John O’Brien’s novel and Mike Figis’ film, Leaving Las Vegas, could be taken as conveying an authentic vision of life because it represents the culture of Las Vegas and the life of alcoholism and prostitution. This is not enough to support this novel as being a great work of art. When reading the novel, the text does not disappear, and it does not become a transparent medium or vehicle through which experience can be seized and understood. It is far too difficult to relate to the characters of the story and to get involved with the story. Three main reasons why the reader cannot have a representative experience while reading this novel is the foul and distracting language, the individuals deliberate emptiness, and the materialistic consummation (characters are consumed in worldly immoral things).

The language that an author chooses to use in a novel plays an important role in providing the reader with a clear picture. The constant and persistent cursing in the novel is extremely distracting from the story being told. Besides the profanity, the novel referred to Sera and Sabrina as having made love three times. The word making love is misused in this novel. When this novel ref

All of the main characters of the novel were portrayed with emptiness. Ben gave his belongings away to good causes, like the goodwill, which showed that he didn’t need anything anymore. In the novel, John O’Brien spoke of Ben saying this, “he does all this deliberately with purpose.” Ben’s life was empty and all he had to look forward to was death. This is extremely evident in the flashback of his younger years. He would joke with friends that, “it was time to cut your hair, get a job, and just give up.” Ben was giving up. An eye opener for Ben was waking up on the floor; not remembering what happened the night before. He said that he used to be able to ask a friend to fill him in on the story; but he could no longer do that. Sera called her own life ‘a deliberate life’. She specifically said that she ‘sleeps until she wakes; is awake until she sleeps’. At one point of the story, the author spoke of Sera’s crying being a privilege to being alone in her room, and many times Sera longed to tell her story to someone, but she had no one. When she met Sabrina, she said that she was her first true friend of her life. Even Sabrina showed a life of emptiness when she wanted to run, but had nothing to even run from. The film never mentioned Sabrina, which left the viewer to believe that she did not have even one true friend her whole life. In the novel, it was ironic that whenever Ben and Sera would be hungry, there was great emphasis on how empty their refrigerators were, or how old the food was. This was a symbol of their lives; empty and rotting away. The film started out with showing Ben in his place of work; and his coworkers noticing his illness. Later on in the film, Ben fin

Some topics in this essay:
Ben Sera, Las Vegas, John O’Brien, Gamal Fathi, Sera Sabrina, las vegas, ben sera, Mike Figis’, leaving las vegas, Leaving Las, consumed worldly, deliberate emptiness, sera consumed, ben’s life, leaving las, characters consumed, John O’Brien’s, characters consumed worldly, reading novel, true friend life, characters novel, las vegas art,