his novel had various positive agendas o Americans as opposed to the stated claims. The claims of Thompson bring a beacon of dissent are not true in my opinion. His difference of opinion from the majority does not mean any good for America. On the contrary, Thompson novel seeks to object the bad behaviors in the society bringing a positive change. He describes it as the American dream which people needed to chase in the early 70s. Everybody in the society qualified to be a criminal and guilt before being caught. The society as full of thieves.(pg 72). Thompson also illustrates how people kept on taking advantage of the disadvantaged group in the society including the poor. Thompson explored options which would lead to growth and development in the society, but people still choose to steal and take advantage of the vulnerable groups in the society. Thompson kept on describing his call for change by the Americans terming it as the way to Las Vegas in the efforts to find the American dream (Gair 78).

Although there is excise of freedom and power as portrayed by Duke, the problem of racism and capitalism still haunts the society.

I wish to refer Hunter S. Thompson’s work as a Bible for most youths, college students, and even journalists. I am not surprised that this kind of generation idolizes the lifestyle of excessive alcohol consumption and recklessness. Undoubtedly, Thomson uses the book ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ to justify the state of the current American literary canon. This literature sites postmodern and countercultural that worry the modern America and bears lessons that modern audiences continue to learn. Most critics have failed to capture these lessons because they focus on the singular informativeness of Hunter’s work and thus learn little about the subject.

Do not get lost in Thomson’s profanity, drugs, and booze but rather analyze how he uses these aspects to magnify his message on the counterculture. He seeks to pursue the American dream differently from the majority and views America from a perspective that is unfamiliar. In his book, Thompson’s central theme is to pursue the American dream and ensure personal freedom which been disputed negatively by Winterrowd and other critics of the same mind. While his story focuses on a particular period of time, he still emphasizes that citizens must protect their rights always (Thompson 122).

Evidently, ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ portrays violence and police brutality. During this time, only a few like-minded critics had the guts to speak up against police brutality. Thompson uses his characters, i.e., Duke to discuss and condemn the figurative and literal police brutality. America had also begun to adopt a capitalist system that favored only a few privileged individuals. Over the course of the story, Duke alongside his attorney has indulged in numerous violent behavior. For instance, on the Las Vegas Strip, the attorney berates a car with tourists. While in the desert, Duke fires into the air without any valid reason. I was more disturbed by the thoughts of these two gentlemen as they plot to murder the hitchhiker and Lucy. This narrative depicts a true America that has been filled with institutional violence. This kind of violence had trickled down to lives of Americans, something that the author condemns (Thompson 138).

Thompson S. Hunter should be considered as a reformist in the 1960s counterculture. His characters in the novel, specifically, has been swept up by the counterculture. Duke frequently talks about the creativity and idealism of the 1960s. Besides, his peer is eager to explore new adventures and lifestyles. In the wave speech, Duke faults the creators or founders the American Counterculture for its decline. He rebukes them for being too complacent and failing to counter obstacles such as alienation and infighting that arose from the mainstream culture. In this narrative, Thompson is concerned about things that may replace the American counterculture. He believes that only those who pursue the American Dream will be able to fill the space. It was only in America during the 1960s that a gun-worshipping person walks free. During this period, America had sunk deeply into depraving war for futile reasons. The American political system was infected with violence and capitalism. Just like Thompson, most youths flourished in a deranged society (Wedekind 89).

Unlike his critics, I strongly believe that Thompson’s work was not meant to encourage the young generation into drugs. Evidently, the 1960s was a time when moral values and norms began to break down. Many youths had become political activists and Thompson, through his work, was not an exception. The author reveals how the youths separated themselves from the mainstream culture with their lifestyles and appearances. The phenomena that defined the American counterculture included radical political opposition and uninhibited indulgence into drugs and sex. According to Thompson’s narrative, these events were meant to symbolize freedom. I believe that Thompson invented dialogue and actions in his narrative to convey his message to the readers and also entertain them. He portrays Duke and his attorney as depraved and ignorant to set an attractive premise for counterculture in Las Vegas thus revealing the greed and affluence of Americans. His characters are living out the final days of the famous hippie generation as the consumption of drugs had become widespread. Thompsons attempts to describe the death of idealism using the Duke’s hedonistic madness (Thompson 156).

Conclusion

Any form of counterculture is founded on the idea of cynicism, criticism, and rejection of the mainstream norms. Thompsons narrative ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ describes a state of obnoxious, reckless and misfit character in pursuit of the American Dream. The author demonstrates the free will to act, do and contrast with the dominant norm. I affirm that Thompson novel, unlike his negative critics, establishes the road towards equality and freedom of expression. There are lots of positive statements from Thompson through characterization and symbolism that provoked the American Dream (Wedekind 133).

Works Cited

Gair, Christopher. American Counterculture. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.

Little, Troy. Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas #2. IDW Publishing, 2016.

MacFarlane, Scott. The Hippie Narrative: A Literary Perspective on the Counterculture. McFarland, 2007.

Thompson, Hunter S. Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas (Harper Perennial Modern Classics). HarperCollins Publishers, 2014.

Wedekind, Patrick. American Dream and Counterculture in Hunter S. Thompsons ”Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.“ GRIN Verlag, 2016.