The Concept of Goodness: as captured by Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and The Book of Daniel Jack David Garceau College

In "Book VI" of the Republic, Plato states that the good in our souls is the "...authentic source of truth and reason," that the good is the cause of all"...that is right and beautiful (Plato 517c)," that it is through reference to the idea of the good that "...just things and all the rest become useful and beneficial (Plato 505a)." The Good, therefore, according to Plato, is the cause of the forms as well as the cause of knowledge and reason (Davis). In other words, the good is the cause of the exact qualities which we have up to this point found essential to the grasp of what goodness is. The three novels share the characters’ experience with both “goodness” and the deterioration of this “goodness” in many facets. And so, perhaps the most evident theme within these three titles (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Lives of Girls and Women, and The Book of Daniel) is the corruption of this “goodness”. Each novel attempts to define “goodness” through its characters’ contention in order to exhibit human existence without this “goodness”.

Initially, in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Dr. Gonzo and Raoul Duke discuss this falling out with goodness as it pertains to the American Dream and the people’s quarrel with their trust in the...