Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas Essay

Rolling Stone Magazine said Thompson "peers into the best and worst mysteries of the American heart" and that Thompson "sought to understand how the American dream had turned a gun on itself". Furthermore that "the fear and loathing Thompson was writing about — a dread of both interior demons and the psychic landscape of the nation around him — wasn't merely his own; he was also giving voice to the mind-set of a generation that had held high ideals and was now crashing hard against the walls of American reality” (Gilmore, 2005)
The American dream was integral to the dominant ideology of America, in the 1950s and 60s, built around the ideas of capitalism, materialism, Christianity, and a conservative approach. The notional concept of the American dream is rooted in the works of Horatio Alger, who wrote about the
Originally commissioned by sports illustrated, to write captions for a photo essay of the Cult Mint 400 rally, in Las Vegas, the article developed as described in the narrative of the text Rolling Stone Magazine employee him to cover and his alter ego Raoul Duke to cover The District Attorney’s convention on narcotics. This is an example of his authorial voice and point of view which is apparent throughout the book. As illustrated by the quote “If the Pigs were gathering in Vegas for a top-level Drug Conference, we felt the drug culture should be represented.” (Thompson, 1971) (p.110) This shows his feeling towards police officers, and authority, by using derogatory slag “Pigs”.
Hunter S Thompson’s subtitle to his novel Fear and loathing in Las Vegas is ‘A savage journey to the heart of the American dream’. From the offset Thompson is critiquing the dominant ideology, similarly throughout the book he simultaneously explores and critiques the counter culture, through methods such as his characters, his use of language, and alter