Fear And Loathing Vs. On The Road

The turbulent societal changes of the mid-20th Century have been documented in countless forms of literature, film and art. On the Road by Jack Kerouac was written and published at the outset of the counter-culture movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This novel provides a first-hand account of the beginnings of the Beat movement and acts as a harbinger for the major societal changes that would occur in the United States throughout the next two decades. On the contrary, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a Hunter S. Thompson novel written in 1971 provides a commentary on American society at the end of the counter-culture movement. Thompson reflects on the whirlwind of political and social activism he experienced and how American society had abruptly changed without warning. This paper will describe how the different themes and characters in On the Road and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas relate to the social changes that took place in America between the early 1950s and the early 1970s. Kerouac and Thompson wrote their respective novels with a different mindset, and since their mindsets were a product of the society they lived in, their attitudes with respect to society are reflected in both their characters and stories.

On the Road is a semi-autobiographical tale of Jack Kerouac's experiences in the late 1940s. He uses a first-person narrator, Sal Paradise, to channel his feelings and ideals through. Sal's hero, Dean Moriarty, is truly a symbol of the Beat generation Ð'- a young man seeking escape from a world to which he doesn't feel he belongs. Kerouac uses these characters and several supporting characters to describe the ideals and motivations behind the Beat movement, which he himself was a large part of. His main characters all start out with a hopeful and willful attitude towards new experiences and the future. These traits were shared by the Beat generation, who sought new experiences and a break from the norms of society in the 1950s.

At the time the novel was written, America was just a few years removed from World War II, a devastating war that left many people scared and unsure of what lay ahead of them. This led to widespread conformity and a desire to uphold middle-class family values at all costs. Kerouac and his friends did not believe that they shared in this middle-class American Dream and wanted to find their own niche in American culture. Many young people in the 1950s and 1960s were yearning to find themselves and break away from the conformist culture, and the novel does a good job of portraying that mindset.

The main focus of On the Road is on the travels of Kerouac's alter-ego and narrator, Sal. After his friend Dean travels back West for the summer, Sal decides to leave the East Coast and really see the country for the first time. The reasoning behind following Dean was that Sal admired his enthusiasm and desire to learn about anything and everything. Sal says early on in the novel that his "New York friends were in the negative, nightmare position of putting down societyÐ'...but Dean just raced into society, eager for bread and love; he didn't care one way or the other" (8). This is a good representation of the Beats' willingness and desire to experience as much as possible and to remain in a positive and liberal state of mind. This part of the novel also foreshadows the Hippie movement of the 1960's, and their combination of social criticisms and experimentation with drugs and alternative experiences.

There are several underlying themes in On the Road which foreshadow the culture of the following decades. Both drug use and sexual experimentation seem to in some way fuel the Kerouac's characters. The author portrays the drug use in the novel as experimental and generally innocent, which coincidentally serves as an indication of the enormous drug culture that was soon to explode in the United States. The characters in On the Road are using the drugs as a way of experiencing all that they can out of life, but also as a way to escape. This theme of the novel alludes to the then nonexistent Hippie culture, who welcomed drug use as a way of both experiencing more out of life but also escaping from the conformist culture they lived in.

Sexual experimentation is another theme that foreshadows part of the 1960s counterculture. Free love and multiple sexual partners was a large part of the Hippie culture and these practices have had a big impact on today's culture as well. The conservative idea of one person for everyone and repressed sexual urges were thrown out the window by the young men and women of the Hippie culture. This novel is an account of the beginning of these practices, showing Dean with multiple partners like Marylou and Camille. Sal also expresses his desire to meet and sleep with several women throughout the novel.

The end of the counter-culture movements in the late 1960s left the surviving members of this dying culture feeling bitter over the current state of society and trapped in a world that they felt helpless to change. Hunter S. Thompson brings these emotions to the forefront of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Another semi-autobiographical tale with a first-person narrator, the novel documents the experiences of Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo on a trip to Las Vegas. The major theme of the novel is the fading away of the 1960s counterculture, and how the movement had regressed from optimism to cynicism. Duke and Gonzo are portrayed as the last of a dying breed, trying to hold on to the innocence and experimentation of the late 1960s.

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