The American Dream is a concept that first takes on its concrete form in The Epic of America; is described as "That dream of a land in which life should be better, richer and fuller for every man, with opportunities for each according to his ability or achievement... That dream or hope has been present from the beginning ". (Adam, xvi). And while it is certainly a term taken ambiguously at best, this classification is one that rings mostly true to its central idea, which is similar to the Horatio Alger-pulled-up-by-your-bootstraps ideal. It has different shades and different interpretations, but is widely considered to be associated with wealth or progress of some kind. What Hunter S. Thompson tries to do in his painfully satirical novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Wild Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, is not just to deconstruct and realize the absurdity of such an idea, but to take it for granted. kicks while he's down and scoffs at it. Thompson rejects the idea of ​​the American Dream so severely that he associates it with a hallucination- and drug-induced weekend binge of utter absurdity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To begin, you need to gain a slightly more comprehensive understanding of the American Dream as an ideal. One of its essential properties is that every American should have equal opportunity and that anyone can achieve success or prosperity through hard work. This needs to be clarified, and this is where truly broad interpretations begin to emerge. What exactly is success or prosperity? Of course there is no universal answer to this question; some would consider a modest life with all the modest trappings that come with it to be a success, while for others it might be superfluous wealth and luxury, etc. For Thompson (if we look at Fear and Loathing as rooted in autobiography, which is a reasonably safe reason and agreed-upon request), he subjects himself to every drug imaginable and experiences misadventures all over Las Vegas. Duke, Thompson's alias, while driving down Main Street, under the influence of drugs, says the following: “Ah yes. This is what it's all about. Total control now. One Saturday night in Las Vegas, walking down Main Street, two good guys in a bright red convertible... stoned, ripped, twisted... good people. (Thompson 29). Subjective success varies like snowflakes, so already the idea of ​​the American dream is starting to see some distortion across the board. The above passage could hardly be considered even close to a universally successful idea; however, for Thompson, it is. Or at least it can be interpreted as such. What exactly constitutes “hard work”? Do you work sixty hours a week? It is also important to note that hard work is often not included in the ideal picture of success. And is it true to say that all Americans have equal opportunities? If a black person, a white person, a Middle Eastern person, and a Mexican person somehow put in the same amount of “hard work,” is it intellectually honest to say that they will all get the same benefits? There is already a formidable margin starting to form. When Duke is at Circus-Circus, sitting at the bar, negotiating the purchase of a monkey ("Damn... I want that monkey"), he claims to be sitting in the heart of the American dream:He seemed surprised. “Have you found the American dream?” he said. "In this city?" I nodded. “We're sitting on the main nerve right now,” I said. (Thompson 190, 191) He then goes on to tell the story of the manager who, as a child, wanted to escape to the circus. And now he had his own circus. Bruce, theperson he's talking to at the bar says, "Now the bastard has... even a license to steal... You're right, he's the model." (Thompson 191). What is absolutely crucial to Thompson's vision of the American dream is that he places its "nerve" not only in Las Vegas, which is portrayed as a crazy and senseless city, but in none other than the Circus-Circus, the epicenter of the absurd and the reckless. This could be interpreted through a couple of different lenses. One interpretation is that the idea of ​​“success” in the American Dream is so personal, so random, so subjective that these ideas might be so mixed as to be comparable to the chaos that is the Circus-Circus. However, from what we know about Hunter S. Thompson and his eccentricities and views on government and corporate America, a more likely interpretation is that the very idea of ​​an “American Dream,” with all its ambiguities , false promises and romance , is such an absurd and ridiculous idea that not only is it as ridiculous as a circus, but it is comparable to the Circus-Circus despite having been on a variety of hallucinogens. Beyond that, the agreed-upon "model" for the American Dream is, as Duke claims, someone who wants to join a circus, gets his, and then manages to steal. The conclusion here is that the success of the Circus-Circus manager is defined by his ability to steal. This is extremely satirical of the American dream, of Americans themselves, and extends to capitalism as well. Thompson, in the previous passage, describes the American dream as foolish, meaningless, and selfish. This being the epitome of the American Dream and all it represents, Thompson sends a significant attack on America and its ideals, perhaps prompting a reevaluation of those ideals. Another of Thompson's comparisons is seen when Duke and Dr. Gonzo ask about the American dream, and a waitress and a man named Lou consider it a physical place. Thompson plays with words here by asking the waitress to recall the physical location of the place on a street called “Paradise.” This, of course, has to do with the idea that the American dream will produce some sort of modern capitalist “paradise” or some accessible form of paradise of success. Equally important to this idea is that the maid and Lou both fail to pinpoint the exact location of this supposed location. What Thompson shows here is that the American Dream cannot be found because it does not exist. It's the rat race that people can never escape, and the American dream is ultimately unattainable. Continuing on this tangent, Lou later asks, "...did someone just send you on a goose chase?" (Thompson, 165). Once again, this further concretizes Thompson's message that the American dream is a senseless and unattainable ideal. Success is so subjective, that America can often be criminally judgmental and unequal, and is essentially just a crazy idea to even consider. After an entire chapter dedicated to attempting to ascertain the location of the American Dream (the supposed physical location), Duke and Dr. Gonzo eventually reach what used to be a psychiatrists' club that is described as such: "...a huge slab of cracked, burned concrete in a vacant lot full of tall weeds. The owner of a gas station across the street said the place had 'burned down about three years ago'” (Thompson 168). on Thompson's metaphorical pie: a psychiatrist's purpose is to diagnose and treat mental illness. The comparisons are clear. Chasing the American Dream is similar to a kind of mental illness, an illusion; Thompson could also extend the comparison to perhaps weekend of hallucinations and mind-induced nonsense,.