Day+of+the+Locust

=Nathanael West - __The Day of the Locust__ (1939)=



West lived in Hollywood during the 1930s, making his living working as a screenwriter. Fittingly enough, the novel's protagonist is Tod Hackett, a painter living in Hollywood who makes his living as a set and costume designer. Because Tod is outside of the Hollywood elite, he believes that he is above them in a sense, that he understands why they do everything they do. While walking around the city, Tod classifies everyone he sees into two groups of people: the "masqueraders," people who pretend to be something they're not by dressing the part, in hopes that one day their fantasy will become reality, and those who "had come to California to die," or those who had been outcast by society. Tod, however, sees himself as somehow outside of either of these groups. "These were the people he felt he must paint" (242). Again, he is among them, but he is never one of them. He sees himself as merely an observer, a studier. However, there are points in the novel where Tod truly seems to fit into each of those groups.

Tod's greatest aspiration while living in Hollywood is to paint his masterpiece, entitled "The Burning of Los Angeles ." This painting is described as "a picture he was soon to paint, [which] definitely proved he had talent" (242). This is interesting, because he hasn't actually painted it yet. He thinks about it a lot; he is good at thinking about things, but when it comes to actually taking any action, he is hesitant to say the least. And really, it seems like Tod is content with sitting around thinking about things all the time, playing the role of the intellectual observer, without ever making anything happen in his life or anyone else's. However, while the book ends up being a list of observations that Tod makes about the people around him, it can, at the same time, be a criticism of West's about the modern culture of Hollywood.

Tod meets a whole array of characters. While Abe Kusich the dwarf and Harry Greener, the former vaudeville performer, seem to provide a Modern-Day Sideshow of sorts, Faye Greener and a little boy named Adore seem to act as West's criticism of feminine sexuality as portrayed by Hollywood. His inclusion of these characters, and how they are treated, all seem to act as his criticism of the world in which they inhabit. And, oddly enough, those criticisms all seem to still apply to the way our world is today. __The Day of the Locust__, then, is not just a picture of Hollywood in the 1930's, but it continues to be a picture of much of our culture today. Because of this, all the criticisms West makes should be seriously considered.

West, Nathanael. __Novels and Other Writings__. New York: Library Classics of the United States, 1997.
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