Nathanael West’s novels conjure an unsettling world where dreams are often deceptive, and reality is a grotesque parody of human aspirations. Through works like "Miss Lonelyhearts" and "The Day of the Locust," West crafts narratives that oscillate between the surreal and the painfully real, exposing the American Dream as a fragile construct. His protagonists are often questers in search of meaning, only to find themselves trapped in landscapes of despair and futility.

West's Unique Vision

In the shadow of World War I and the Great Depression, the 1930s spurred a disillusionment with the American Dream among writers. Nathanael West shared this sentiment but conveyed it through a unique, oblique vision. Unlike his contemporaries who often tackled sociopolitical issues head-on, West delved into the aesthetic and psychological realms, presenting a world steeped in surrealism. For West, life is a masquerade of false dreams, with reality grotesquely contradicting expectations.

This thematic pattern is evident across his four novels. "The Dream Life of Balso Snell" dismantles the dream of art, while "A Cool Million" critiques the Horatio Alger myth. "Miss Lonelyhearts" and "The Day of the Locust" reveal the impossibility of living by the Golden Rule and the deceit of Hollywood, respectively. In these narratives, protagonists pursue dreams that ultimately dissolve into grotesque revelations.

Classical Motifs and Grotesque Imagery

West weaves classical motifs into his narratives, including the scapegoat, the holy fool, and the Dance of Death. These elements play out in the climax of his major works, underscoring themes of sacrifice and mortality. The painter Tod Hackett in "The Day of the Locust" articulates West's thematic outlook, grappling with the monstrous nature of a world craving beauty and romance yet producing horrors.

West’s work, akin to T. S. Eliot’s "The Waste Land," portrays a fragmented world, yet it is more pessimistic and comic. His narratives, indebted to surrealism and psychoanalysis, particularly in "Miss Lonelyhearts," also reflect his moral irritation, possibly influenced by his experiences as an assimilated American Jew.

Narrative Style and Visual Imagery

West’s style evolved into a compact, cinematic approach, advancing narratives through intense, fragmented scenes. His experience as a Hollywood screenwriter influenced this visual storytelling. West’s fiction, often described in terms of motion and visual impressions, resembles a film script more than a traditional novel.

To depict desolate American wastelands, West employs grotesque imagery encompassing violence, sexuality, and death. His landscapes are inhabited by the malformed and victimized, portrayed as mechanical creatures or haunted by a spiritual deadness. This imagery is reminiscent of the nihilistic side of surrealism, where rationality is obliterated by the chaotic world of personal perception.

The Influence of Modernism

West’s work shows influences from dadaism, surrealism, cubism, Freudian psychoanalysis, and the French Symbolists, among others. These influences are apparent in the structure, character delineation, and thematic outlook of his fiction. His world is one of pervasive failure and defeat, inhabited by the lost and victimized, yet West infuses it with a darkly comic vision, recognizing humor in the absence of joy.

His fiction foreshadowed existentialism and introduced "black humor," influencing American writers after World War II. In this sense, West stands as a modern American writer.

"Miss Lonelyhearts": A Christ-like Quest

In "Miss Lonelyhearts," West's first major novel, the protagonist, a newspaper columnist advising the lovelorn, embarks on a Christ-like mission to find salvation through helping others. However, his quest exacerbates his impotence and alienates him from reality. The narrative's episodic nature and surrealistic imagery reflect West’s distinctive style.

The novel's setting in New York...