Loathing In Las Vegas

764 Words2 Pages

In “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” by Hunter S. Thompson, is a story that delves into the dark underbelly of the American Dream. The story achieves this through focusing on the drug-fueled adventures of Raoul Duke and his attorney, Dr.Gonzo, through Las Vegas. Thompson paints a vivid picture of dehumanization and moral decay. The novel serves as a critique of a society that is obsessed with wealth and success at the cost of personal integrity and humanity. By examining the characters in the story, Thompson highlights how dehumanization is caused by addiction.The excessive drug use in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” is a pivotal part of the story that leads to the dehumanization of Raoul Duke and Dr.Gonzo. For Raoul, the drugs cause him to strip further …show more content…

He truly accepts the moral decay, and embraces the chaos and madness that he has fed himself into, due to his addictions. It is not just addiction to substances that feeds into dehumanization for Raoul and Gonzo, it’s also the addiction of trying to find the American Dream. The American Dream and truth is what Raoul and Gonzo are after, this addiction to the chase is another thing that corrupts their characters. Raoul and Gonzo are so steadfast in their plan to reach the “American Dream” that they manipulate and use others and degrade others in the process, this comes to effect with the character Lucy,who is a runaway, “cruel Samoan who fed her liquor and LSD, then dragged her to a Vegas hotel room and savagely penetrated every orifice in her body”(117). Dr.Gonzo had taken advantage of a young vulnerable girl who wasn’t in the right mindset and given her drugs and then Raoul wanted to get She was not right for us—not in this fragile situation.”(115) Raoul and Gonzo used her like a toy, prostituted her and wanted to kick her to the curb which portrays how addicted they are to getting what they

Open Document