Published in the late 30’s, Nathanael West’s “The Day of the Locust” reads like the proof of the betrayal of the American Dream. Both spiritually and materially, this betrayal was what most people had in mind by that time, when they were living the Great Depression. This feeling is so close to this writer prose and literary project that poet W.H. Auden coined the term “West’s disease” to refer to poverty that exists in both a spiritual and economic sense.
“The Day of the Locust” is one of the best novels about the early years Hollywood, when everyone thought it was easy to be a star — not that nowadays this has changed, but today’s starlets don’t have the ingenuity that people had by that time. The narrative follows the lives of a couple of characters that are associated to the movie industry.
When it was published, “The Day of the Locust” was little noticed and was considered of `bad taste’ by many critics. West’s masterpiece’s acclamation came with time, when reader’s minds are opener to such a dark and pessimistic tale. Probably, by the time it was published, readers were so immersed in the issues that West brings up in his prose that it was difficult for them to apart from the problems.
The narrative floats between two poles. At one side, we have very realistic features — at the other, the movie industry looks surreal and even dreamy, what makes it very artificial, as a matter of fact. The main character is Tod Hackett, who has recently graduated from Yale University, and works as an illustrator and set designer for a movie company. He lives in the same building of Faye Greener, an aspiring and ambitious actress who doesn’t date him, because he is neither handsome, nor rich.
Through Heckett-Greener relationship, West will introduce in this book a handful of characters that are somehow linked to the movie industry and the flaw in the American Dream. One of them is Homer Simpson (no relation to the cartoon character), a kind of catatonic man who moved to Hollywood following his doctor’s advice after a bout of pneumonia. He doesn’t work and lives on the money he has saved. Trying to forget an uncomfortable memory he has of his love experience, he starts meeting Faye. And Tod becomes his friend of out curiosity.
The set of characters of “The Day of the Locust” borderlines the surreal and even, the grotesque. Faye’s father for instance is a man who lives in the shadow of his previous years of relative fame when he used to perform vaudeville clown. Now he his job is to sell homemade silver polish door-to-door. However, he still tries to get back to acting and find again the fame he thinks he once had.
By using such device, West paints a cruel and realistic portray of the early Hollywood. A bittersweet evocation of a civilization that is cruel and tender to its own citizens. Something that was cool five minutes ago can be outdated now. Actors and other professionals are not people any more — just tools to make money. Fame is something very relative. In the end, West says that those people will destroy and eat themselves — just like a mythological monster, making of “The Day of the Locust” an unforgettable experience.
Originalmente publicado em www.Amazon.com em 20/03/05
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