Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

by

Hunter S. Thompson

Dr. Gonzo Character Analysis

Raoul Duke’s attorney and travel companion on his trip to Las Vegas in search of the American Dream. Gonzo insists on going with Duke to Vegas in case he needs legal advice, but he fails to be useful in any legal sense. Gonzo spends most of the book taking acid and throwing up. He trashes their hotel rooms, runs up the room service bill, and leaves Duke to deal with the consequences alone. Of course, Duke runs out on the bill too, but he must run without his attorney. Gonzo is selfish and indulgent, and he underscores the capitalist excess and greed implied in Duke’s understanding of the American Dream. Duke introduces Gonzo as person of color, claiming, “I think he’s probably Samoan. But it doesn’t matter does it?” To Duke, it doesn’t matter if Gonzo is Samoan or Mexican, because the point is that he isn’t white. Duke believes that Gonzo doesn’t readily appreciate the importance of the American Dream because he has “no faith in the essential decency of the white man’s culture,” which implies that the American Dream is reserved for white Americans only. Gonzo’s character highlights the inherent racism of the American Dream, which Thompson argues should be made more equal and inclusive. Like Duke, Dr. Gonzo’s contempt for law enforcement and love for illegal drugs makes him an obvious symbol of the 1960s countercultural movement, but he also represents the violence of mainstream American society. Before Duke and Gonzo even arrive in Las Vegas, Gonzo points a .357 Magnum at Duke simply because he sarcastically refers to Gonzo as a “narcotics agent.” He violently threatens innocent salespeople and Midwestern tourists for no reason at all, and in his most despicable moment, he gives Lucy, a girl of “indeterminate age,” acid and presumably rapes her. Gonzo’s violence is excessive and unapologetic, and it mirrors the violence that is unfolding in the world around him. Thompson ultimately argues that the violence of the Vietnam War and the 1960s has spread to average Americans, and the character of Dr. Gonzo is an example of this violence.

Dr. Gonzo Quotes in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Gonzo or refer to Dr. Gonzo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

The sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Related Symbols: The Great Red Shark , The Bag of Drugs
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 2 Quotes

“You Samoans are all the same,” I told him. “You have no faith in the essential decency of the white man’s culture. Jesus, just one hour ago we were sitting over there in that stinking baiginio, stone broke and paralyzed for the weekend, when a call comes through from some total stranger in New York, telling me to go to Las Vegas and expenses be damned—and then he sends me over to some office in Beverly Hills where another total stranger gives me $300 raw cash for no reason at all . . . I tell you, my man, this is the American Dream in action! We’d be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way out to the end.”

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 8 Quotes

Ignore that nightmare in the bathroom. Just another ugly refugee from the Love Generation, some doom-struck gimp who couldn’t handle the pressure. My attorney has never been able to accept the notion—often espoused by reformed drug abusers and especially popular among those on probation— that you can get a lot higher without drugs than with them.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 3 Quotes

We would be attending the conference under false pretenses and dealing, from the start, with a crowd that was convened for the stated purpose of putting people like us in jail. We were the Menace—not in disguise, but stone-obvious drug abusers, with a flagrantly cranked-up act that we intended to push all the way to the limit . . . not to prove any final, sociological point, and not even as a conscious mockery: It was mainly a matter of life-style, a sense of obligation and even duty. If the Pigs were gathering in Vegas for a top-level Drug Conference, we felt the drug culture should be represented.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Page Number: 109-10
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 7 Quotes

The first session—the opening remarks—lasted most of the afternoon. We sat patiently through the first two hours, although it was clear from the start that we weren’t going to Learn anything and it was equally clear that we’d be crazy to try any Teaching. It was easy enough to sit there with a head full of mescaline and listen to hour after hour of irrelevant gibberish. . .. There was certainly no risk involved. These poor bastards didn’t know mescaline from macaroni.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis:

“Hell, in Malibu alone, these goddamn Satan-worshippers kill six or eight people every day.” He paused to sip his drink. “And all they want is the blood,” he continued. “They’ll take people right off the street if they have to.” He nodded. “Hell, yes. Just the other day we had a case where they grabbed a girl right out of a McDonald’s hamburger stand. She was a waitress. About sixteen years old . . . with a lot of people watching, too!” “What happened?” said our friend. “What did they do to her?” He seemed very agitated by what he was hearing. "Do?" said my attorney. “Jesus Christ man. They chopped her goddamn head off right there in the parking lot! Then they cut all kinds of holes in her and sucked out the blood.”

Related Characters: Dr. Gonzo (speaker), Raoul Duke, The Georgia Cop
Page Number: 146
Explanation and Analysis:
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Dr. Gonzo Quotes in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Gonzo or refer to Dr. Gonzo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

The sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Related Symbols: The Great Red Shark , The Bag of Drugs
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 2 Quotes

“You Samoans are all the same,” I told him. “You have no faith in the essential decency of the white man’s culture. Jesus, just one hour ago we were sitting over there in that stinking baiginio, stone broke and paralyzed for the weekend, when a call comes through from some total stranger in New York, telling me to go to Las Vegas and expenses be damned—and then he sends me over to some office in Beverly Hills where another total stranger gives me $300 raw cash for no reason at all . . . I tell you, my man, this is the American Dream in action! We’d be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way out to the end.”

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 8 Quotes

Ignore that nightmare in the bathroom. Just another ugly refugee from the Love Generation, some doom-struck gimp who couldn’t handle the pressure. My attorney has never been able to accept the notion—often espoused by reformed drug abusers and especially popular among those on probation— that you can get a lot higher without drugs than with them.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 3 Quotes

We would be attending the conference under false pretenses and dealing, from the start, with a crowd that was convened for the stated purpose of putting people like us in jail. We were the Menace—not in disguise, but stone-obvious drug abusers, with a flagrantly cranked-up act that we intended to push all the way to the limit . . . not to prove any final, sociological point, and not even as a conscious mockery: It was mainly a matter of life-style, a sense of obligation and even duty. If the Pigs were gathering in Vegas for a top-level Drug Conference, we felt the drug culture should be represented.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Page Number: 109-10
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 7 Quotes

The first session—the opening remarks—lasted most of the afternoon. We sat patiently through the first two hours, although it was clear from the start that we weren’t going to Learn anything and it was equally clear that we’d be crazy to try any Teaching. It was easy enough to sit there with a head full of mescaline and listen to hour after hour of irrelevant gibberish. . .. There was certainly no risk involved. These poor bastards didn’t know mescaline from macaroni.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis:

“Hell, in Malibu alone, these goddamn Satan-worshippers kill six or eight people every day.” He paused to sip his drink. “And all they want is the blood,” he continued. “They’ll take people right off the street if they have to.” He nodded. “Hell, yes. Just the other day we had a case where they grabbed a girl right out of a McDonald’s hamburger stand. She was a waitress. About sixteen years old . . . with a lot of people watching, too!” “What happened?” said our friend. “What did they do to her?” He seemed very agitated by what he was hearing. "Do?" said my attorney. “Jesus Christ man. They chopped her goddamn head off right there in the parking lot! Then they cut all kinds of holes in her and sucked out the blood.”

Related Characters: Dr. Gonzo (speaker), Raoul Duke, The Georgia Cop
Page Number: 146
Explanation and Analysis: