Popular Culture Review Vol. 11, No. 1, February 2000 | Page 73

A Countercultural Gatsby

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to help illustrate his point more effectively, in this case his belief that the American
Dream is dead.
At the outset of the two-part novel, Dr. Gonzo and Duke head to Las Vegas,
ostensibly to cover the Mint 400, which is barely mentioned once they reach their
destination. Before departure, the men dash about Los Angeles County accumulating
a large and varied collection of drugs and weapons. Once they have obtained the
desired arms and pharmaceutical supplies, the men head for Las Vegas to cover the
story: “But what was the story? Nobody had bothered to say. So we would drum it
up on our own. Free Enterprise. The American Dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on
drugs in Las Vegas” (12). From the very beginning, the traditional myth of the
American Dream is debunked. Duke and Dr. Gonzo are driving from Los Angeles
to Las Vegas; although Vegas is a Western city, they are nevertheless driving East
in search of the American Dream. According to the itinerary set by Greeley, which
has been followed by untold millions of Americans and studied by scholars since
Turner first espoused his frontier thesis, they are going the wrong way. They are
also repeating the mistakes of Jay Gatz and Nick Carraway, both of whom also
went from West to East in search of their ultimately unrealized dreams.
As Duke and Dr. Gonzo speed towards Vegas, Duke ponders the validity of
their quest for the American Dream: “. . . our trip was different. It was a classic
affirmation of everything right and true and decent in the national character. It was
a gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country—but
only for those with true grit. And we were chock full of that” (18). At the root of
the American Dream is, of course, the rags to riches myth, the naive American
belief that all poor people, if they work hard and are good people, can go from rags
to riches. What we have believed in is the possibility that it can happen at any time,
and this belief in Possibility is at the core of our belief in the American Dream. We
desperately want to cling to our belief in the possibilities of life in America, despite
what at times seems like overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The fact that Las Vegas, which has since Fear and Loathing's publication
become the unofficial new capital of the American West, is the chosen destination
for a journey to the heart of the American Dream is itself a joke. The American
West was the last frontier of the American Dream. As the East became crowded
and industrialized, homesteaders poured over the plains heading West, in search of
the land of milk and honey, opportunity, personal freedom, and individuality. It
was believed that in the West a person starting with nothing could still achieve
success through hard work and integrity. While belief in Alger’s myth faded in the
East, it was still going strong in the West. Earning your fortune is possible in Las
Vegas, but not in the sense that we have come to associate with Alger’s myth—
merit is not rewarded. As Thompson writes, “Las Vegas is a society of one armed
masturbators/gambling is the kicker here/sex is extra/weird trip for the high rollers