Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust is a modernist novel that is mostly told from the point of view of young Tod Hackett, a recent graduate of the Yale School of Fine Arts who has come to Depression-era Hollywood as a set designer. Because Tod is an outsider, his experiences throughout the novel allow him to observe the version of Hollywood that most never get to see, one filled with insincere and masquerading individuals. Tod also observes another group of people, “people of a different type” (pg. 2); they are middle-class Midwesterners who “stare” (pg. 2) at the artificial beings around them. According to Tod, these people “have come to California to die” (pg. 2). Nathaniel West largely based The Day of the Locust on his experiences in 1930's Hollywood. Like the main character, West, too, had lived in a rundown apartment and observed the various inhabitants of Hollywood. When the novel was first published, it puzzled many readers who had expectations for a story filled with glamorous and accomplished performers and movie makers. However, Nathaniel West purposely didn't use these characters in his novel and instead decided to focus on the majority of people in the city – the ones who struggle to succeed. The central theme in The Day of the Locust focuses on the people who live on the fringes of Hollywood and their search to fulfill, or repress, their desires. These people include Faye Greener, an aspiring actress, Homer Simpson, a seemingly harmless Midwesterner, and several other characters that Tod meets throughout the novel.
In The Day of the Locust, Faye Greener falls into to the category of the insincere and masquerading type. One of many of Nathaniel West's characterizations of 1930's Hollywood was that it was a plac...
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...ming harder and harder to repress. When he sees Faye sleeping with another man, he packs his bags and decides to move back to Iowa. He sits down at the bus stop, when Adoré , a boy child-star, throws a rock at his head. This is when Homer finally reaches his breaking point. He reacts by knocking the child down and stomping on him repeatedly. Nathanael West uses Homer in his novel as an everyman. West emphasizes that not all inhabitants of Hollywood lead glamorous lifestyles. Most have lives similar to those of everybody else.
Overall, The Day of the Locust counters the conventions view of Depression-era Hollywood during West's time. Nathanael West uses his experiences living in Hollywood to create elements of the novel that reveal the aspects of Hollywood that most never see. Today, The Day of the Locust is considered one of the best novels written about Hollywood.
In the novel While the Locust Slept, Peter Razor tells his life story about the discrimination and hardships he faced as a Native American boy. In the novel, Peter uses many flashbacks to his early life that help the reader to understand how he got to the places he is. The flashbacks show how discrimination has effected Peters life because he is Native American. Flashbacks in the book include bad experiences Peter had with teachers at the different schools he went to. These flashbacks help to reader to understand how many different situations Peter had to deal with at a young age because the reader understand that the bad experiences are not just happening at the time, but also happened in the past. Many teachers in Peters life exerted their
Although set in the 1930s, Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust ironically resembles contemporary Hollywood. Within the glamorous setting of Hollywood, West’s characters take on multiple roles instead of assuming individual personalities. They put on and remove these imaginary personality masks, similar to those in the Commedia dell’Arte, to exhibit a range of emotions that only their character type would exhibit. Consequently, West’s characters are trapped in this restrictive atmosphere, especially at the end of the novel when they become part of a collective mob. In these manners, the characters in The Day of the Locust exhibit qualities akin to modern actors, proving that they are nothing more than a cast of personages rather than individuals.
Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust tells the story of people who have come to California in search
Within Death of a Salesman, there are many themes, motifs and symbolism shown to help readers and audiences alike understand the writing. Arthur Miller implemented these developmental characteristics through showing the theme of success and failure, features of a tragic hero and the germination within characters. Through Millers writing, it is shown that the American Dream does not always end in a happy
In Nathanael West’s “The Day of the Locust,” multiple characters are introduced within Hollywood, California, which is widely regarded as the national capital of the film industry. One main character focused on throughout the novel is Tod Hackett, who West portrays as being superior to the fantasy observed around him. Many of the characters have traveled to Hollywood in pursuit of a personal, ambitious goal. However, there is a reoccurring theme of failure in their pursuits due to the fictitious personalities and actions they have created for themselves influenced by a setting full of artificialness.
There are some literary devices or methods that can be applied in analyzing a given story that can either be short or long. Other aspects include literary devices, contrast, repetition, and anomalies (Wallek and Warren, 1956). In this task, I will use the short story, The First Day, which is written by Edward P. Jones. I will provide a summary of the story and later analyze it by identifying the devices used and how they have been applied to bring out the meaning of the story. The story is about a little girl seeing her mother as a flawed woman. The first day of school or the young girl, she found out her mother is not perfect. It’s not easy when you grew up expecting something, but after a while you find out the opposite is completely right.
