Distortions of the American Dream: The Effects

Distortions of the American Dream: The Effects of Materialism in Day of the Locust and the Great Gatsby

In both The Day of the Locust and The Great Gatsby, pursuit for the superficial and material in the world has become their driving focus, blurring the line between right and wrong. In this paper we will look at how materialism affects both Jay Gatsby and Tod Hackett.

We can see what direction the main protagonist in Day of the Locust, Tod Hackett, will go, just by looking at the word "hack" in his name. While in school he has decided to pursue the field of commercial illustration instead of pursuing the more rigorous field of painting art for arts' sake. His friends warn him that he is selling out. Tod has taken the possibility of a great education at Yale and has decided to help create superficial images of things that cannot be real for movies in Hollywood.

Jay Gatsby has taken a more overtly financial route. He does not claim to be an artist. He simply wants to accumulate wealth for what it will get him, in particular the love of Daisy Buchanan. While Hackett changes the focus of his trade to get ahead, Gatsby changes his last name from Gatz, believing that Gatsby will open more doors. Again there is a pun in the name. Reversed, his name is pronounced "be Gatz."

The issue of driving for money is not as overtly obvious in Day of the Locust as it is in The Great Gatsby, but it is there as an assumption. The movie industry is driven by large amounts of money, and those successful in it gain as least as much wealth as they do fame. Important characters in both books are clearly driven by money. Faye rejects Tod because he has neither looks nor money, but lives with Homer, who has only money to offer. The drive for this success corrupts all whom it touches in both books, in some cases more obviously than others. Jay Gatsby is completely ruined by his thirst for wealth, aligning himself with a notorious gangster to make his money.

He also pursues a woman who has previously rejected him for lack of money.

We have to assume that Tod Hackett knows that forcing a woman to have sex with him against her will is terribly wrong, but he is so beguiled by her superficial charms - even though he knows she is not being genuine - that he cannot resist the thoughts, and even an attempt. In addition to pursuing her through the woods with thoughts of rape, he befriends her father when he falls ill, thinking that these gestures of kindness will endear her to him. Like Gatsby, he ends up humiliated and rejected once again. Faye plans to prostitute herself to pay for her father's funeral, and when Tod attempts to discourage her, Fay and her prostitute friend laugh at him.

Both books emphasize superficial material worlds. The most normal person in Tod Hackett's life is a successful screenwriter whose life is a phony facade. His house is a bad replica of an ante-bellum mansion, and he himself plays the role of Southern gentleman when entertaining. Although a sophisticated and literate, he entertains his guests with superficial and material sex by taking them to a brothel. A similar attitude exists around Jay Gatsby. No one among his new crowd of friends knows where Jay's money comes from, although there are rumors. However, his parties are extravagant, and people attend them. After Gatsby's death, when virtually no one comes to his funeral, it's clear that most people were willing to use him, but not to be his friend.

Both men are surrounded by a caricature of the American Dream, the pursuit of material wealth, although Tod Hackett prefers to remain an outsider and observer, cynically dividing the people he encounters into groups, and only rarely seeing any good in those with whom he spends his time. They have both allowed themselves to get sucked into a world that promises easy gratification and quick money for the lucky few.

Neither character seems completely aware of how superficial and material their lives have become. Tod takes what seems to be considerable artistic talent and uses it to remain aloof of and remain superior to those around him. Even when he knows his friend Homer Simpson is in very serious psychological trouble, he delays going back to check on him to see if he can get a glimpse of a movie star first. He puts the people who are closest to what could be considered friends, and puts them in artwork (or plans to) in uncomplimentary ways. He notes the superficial quality of the architecture around him, and yet creates even more superficial buildings for movie sets. Gatsby, however, seems to believe that the life he is living is real, and good enough to win Daisy away from her husband.

The symbol of a dump figures in both books, a place where the unwanted belongings of a materialistic society are left as refuse. In Day of the Locust, the reference is more clear, described as a "a junkyard for imagination where all dreams eventually end up." In The Great Gatsby, the dumping ground is in the "valley of ashes" between New York City and the wealthy suburb of West Egg, Having to travel through the valley of ashes to get from New York City to the material success that is living in West Egg suggests the price many West Egg residents, including both Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, have had to pay to get there. In fact Gatsby only approximates the success of West Egg, living in the less desirable East Egg, although in a sumptuous manner.