Ken Kesey's Expression Of Self

The American Dream is defined as the pursuance of freedom and prosperity through hard work and perseverance. Ken Kesey, the Merry Pranksters and Hunter S. Thompson all saw themselves pursuing this dream through several different endeavors. Their writing and expression of self was one of the primary means of their reaching for freedom. The heavy drug usage that was a major part of the culture of the day and also attributed to the pursuance of freedom for this band of countercultural icons. These authors often used their writings as an escape and typically based the characters in their novels off of real-life counterparts who were figures close to the author (friends, family, lovers, etc.) as evidenced by the characters in Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and also in Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing series (particularly Fear and Loathing mainstay and Thompson persona, Raoul Duke). Ken Kesey was the earliest of those mentioned to have begun the pursuit of the American Dream through new avenues. Kesey connected those involved in the Beat movement and the hippie movement on both sides of the country. …show more content…
This book would not only document the psychedelic experiences of Thompson in Las Vegas, but would also give his view on the pitfalls of American society – consumerism and indulgence. The trip to Las Vegas helped Thompson to reach his American Dream because he was living according to his own rules – much like he did the rest of his life, but here is was not anything unusual – in this way, he felt like he was gaining his freedom and experiencing happiness. Thompson saw these things as the most egregious of societal trends in America, and chose to live his private life as nearly the exact opposite. His ranch, “Owl Farm”, was simplistic in nature and Thompson largely withheld from societal trends (if you do not include the drug and alcohol