"Burning of Los Angeles"

In the book The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West, Tod Hackett is an artist who was scouted to come to Hollywood to learn set and costume designing. After walking around Los Angeles, Tod sees people that are "of a different type"(West 23). Tod wants to paint these people who he believes came to California to die.

Throughout the book Tod's painting, "The Burning of Los Angeles", is coming to life. In the last section of the book West has Tod in a mob scene. Tod is painting the people he has met. He is painting Faye; "Faye ran proudly throwing her knees high. Harry stumbled along behind her, holding unto his beloved derby hat with both hands" (West 201). This quote shows Tod's view of Faye and her relationship with her father. Tod sees Faye as a selfish person who treats her father with little respect. In chapter 11, Faye hits her father to stop him from laughing (West 77). That scene shows that Faye is more concerned about herself than her dying father. Faye shows her selfishness when she first meets Homer and is taking about her father's condition. She stops taking and asks what time it was and Homer responds with one o'clock. Faye says, " `Oh,' she gasped prettily, `and I had a luncheon date'" (West 74). This scene shows that Faye cares more about missing her date than her dying father. Tod sees more of Faye selfish during the time he spends with her. While have drinks with Homer and Faye, Tod witnessed Faye wanting Homer to drink just because she was even though Homer said he could not drink. She forced Homer to drink and was pleased when he did what she wanted. Later in that same scene she was confronted about having Earl and Miguel in the garage. When Rod said they should go but Faye replied with "If they go, I g...

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...e the group is together become more and more violent throughout the book, just as the mob scene is in the painting. I think that the violence in those scenes showed that Los Angeles was not just peaceful but it had a dark side like hell (i.e. "The Burning"). I think "The Burning" part of the title could also foreshadow the mob scene that ends the book (i.e. burning means the chaos/rage of the mob).

Tod's painting comes to life when Homer began to beat little Adore. The normal everyday people whom he wanted to capture in his painting began to attack. The mob is now the setting for his painting; they were the background while the people that he intently followed and became friends with were the main focus. The painting did not focus on the normal Hollywood like movie stars and money but it focused on what Tod saw and most likely what West had seen for himself.