Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: Hunter S Thompson Loathing In Las Vegas - 1,717 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

Louisville, the cultural center of the Bluegrass State and home to the Kentucky Derby, is famous for its production of cheese-burgers, cigarettes, gin, half the worlds bourbon, and Hunter Thompson. Thompson was born during the Great Depression to Virginia Ray and Jack Thompson. Thompson was the oldest of three sons, he led the way from the beginning of his life. Thompson and his family lived in a rural middle-class area in a neighborhood with many other families just like theirs. His parents, Virginia Ray and Jack, were both alcoholics, and because of Thompson, the family was looked down upon in the neighborhood. He became a troublemaker from the beginning.

Thompson was always getting into trouble with they boys that lived around the neighborhood. Jack, an insurance salesman, was a believer in corporal punishment and practiced it frequently on his two oldest sons, Hunter and Davidson. Jack continued to be strict with Thompson until the end of his life. Thompson had many playmates throughout his childhood. He had one during every stage of his life. Hunters boyhood pal was Duke Rice.

They were crazy about sports. They used to watch the Louisville Colonels through holes in the outfield fence at Parkway Field. Thompson and Rice stayed very close childhood friends. They were together constantly until a new boy named Gerald Tyrrell moved into a house around the block from the Thompsons.

Tyrrell and Thompson hit it off from the start. They continued to be good friends as they grew up and matured together. When they became teenagers the two started to become interested in girls together. Thompsons father suddenly died of a heart attack when he was fifteen years old.

This was right around the time that he first started drinking. Drinking was natural for everyone to do in the town, Thompson was bound to start sooner or later. This was the start of a habit that would greatly affect his writing and a habit that would lead to much more then he expected. Thompson got into trouble with drinking as soon as he began. He would cut school to hide in his room and drink and Thompson would go to important functions drunk. He was known as the kind of kid to keep your sons and daughters away from.

Thompson became a disgrace to his family, and he augmented the Thompsons already bad name they had for themselves. Thompson was arrested many times for situations having to do with alcohol. The people in the town gossiped, everyone knew of Thompsons bad reputation. Drinking would plague him for the rest of his life.

Most of the subjects Thompson writes about are subjects that were prevalent in his upbringing. Many of his favorite themes, such as violence, sports, politics, sex and drugs, dominate his writing. Especially interesting is the fact that these same themes took root in his childhood, and they are all subjects he enjoys writing about. Jack, his father, was a very intense and angry man; this was passed down to Thompson. He is passionate, and writes in a fiery way about controversial topics. The leading mannerisms that Thompson manifests are similar to his fathers and he threads those in and out of his writing.

Another style Thompson is famous for in his writing is his incredible descriptive skills. The readers of a Thompson work will often find themselves laughing out loud, or with mouths wide open and jaws on the floor. He loves to shock and amaze the reader, and make the reader think. Since most of his most famous works were written in the transitional stage of the sixties to the seventies, Thompson often likes to capture the feel of the time. He makes readers feel as though they are in the center of it all. He surrounds the reader in his weird, unnatural, and crazy, yet welcoming world, assuming the readers mind is open to all possibilities.

His writings do more than just describe the events of his time, they also successfully portray the attitudes and feelings of the times. The stories created by Thompson lead the reader on a journey throughout his almost bipolar mind. It starts with wild descriptions and crazy scenarios, then brings the reader to a place to stop and think about serious issues. Thompson is often marginalized as a serious journalist because of his different and offbeat style. But a good reader of his will delve deeper and finds topics that are highly sophisticated. A very famous speech by Thompson, that appears in Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to The Heart of the American Dream, has been named The Wave Speech and portrays Thompsons incredible ability to place the reader mentally in his world.

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning And that, I think, was the handle- that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didnt need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting- on our side or theirs.

We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark- that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. This speech gives the sense of what it was like in that time period, and leaves the reader with the same feelings of a person who had actually been there. Ever since Thompsons early childhood experiences with alcohol he continued to be an avid drinker. This, later into adulthood, lead to marijuana, then to harder drugs. Alcohol played such a big part in his upbringing that naturally it greatly effected his writing career.

When Thompson began his habit of using drugs, that also influenced his work. Alcohol and drugs play a major role in the works of Hunter S. Thompson, but he portrays them as mere accessories to his everyday life. The consumption of alcohol and drugs by Thompson that is documented in his writing is at an almost inhuman level. There are theories of possible exaggeration of Thompsons drug use. The reader must look at Thompsons drug use in their own perspective.

Once a doctor examined it and concluded that no normal man could endure that kind of abuse to his body. Hunter S. Thompson is no normal man. Thompson began to become more dependent on the drugs and alcohol.

He constantly drank excessive amounts of whiskey and was almost always twisted on some sort of weird drug. There was nothing that he would not try. He went up and down the list of every imaginable drug one could take. He was afraid of none of them and is quoted as saying, The fact that Im not dead is sort of puzzling to me. Its sort of an awkward thing to deal with. It came to the point where Thompson needed drugs no matter what he did.

He took certain drugs for certain activities. He knew what drugs would intensify any situation. In Thompsons writing career he developed a style of journalism that is named Gonzo journalism. It is his own personal style that differed from anything that preceded it. It is the idea that the story is written as it happens.

Everything must be crystal clear and documented exactly as they occur. To achieve this Thompson used a tape recorder and recorded most of his conversations. He then went back and wrote the novel from those tapes. Another theme often used by Thompson is that of the search for the American dream.

It is one of his favorite topics, in writing and in his own life. Thompson is always on the prowl for the American dream and is constantly bringing it up in his writing. These two methods used by Thompson set him apart from other writers and journalists. His Gonzo search for the American dream makes him different and unique. [Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas] The Story became not how he covered the story, but how he totally avoided the story with the help of many dangerous drugs.

Perhaps the apex of Thompsons drug abuse takes place in his novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson had a friend named Oscar Zeta Acosta, a Chicano lawyer who was also a savage beast. Acosta was convinced that the world was out to get him and every other Chicano. He spent most of his time wreaking havoc and defending other Chicano's in a court of law. The book started out as a piece Thompson was asked to write for Sports Illustrated, he was to cover the Las Vegas Mint 400 motorcycle race. Thompson saw this as a prime opportunity to discover the American dream.

He invited Acosta to an all- expense paid trip to Las Vegas to find the heart of the American dream. It was a prime opportunity and life- changing event for both of them. In the book Thompson documents himself and Acosta, under the fake names of Rail Duke accompanied by his attorney and physician, Dr. Gonzo, and their trip to Las Vegas.

It starts out with their preparations and the drive to Vegas. Once there, the two do nothing but create trouble on the streets of Las Vegas, but the catch is that the whole time they go unnoticed because of the already wild residents and tourists there. They live in their room and run up a huge hotel bill, which they have no money to pay. Acosta and Thompson visit such places as a circus and concerts on mescaline and ether. They park on sidewalks, and see and converse with lizard people. It is at that point in the book where Thompsons descriptive skills truly shine.

Thompson attempts, in vain, to cover the Mint 400 Race; instead he is left with the beginnings of what will soon become a masterpiece. Shortly after he returns from Ve...


Free research essays on topics related to: loathing in las vegas, fear and loathing in las, hunter s thompson, alcohol and drugs, american dream

Research essay sample on Hunter S Thompson Loathing In Las Vegas

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com