The Day of the Locust (Identities and Issues in Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Nathanael West
- First Published: 1939
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Acting or actors, Authors or writers, 1930’s, California, West, U.S., Films, movies, or motion pictures, Hollywood, Filmmaking or filmmakers, Harlequin or Commedia dell’arte
- Locales: Hollywood, CA
The Work
At first titled The Cheated, Nathanael West’s final work, The Day of the Locust, takes its title from the plague of locusts set upon the pharaoh in the Book of Exodus. The Day of the Locust leaves the reader with a pervasive sense of horror that civilization is being destroyed. All the characters in the novel are cheated; they swarm to 1930’s Hollywood in search of cinematic dreams. When these dreams prove to be bogus, these characters, mostly from the lower middle class, turn violent.
The characters in The Day of the Locust are...
[The entire page is 749 words long]
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