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The Great Red Shark is the huge Chevy convertible Duke and Gonzo rent for their trip to Vegas, and it symbolizes America and the American Dream in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The car is a classic American automobile and an icon of American culture. Duke’s understanding of the American Dream is inherently capitalist and involves hard work, both of which are represented in the Chevy. The automotive industry is a large part of America’s capitalist society, and the Chevy, when compared to the luxury of the Cadillac Duke and Gonzo later drive, is built for muscle and work.
This deeply American car makes Duke and Gonzo appear more American just by sitting in it, which is sure to help them find the American Dream, they believe. Duke tries to explain as much to the hitchhiker. “That’s why we rented this car,” Duke says. “It is the only way to do it. Can you grasp that?” Duke and Gonzo drive the car around the Las Vegas Strip for about forty-eight hours, abusing it and running it up curbs and sidewalks, and after Gonzo deserts Duke in the wake of their massive hotel bill, Duke jumps in the Shark and races back towards L.A. Duke is ultimately forced to abandon the car (it is way too conspicuous and he is a felon) but for the time that he drives it, the Chevy easily takes the abuse Duke hands it. The Great Red Shark thus also represents the resilience and hard work associated with achieving the American Dream, though this too paints a depressing picture considering the car’s fate.
The Great Red Shark Quotes in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Great Red Shark . 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:
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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.
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Get the entire Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Great Red Shark Symbol Timeline in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Great Red Shark appears in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part One, Chapter 1
...Gonzo doesn’t appear to notice. “It’s your turn to drive,” Duke says as he pulls the Great Red Shark , a large red Chevy convertible, to the side of the road. They are still...
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...in New York” has already reserved Duke a hotel room in Vegas and rented him the Great Red Shark . They have also advanced him $300, most which he has spent on a bag...
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...when my attorney starts screaming about bats and huge manta rays coming down on the car?”
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...their way to Las Vegas to find the American Dream. “That’s why we rented this car,” Duke says of the Great Red Shark. “It is the only way to do it....
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Part One, Chapter 2: The Seizure of $300 from a Pig Woman in Beverly Hills
The man at the car rental agency was equally suspicious. Duke had backed the Great Red Shark over a two-foot...
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Part One, Chapter 3: Strange Medicine on the Desert…a Crisis of Confidence
...and considers giving the Great Red Shark to him, but he has “plans for this car.” He wants to “flash around Las Vegas in the bugger” and do some drag-racing on...
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Part One, Chapter 4: Hideous Music and the Sound of Many Shotguns…Rude Vibes on a Saturday Evening in Vegas
Back in the Great Red Shark , Gonzo passes out behind the wheel and runs a red light on Main Street,...
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Part One, Chapter 7: Paranoid Terror…and the Awful Specter of Sodomy…A Flashing of Knives and Green Water
...Great Red Shark in front of their hotel, they are both “hyper-tense.” Duke decides the car will be safer in the parking garage, and he leaves Gonzo in the room alone...
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After Duke parks the car, he returns to the room to find Gonzo soaking in the bathtub, the water a...
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Part One, Chapter 9: No Sympathy for the Devil…Newsmen Tortured? … Flight into Madness
...plans his escape. He notices Gonzo’s .357 Magnum sitting on the front seat of the car. Great, Duke thinks. If he’s caught with the gun, he is going to jail for...
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Part One, Chapter 11: Aaawww, Mama, Can This Really Be the End?... Down and out in Vegas, with Amphetamine Psychosis Again?
...Red Shark. He will be on the open road for nearly six hours with a car “so full of felonies that [Duke] is afraid to even look at it.” Abandoning the...
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Part Two, Chapter 1
Duke pulls the car over twenty miles east of Baker. It is hot and he feels “like killing something....
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Part Two, Chapter 2: Another Day, Another Convertible…& Another Hotel Full of Cops
...the rental lot at the airport is the last place anyone will look for the car. As Duke waits for Gonzo, he drinks Bloody Marys for two hours “for the V-8...
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