Tushar Gupta

Day of the Locust- Analytical Essay

FSP 121-20

The Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West is set during the Great Depression- Pre-World

War-II time period. It tells the story of a man named Tod Hackett who, like many during the era,

has come to Hollywood in search of the American Dream. A recent graduate from Yale

University, Tod is an illustrator and set designer who was recruited by a Hollywood film

company. During the three months he’s been in Hollywood, he finds himself observing people

"of a different type"(West 23). These are people of the lower-middle class who, much like

himself, aspire to have the luxurious and posh life that the “American Dream” outlines. Tod

believes that these are the type of people that come to California to die.

Common factors hold (because they still do) back these American Dreamers in their

pursuit of success. Sex, drugs, and violence are all hindrances on the path to riches and fame—

hindrances that the main characters in The Day of the Locust are no strangers to. More than the

other two, sex, or “love”, affected the characters of the book in ways that potentially ruined their

lives. From Tod’s eventual realization of his desire to violently rape Faye Greener, to Faye’s

promiscuity, down to Homer Simpson’s ticking hands; lust is the central root of discontent in this

book. For most of the book, these characters are oblivious to the fact that their obsessive habits

are holding them back in life.

Tod chose his residence based on Faye. When Abe Kusich showed him the apartment, he

did not find it particularly special. Since he saw that Faye was living in the building, he rented

the place out. Immediately, without even knowing Faye Greener, Tod made quite an important

decision based entirely on lust. The apartment building he lived in, the San Berdoo, was not the

type of place anyone in the Hollywood film business should have been living in. By choosing to

live there (with mostly lower-middle class people), Tod automatically limited his options in

making valuable connections, connections that would further his career tremendously.

Eventually, Tod became completely obsessed with Faye—drawing her every chance he had,

getting caught up in the troubles of her life, thinking about her all the time (and that too about

raping her). This was in no way beneficial to Tod, and ultimately led to him to pushing aside his

aspirations in one way or another.

On another note, although it seemed as though Faye knew to not get emotionally

involved with anyone (refusing Tod, keeping Earle as an on-and-off fling, and working for Mrs.

Jennings) while struggling with her less than prolific career, she still did have problem with lust.

Faye’s flirtatious tease-like attitude is not something that always worked in her favor. Ultimately,

it led to the climax of the story (the after-cockfight party at Homer’s house) and to her downfall.

No man in the book could resist her, probably of the way she carried herself and talked, yet no

big time movie director would hire her; she was always an extra. Perhaps if only she toned down

her teasing, she would have been taken more seriously by the opposite sex and maybe even

landed herself a big-time role.

Finally, Homer. Nice, generous, and innocent (sort of) Homer. Even though Homer did

not travel to California in hopes of achieving the “American Dream”, he did go there to

recuperate and rid his thoughts of his one and only (close to) sexual encounter. Homer remarked

once in the book that chastity is the only thing he has left. Continuing, to some minimal extent,

Homer was in fact living in the American Dream—a very watered-down version of the American

Dream. He was out of work, surviving solely on his savings, which were plenty for his purposes.

He had the opportunity to essentially do whatever he pleased (usually sit down in the sun and

watch a lizard eat flies). When Faye came along, those feelings of repressed sexuality came back

to Homer and took over him. He opened his home to her, bought her clothing every day, paid for

all of her living expenses and knew deep down that he would probably get nothing in return.

Homer’s extreme infatuation with Faye turned into quite a nightmare towards the end of the

book resulting in Homer’s personality doing a three-hundred-and-sixty degree flip. Wires all

screwed up, Homer assaulted a child in the last chapter of the book; an action the pre-Faye-

infatuated Homer would never do.

All in all it was the guilty pleasures of lust that was the demise of these characters. They

gave in to their desires, and lost themselves in the process. Tod was not able to further his career

in stage design, since he wasted so much of his time thinking about and drawing Faye. Faye used

her lustful personality to get men to fall to their knees for her, even though she was never really

taken seriously. Finally, Homer burned himself out with the high that he got from living with

Faye; he truly fell for her tease. These characters all would have acted practically had they not

been so lost. If there’s one thing that this book illustrates, it’s that there’s no place for “love” on

the road to the American Dream.