The knowledgeable use of literary concepts and symbolism can be seen with Thompson's poetic relations between two related topics. This can be seen in the beautiful metaphor of: .
Old elephants limp off to the hills to die; old Americans go out to the highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars. .
Since almost all of Thompson's escapades with Las Vegas end with catastrophic conclusions, Thompson refers to himself under a false moniker while interacting with anyone other then himself. Therefore, the supreme authority in any situation that Thompson gets himself into always ends up chasing a figment of Thompson's imagination that goes by the name "Raoul Duke." He uses this name so much so, that the original 1971 pressing of "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas" are credited to Raoul Duke as the author. This complete disassociation between his own reputation as a journalist and this alter ego lets Thompson do things without fearing immediate repercussions. .
If any criticism is to be made about this novel it is only that it did not dig as deeply as it could have into its title's subject matter. The "American Dream" is specifically stated a total of five times throughout the whole 204 pages. It is addressed in the end of the novel after he talks about having a "monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger," and a little during the middle of the novel while he asks people at a drive through window of a fast food restaurant if they know where the American Dream is (they reply with "American Dream? Wasn't that an old discotheque? I think it's closed down now."), but it is directly talked about the most at the start of the novel. The period when Thompson is getting prepared to go on his "savage journey" when he tells his attorney: .