Day of the Locust

¶ … Locust

Nathanial West's novel The Day of the Locust is a dark story about Hollywood and its corrupting influences. Tod Hackett, the protagonist is a set designer recruited out of Yale to work for a West Coast film studio. The first half of the novel introduces the various characters and their failed ambitions and fading dreams. In the first chapter we find that Tod is working on a painting, "The Burning of Los Angeles" to prove his talent as an artist. The types of people Tod will portray in this work are multitudes he sees in the streets of Hollywood who "stared at everyone who passed. When their stares were returned, their eyes filled with hatred (2-3). They had come to California to die."

Homer Simpson is a bookkeeper from Iowa who came to California for health reasons. He is unlike other characters in the novel in that he doesn't seem to have any ambitions to become famous. His meek personality, repressed desires and bland life, (he sits in his backyard with a book he is not reading) offset the other characters and their self deceptions. Homer truly has come to California to die. He lives off his savings and a small inheritance.

On the other hand Faye Greene is introduced as a seventeen-year-old aspiring actress who made one film and is dreaming of stardom. She enjoys attention and being admired for her beauty. Though she holds some allure, the type of men that are drawn to her are as flawed as she. Faye has never learned to be genuine. Tod creates an image of her naked, running from an angry mob throwing rocks, with her eyes closed…smiling.

Faye's father, Harry, is a clown who was once in vaudeville. He now sells silver polish door to door. He still has aspirations of a successful career even as his health is deteriorating. It is ironic that this faded star sells silver polish. Each of these characters is practiced in the art of self deception. They all wish to be something other than what they are and are frustrated by their circumstances.

In the second half of the novel West explores the cruelty, hostility, and raw sexuality this chronic frustration breeds. On a camping trip violence erupts when too much alcohol is consumed and at one point Tod chases Faye through the woods intent on having his way with her.

Homer, who is also vying for the affections of Faye, has her move in with him when her father, Harry, dies. As a result Homer lets himself become Faye's slave, doing the housework, cooking her meals, and taking her shopping and to the movies. Homer eventually sacrifices all his dignity. When a kid throws a rock at his face in the last chapter of the novel Homer snaps. He chases the kid down and stomps on him, starting the riot Tod has foreshadowed in "The Burning of Los Angeles."