The Day Of The Locust Summary

439 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: The day of the locust criticism

In this Core 102 class, we are asked to read multiple readings and write summaries on them. Two of these readings are The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West and The Public and the Private Realm by Hannah Arendt. Both of these writers, base their views about politics in their writings. Nathanael West bases his writings around the people and how the people are, but he also writes about a broader meaning. He writes about how corrupt the government is. Arendt bases her writings around a “common world” that we all seem to live in and how we don’t understand truth. West’s story is based around multiple characters that take on important roles to make his point across to his readers. West describes multiple characters. By doing so, he points out

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of While The Locust Slept By Peter Razor

    236 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the novel While the Locust Slept, Peter Razor tells his life story about the discrimination and hardships he faced as a Native American boy. In the novel, Peter uses many flashbacks to his early life that help the reader to understand how he got to the places he is. The flashbacks show how discrimination has effected Peters life because he is Native American. Flashbacks in the book include bad experiences Peter had with teachers at the different schools he went to. These flashbacks help to reader to understand how many different situations Peter had to deal with at a young age because the reader understand that the bad experiences are not just happening at the time, but also happened in the past. Many teachers in Peters life exerted their

    Read More

  • Gerald Graff Disliking Books Summary

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    He too quickly dismisses the idea of reading on your own to find meaning and think critically about a book. For him, Graff states that “It was through exposure to such critical reading and discussion over a period of time that I came to catch the literary bug.” (26) While this may have worked for Graff, not all students will “experience a personal reaction” (27) through the use of critical discussion.

    Read More

  • The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Day of the Locust, Tod Hackett undergoes an internal development relative to his migration. Tod, an architect living in Connecticut, moves out to Hollywood to build scenery for movies. Yet, once he moves, Tod is transformed into a lethargic, non-artist who can no longer create his own drawings on paper. His surroundings drive these changes, as all characters in the novel are depicted in a similar fashion. Tod becomes one of the grotesque as well, laughing at the disturbing rather than the humorous. These new features signal Tod’s incapacity to return to his old self, as he constantly suffers from his migration. This comes full circle at the end of the novel when Tod is led away from the mob scene at the Hollywood premiere:

    Read More

  • Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

    1491 Words  | 3 Pages

    Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird to a group of high school students can be tricky, but insightful if done correctly. Instead of teaching it in an English classroom like it has been traditionally taught, it can be taught in a political science setting, teaching the students about the political limits in the deep south, utilizing Gladwell’s article. Gladwell uses Folsom, a former Alabama g...

    Read More

  • The Day of The Locust: Theme in Relation to the Author

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust is a modernist novel that is mostly told from the point of view of young Tod Hackett, a recent graduate of the Yale School of Fine Arts who has come to Depression-era Hollywood as a set designer. Because Tod is an outsider, his experiences throughout the novel allow him to observe the version of Hollywood that most never get to see, one filled with insincere and masquerading individuals. Tod also observes another group of people, “people of a different type” (pg. 2); they are middle-class Midwesterners who “stare” (pg. 2) at the artificial beings around them. According to Tod, these people “have come to California to die” (pg. 2). Nathaniel West largely based The Day of the Locust on his experiences in 1930's Hollywood. Like the main character, West, too, had lived in a rundown apartment and observed the various inhabitants of Hollywood. When the novel was first published, it puzzled many readers who had expectations for a story filled with glamorous and accomplished performers and movie makers. However, Nathaniel West purposely didn't use these characters in his novel and instead decided to focus on the majority of people in the city – the ones who struggle to succeed. The central theme in The Day of the Locust focuses on the people who live on the fringes of Hollywood and their search to fulfill, or repress, their desires. These people include Faye Greener, an aspiring actress, Homer Simpson, a seemingly harmless Midwesterner, and several other characters that Tod meets throughout the novel.

