Introduction
Drugs remain one of the most difficult problems for the modern society. No matter how hard people try to eradicate this evil, the number of drugs addicts only continues increasing. The story “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S. Thompson is about a journalist who is working for a sports magazine and who is going to Las Vegas to conclude a contract with a Portuguese photographer. The story abounds with scenes describing the characters’ being under the influence of drugs but one of the scenes deserves a special attention. This scene is the one where the narrator and the attorney were giving a lift to a hitchhiker. This is how it can be described from the point of view of the attorney.
Main body
Two of us were driving the car to Las Vegas when I saw a boy standing in the road and proposed to give him a lift. Both of us were under the influence of ether and though I was driving my “mind was somewhere else” (Hunter S. Thomas, p. 8). My friend was silent for some time probably thinking over the consequences in case the boy would notice that we were charged up and would tell on us to police. But then he started getting on the boy telling about the American dream and asking whether he had some problems with my nationality. I noticed that the boy looked scared. Then telling something my friend stroke the back of my seat and thus interrupted my hallucinations which made me very mad and I started screaming at him. This is where I saw the frightened face of the boy who was ready to jump out of the car right away and decided to keep silent.
Two major conclusions can be drawn from this scene. First of all, it is clear that people who take drugs are absolutely aware of the seriousness of the situation, especially at the beginning, but they do not even want to think about stopping: “There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved that a man in the depths of an ether binge” (Hunter S. Thompson, p. 4). Namely under the influence of ether the two characters scared the boy they were giving a lift to. The narrator of the story was absolutely conscious of being under the influence of drugs which proves that not all drugs addicts become separated from the reality like the attorney in the scene described above and most of them are aware of what they do.
Secondly, drugs addicts know perfectly what drugs do with them and how they look when “charged up”. It can be seen from the flow of thoughts of the narrator when they offered the boy a lift: “Will he make that grim connection when my attorney starts screaming about bats and huge manta rays coming down on the car?” (Hunter S. Thomas, p. 6). He was very much afraid that the boy would notice this and then “report us at once to some kind of outback nazi law enforcement agency” (Hunter S. Thomas, p. 6). This shows that even under the influence of drugs people know that they are doing something wrong and are aware of the punishment that follows if they are disclosed as well as that they would do everything in order to avoid this punishment: “If so – well, we’ll just have to cut his head off and bury him somewhere” (Hunter S. Thomas, p. 6).
In conclusion, ““Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” tells a lot of things which happen with drugs addicts but what remains clear is that most of them take drugs in order to escape the reality because they are not satisfied with their present life.
Works Cited
Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph Steadman. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. Vintage Books, 1998.