This compares to the movie Of Mice and Men because it shows that the actual author for this book really placed himself in this time. This reveals that to actually write a well written piece it’s better to place yourself to completely understand what is going on. Due to the fact that migration to farm labor in California was so big California became over populated, Lennie and George have luck finding a job that can get them by almost reaching them to their enormous dream at the
Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust is said by many to be the best novel to be written about Hollywood. When we immediately think of Hollywood, we think of a glamorous story, in the picturesque setting of Los Angeles, full of characters with abundance of talent living the much sought after American dream. This is perhaps what sets West’s novel apart from the rest. The story is full of characters that have a vague impression of the difference in reality and fantasy in life. The characters are submerged in their lives in Hollywood, with what seems to be a false reality on how the world works. The untalented would-be actors, withering vaudeville performers and prostitutes place a certain grotesque over the novel from the beginning, and in a world of certain fantasy and chaos like this, violence is bound to come to the fore as a theme in many different forms. The protagonist of the story, Tod Hackett, is different to the rest of the characters in the novel. Tom is a talented artist, but still has a good view of reality by times, so Tom can act part as an observer in the novel. Tom however has been sucked in to the fantasy world also life has become somewhat submerged in the fantasy world.
It could be said that tragedies serve as Humanity’s catalysts of thought. When we line up literary eras with wars, the shifts in eras are always marked by some war- especially in America. The Romantic period was broken by the dawn of the civil war, and took a little magic from the world of writing. Writing shifted to realism, which was the polar opposite of romantic thought. When the First World War broke out, the modernist movement overshadowed realism. Similarly, the Second World War produced postmodernism. Should there be another horrible tragedy, the view will shift similarly. Whatever the implications may be, tragedies seem to change how us humans think and act. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he tells the story of a group of schoolboys
Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, is a novel about British schoolboys, who survived on an island after the plane crash. This novel is an allegory: It is a literary work in which each character, event, or object is symbolic outside of the novel. It is allegorical in the level of society in terms of three major symbols. The conch symbolizes civilization, and helps to possess an organized law and order. Next, Jack, as the main antagonist in the novel, represents a savage in the society. Furthermore, the fire signifies the return of civilization and conflicts within the society. Thus, Lord of the Flies is an allegory for society since it represents good governance, humanity’s innate cruelty, and struggles to the return of its civilization.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
It tells a story about two traveling ranch workers, George and Lennie, trying to earn enough money to buy their own ranch. As it is set in 1930s America, it provides an insight into The Great Depression, encompassing themes of racism, loneliness, prejudice against the mentally ill, and the struggle for personal independence. The book can be a parallel of what many people were going through at the time. Also it touches on how skewed the American Dream could be or if it even existed at all. There were many themes that encompassed this novel and really represented what the United States was going through at the time.
In the early 20th century, modernist writers broke free of the consistent pattern on the themes of religion, marriage, and family values, branching out with their actual opinions and observations on society, making more readers aware of the corruption of the traditional morality in America. It became evident that the American people were placing lust, wealth, and material prosperity over their marital vows and traditional values. This idea of amorality is noticeably identified in the literary works, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, as well as in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Major characters in both novels show signs of demoralization, in regards to Tom Buchanan, for example, whom openly cheated on his wife, broke the nose of his mistress, and sold Gatsby’s fate down the river, and Abigail, whom slept with a married man and killed an entire village in spite of the deteriorated affair. In this new, cutting-edge society the concept of materialism is prevalent. Materialistic power became a goal for many Americans in modern America, which is identifiable in The Great Gatsby. People of East and West Egg indulged themselves with parties, pricey automobiles and the latest fashions, meanwhile, the people in the Valley of Ashes merely scraped by. Jay Gatsby out of his desire to 'own' Daisy went to great lengths to appear as a man of great fortune.
Bob Fosse’s dazzling adaptation of the plot is a key element that contributed greatly in making Chicago achieve the success it did. Set in the 1920’s, Chicago is based in the real-life murders trials of two women who were eventually exonerated of their alleged crimes. The film’s main characters are Roxie Hart, a housewife who often fantasizes about becoming a Vaudeville star, and Velma Kelly, a vaudeville queen b who desires far more fame than she already has. They both find themselves in the Cook County Jail on “murderesses row”. Crime and short-lived fame are the central themes of this movie. Murder and lies are sensationalized and glorified. It is no surprise that p...
Much of history’s most renown literature have real-world connections hidden in them, although they may be taxing uncover. William Golding’s classic, Lord of the Flies, is no exception. In this work of art, Golding uses the three main characters, Piggy, Jack, and Ralph, to symbolize various aspects of human nature through their behaviors, actions, and responses.