Rhetorical Situation
For the Rhetorical Situation, it is two men Hunter S. Thompson and Dr. Gonzo are driving in a red car to Las Vegas for a story. Thompson is a freelance journalist whose goal for this trip is to find the American Dream. The biggest twist to this story is that both Dr. Gonzo and Thompson are going to be high on a mixture of drugs and alcohol. Later in this scene, Thompson makes a list of their stache of “uppers, downers”. We later get to hear the negative effects of the drug culture killing 160 GI’s on the radio.
Fantasy Theme Definition
Definition: It breaks down an artifact into 5 different characteristics: protagonist, antagonist, plotline, and sanctioning agent.
Protagonist: It could be more than one. Usually, they are considered heroes, but it could also be villains being the main character. This is affected by the narrative on what the character’s morality.
Antagonist: Usually a character who is in a villain role. However, it could be a force or a group of characters as the antagonist. Antagonists are not always evil, it could be an opposing morally driven characters such as a hero.
Plotline: The narrative or a cohesive storyline. This can be affected by the genre of the story.
Sanctioning Agent: The main goal or reason for the narrative.
These are useful in breaking down the narrative into comprehensible pieces. It also makes understanding the rhetorical themes and morals easier to understand.
Artifact Fantasy Theme Application
Dramatist Personae: The characters are Hunter S. Thompson and Dr. Gonzo going to Las Vegas, to find the American Dream.
Protagonist: Hunter S. Thompson and Dr. Gonzo. They are not heroes, they are the main characters. Their morals are not very lawful, both take illegal drugs and are destroying their bodies and minds with them.
Antagonists: The main antagonist is a group of individuals, some are real and hallucinate such as the bats. Another antagonist is the police and other law enforcement.
Plotline: Thompson has been sent by a magazine to cover a drag race in Las Vegas. However, he changes midway to find the American Dream. With his buddy and lawyer Dr. Gonzo and a bag full of drugs, they explore Vegas.
Sanctioning Agent: The main force of the story is the pursuit of finding a supposed ideal of the American Dream. Another desired goal is to go to Vegas, through a drug polluted mind.
Final Thoughts
Despite Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas appears to have a straight forward narrative it can be difficult to breakdown the main protagonist and antagonist. This is due to there is no direct link to the audience. The tone of the story shows Hunter and Gonzo going around Vegas getting high but like the film, they each become their own antagonist. What does not help the narrative is that it is coming from a drug addict’s perspective. Many of the other antagonists do not exist or coming from their drug-induced states. The cop later in the film did not act as an antagonist, he was doing the standard procedure of pulling over a speeding driver.
As someone who’s never heard of this movie or Thompson’s work, I found this post interesting. I am, however, still rather confused on what this film is about. I think you could elaborate more on the “American Dream” and what exactly that means within either the realm of the film or what it meant at the time this was filmed.
Having read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas a long time ago. I agree with you with your break down of the fantasy theme. You talked about the drug culture in your rhetorical situation and I’m curious if you were to make this your second paper if you could go into more detail about it and the community around Thompson’s work.
https://totallygonzo.org This is a link for a community for Hunter S. Thompson that could help you if you decide to make this your second paper