Day of the Locust

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Day of the Locust is a novel written by Nathanael West. The story takes place in Hollywood, California, during the Great Depression. It showcases different individual’s adaptation to the Hollywood movie industry during the 1930’s. Today the way movies are run is entirely different. Movies in the 1930’s were Production based films; the bigger the production company was, the greater the movie was supposed to be. Today, films are much more Star based; the better the actor/actress, the better the movie. Hollywood in the 1930’s and Hollywood today serve different purposes. Hollywood in the 1930’s was where stardom happened, today stardom can take place anywhere and Hollywood is just the history of it. “A utopian society is a society is an ideal place or state with any visionary system of political or social perfection.” This vision is seen by the idealist, a person who believes in a utopian society does not necessarily see the world for what it actually is. They believe that there will be a time when all is perfect. On the other hand, “Dystopia is a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.” This is a realization for some of the world that we currently live in as well as life in the 1930’s. The character we follow in Day of the Locust, Todd Hatchett, someone who sees Hollywood as a perfect combination of a utopic and dystopic. The novel begins with an insight on Todd’s life. He thinks of himself as a painter and artist, but works in Hollywood as a costume designer and background painter. Todd is a man who likes to observe those around him, even if he doesn’t like to. He searches for the good in people through all their bad qualities. In the story we meet a few characters that Todd’s dystopic visionary applies to. The first one being the girl Todd loves, Faye Greener. Faye desperately wants to be famous. This puts her in
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