Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Book Review Example

Hunter S. Thompson and the Death of the American Dream

In his book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” Hunter S. Thompson describes trip he and his attorney take to the famous city. In this story, the two men experience all sorts of outrageous adventures while they use drugs, drink alcohol, gamble and get involved in everything from police conventions to Vegas showroom concerts. The subtitle of the book is “A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream,” and this idea of the American Dream is a theme of the book. Thompson write “Fear and Loathing” at a time when the United States was involved in the Vietnam War, when people were protesting over issues like Civil Rights, and when violence and unrest were common. When Thompson visits Las Vegas it is like a whole different world from the reality of what is happening in many parts of America, and he sees it as ugly and phony. If the American Dream is about the chance of every American to achieve success through hard work, then Thompson is realizing that the American Dream is just an illusion.

Thompson specifically looks at the end of the 1960s as the end of the American Dream.  He describes how things have changed by the early 1970s: “Tim Leary a prisoner of Eldridge Cleaver in Algeria, Bob Dylan clipping coupons in Greenwich Village, both Kennedys murdered by mutants, Owsley folding napkins on Terminal Island, and finally Cassius/Ali belted incredibly off his pedestal by a human hamburger, a man on the verge of death. Joe Frazier, like Nixon, had finally prevailed for reasons that people like me refused to understand – at least not out loud” (p.8). Those icons of the 1960s counterculture and youth movement had all been “belted off their pedestals” and the positivity and hope of that time was gone.

After Thompson and his attorney have been through all the unusual circumstances of their time in Las Vegas, they have a conversation with a waitress at taco stand somewhere on a highway outside of the city. Thompson explains that he is looking for the “American Dream,” and the three of them talk about it like it is a real, physical place. When Thompson says that he is looking for the “American Dream” the waitress and the taco stand owner tells him about some closed-down nightclubs and other locations (p.58). This conversation seems almost like nonsense, but it highlights how Thompson views the American Dream. It is not just something that is difficult to find, it is also something that does not even seem to exist anymore.

The city of Las Vegas that Thompson describes in the book is like a symbol for how the American Dream and the ideals of the 1960s are both dead: “Now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark – that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back” (p.23).  The “wave” Thompson refers to is the feeling in the 1960s that the world could be a better place, and it has now rolled back. Even though the book is funny in many sections, it is also sad, because Thompson seems to be saying that the future for America looks bleak, and the only thing to do is to ride it out.

The American Dream may not be dead in the 21^st century, but it is very different. In the 20^th century the U.S. economy was booming and there were many jobs. People could afford cars and houses and there was a growing middle class. Today it seems like there are only a few people doing well, and the rest of the country has to deal with low-paying jobs, bad housing markets, heavy student loans, and a government that does not work to make things better. At the same time, though, there are new technologies and new attitudes, and the younger generation now will be in charge of things I the years to come. There is still hope that they can bring back the American Dream.

Work Cited

Thompson, Hunter S. ‘Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas’. N.p., 2014. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.