Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
American Culture and Counterculture
The American Dream
Drugs and American Society
News and Journalism
Violence
Summary
Analysis
Duke pulls the car over twenty miles east of Baker. It is hot and he feels “like killing something. Anything. Even a big lizard.” He pulls Gonzo’s .357 Magnum out and squeezes off three rounds. The surprising recoil “knocks him off balance,” and he throws the gun back into the car. He opens the bag of drugs holding his stash and finds it “a hopeless mess.” It is dwindling fast, but with “careful rationing” it will probably get them through the Drug Conference.
Duke’s sudden and needless desire to “kill something” again suggests that he is innately and naturally violent. He doesn’t have a reason to behave so violently, he just does, which again implies that violence is a large part of the average American citizen.
Themes
Duke stops at a drug store and buys some tequila and Chivas, along with a pint of ether. On his way out, he steals a Review-Journal from the magazine rack. He randomly opens it and reads an article about a man in Baltimore who had gouged his own eyes out in a jail cell after a drug overdose. The police reported that the man was “in a deeply depressed state and so impervious to pain that he did not scream when he pulled out his eyes.” Duke closes the magazine and immediately throws it away.
Again, Duke very easily obtains drugs. Here, it is as simple as walking into a drug store. The article about the awful drug overdose depicts drug users as a hopeless lot, so far-gone that they can inflict massive bodily pain without feeling anything. While Duke’s drug use is certainly out of hand, he surely doesn’t see himself gouging his eyes out, and he is bothered that he is represented in such a way.
Themes
