The Dark Side of Hollywood Usually Hollywood is made out to be all about glitz and glamour. In Nathanael West’s book entitled The Day of the Locust, West explores the dark side of Hollywood we normally do not see. He goes about this exploration in a dystopian and grotesque manner. The very first reference to this grotesque and dystopian society occurs within the first chapter of the book. Nothing seems to be as it appears at first. “The fat lady in the yachting cap was going shopping, not boating; the man in the Norfolk jacket and Tyrolean hat was returning, not from a mountain, but an insurance office; and the girl in slacks and sneaks with a bandanna around her head had just left a switchboard, not a tennis court” (3). Throughout the
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“He was on the way to his room late one night when he saw what he supposed was a pile of soiled laundry lying in front of the door across the hall from his own. He struck a match, thinking it might be a dog wrapped in a blanket. When the light flared up, he saw it was a tiny man… It was a male dwarf rolled up in a woman’s flannel bathrobe. “(6). The nature of the characters can also be dark and twisted at times. When Tod attends a party at Claude Estee’s house he meets a lady by the name of Joan Schwartzen. She has a peculiar taste in elaborate illusions, “Its legs stuck up stiff and straight and it had an enormous, distended belly. Its hammerhead lay twisted to one side and from its mouth, which was set in an agonized grin, hung a heavy, black tongue” (12). She found this image of the horse to be fascinating.
Faye, a young seventeen year old, and the daughter of a clown (Harry) who had also been one to swarm to Hollywood on the quest to stardom, sought out fame herself. Her character is portrayed to be materialistic, shallow, and horrible at acting. Although she’s bad at acting, the people around her don’t notice because her beauty mesmerizes them. Throughout the book Tod shows a sexually violent interest in Faye, but he had “neither money nor looks” (10) that Faye was
“He was on the way to his room late one night when he saw what he supposed was a pile of soiled laundry lying in front of the door across the hall from his own. He struck a match, thinking it might be a dog wrapped in a blanket. When the light flared up, he saw it was a tiny man… It was a male dwarf rolled up in a woman’s flannel bathrobe. “(6). The nature of the characters can also be dark and twisted at times. When Tod attends a party at Claude Estee’s house he meets a lady by the name of Joan Schwartzen. She has a peculiar taste in elaborate illusions, “Its legs stuck up stiff and straight and it had an enormous, distended belly. Its hammerhead lay twisted to one side and from its mouth, which was set in an agonized grin, hung a heavy, black tongue” (12). She found this image of the horse to be fascinating.
Faye, a young seventeen year old, and the daughter of a clown (Harry) who had also been one to swarm to Hollywood on the quest to stardom, sought out fame herself. Her character is portrayed to be materialistic, shallow, and horrible at acting. Although she’s bad at acting, the people around her don’t notice because her beauty mesmerizes them. Throughout the book Tod shows a sexually violent interest in Faye, but he had “neither money nor looks” (10) that Faye was