... . It is also similar to Breakfast of Champions tone and Closing Time's surrealism near the book's end, as Thompson's book is littered with fantastical set-pieces - this infusion of fiction and non-fiction helped convey the drug-addled mindset of its author. However, unlike Vonnegut and Heller's existential critique, Thompson's Stanislavskian reportage (that is, a kind of "method writing" conducive to great verisimilitude ... character, the absurdly-named writer of the absurd, Kilgore Trout. We are never actively shown Trout's thoughts in the book, but the reader is told many of his irrev...

• Word Count: 4213
• Approx Pages: 17

... American. Sawdust and rat droppings were mixed into the sausage meat and deviled ham that killed about three thousand U.S. soldiers during the Spanish-American war in 1898. Moreover, the poor and uneducated workers were frequently swindled into buying furniture, houses, insurance, and other things they couldn't afford, usually ... of Chicago working-class life: Men, women, and children were forced to work at a furious pace, even or more hours a day, in cold, damp, unsanitary conditions, under the artificial stimulus of aspeed-up? system. Employers assumed no serious responsibility for in...

• Word Count: 4457
• Approx Pages: 18
• Grade Level: High School