    Read More

  • Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust

    2642 Words  | 6 Pages

    Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust is said by many to be the best novel to be written about Hollywood. When we immediately think of Hollywood, we think of a glamorous story, in the picturesque setting of Los Angeles, full of characters with abundance of talent living the much sought after American dream. This is perhaps what sets West’s novel apart from the rest. The story is full of characters that have a vague impression of the difference in reality and fantasy in life. The characters are submerged in their lives in Hollywood, with what seems to be a false reality on how the world works. The untalented would-be actors, withering vaudeville performers and prostitutes place a certain grotesque over the novel from the beginning, and in a world of certain fantasy and chaos like this, violence is bound to come to the fore as a theme in many different forms. The protagonist of the story, Tod Hackett, is different to the rest of the characters in the novel. Tom is a talented artist, but still has a good view of reality by times, so Tom can act part as an observer in the novel. Tom however has been sucked in to the fantasy world also life has become somewhat submerged in the fantasy world.

    Read More

  • Writers During The Age of Discovery and The Romantic Period

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Common Sense.” The American Tradition in Literature, 12th ed. New York: McGraw Hill , 2009. Print

    Read More

  • The Only Way Out in Richard Miller´s The Dark Night of the Soul

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    Miller through-out the essay describes his grievances of the loss of importance our society has placed on literature. Millers essay compares many other literary works to prove his point. He compares the following: the shootings in Columbine, The Information by Martin Amis, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauers, Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes, Joining the Liars Club by Mary Karr, and the experiment in institutional autobiography. In this essay we will define what the dark night of the soul is, what helped me get through my personal dark night of my soul, and whether the statement “the only way it is through statement is true.

    Read More

  • Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

    1099 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. Literature: Reading & Reacting & Writing. 4th ed. Boston: Earl McPeek, 2000. 388-423.

    Read More

  • How Southern Socialites Rewrote Civil War History

    245 Words  | 1 Pages

    Stories can be dangerous for they can trap one’s thinking in a narrow mind, when the author’s biased opinion influences one. To Kill the Mockingbird by Harper Lee and “How Southern Socialites Rewrote Civil War History” by Vox both demonstrate the danger of the story through the author’s influence over the readers on topics.

    Read More

  • Literature's Unique Talent: The Bluest Eye, Night, Flowers for Algernon

    1864 Words  | 4 Pages

    Toni Morrison, Elie Wiesel, and Daniel Keyes each use tone, symbolism, and character to enrich the books on informing the readers of the social injustices in society. In addition to that, the three authors also use effective imagery and theme to illustrate to the readers how social injustice has affected the characters. For Pecola, it was her skin color and ugliness that constantly tormented her. The injustice that Eliezer suffered was the Holocaust. Lastly, it was Charlie’s mental disability that caused his loneliness. By using these literary techniques in literature, the devices truly educates the audience to realize these injustices that occur is a result of society not being highly informed of the topic at hand and its effects. When society is blinded by the social injustices, they are considered no different than the abusers themselves.

    Read More

  • The Virgin Suicides and the Writing Self

    1878 Words  | 4 Pages

    The writer telling the story has a much easier time of thinking about the facts of the reality he has created when he is fictionally an active member of it.  Although his narrators are not his normal voice, they are still a part of his writing self.  They still must go through the filter of his conscious thought to be allowed to write the story.  This means that when the reader is engaged in the process of comprehending this story, they unnoticeably bring together three separate filters.  The author's, the narrators', and their own.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Audience In 1984 By George Orwell

    328 Words  | 1 Pages

    There are several categories of Audiences. This paper will discuss two categories of audience in George Orwell’s popular novel, 1984. The categories are intended and actual. Intended being the authors ideal audience, and actual being the actual audience.

    Read More

  • Should Popular Fiction Be Taught In Schools Essay

    605 Words  | 2 Pages

    There has been many great debates about how the classic fiction books over the popular fiction and be taught in the school curriculum. Christopher Bantick had an opinion about how classic fiction should always be taught in the school curriculum. In his opinion he states that “Reading literary fiction leads people to perform better on tests that measure empathy”. And that if you read popular fiction it can get you nowhere. But others have argued that popular fiction books are better and are relevant to today’s kids. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird is a classic fiction book and it has been read and taught in many schools. In this essay I will be arguing about how the novel to kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee should be read in school rather than popular books such as “The fault in our Stars”.

    Read More

  • Family Values and Gender Roles

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Keep Within Compass." Creating America:  Reading and Writing Arguments. Eds.  Joyce Moser and Ann Watters.  3rd ed.  Upper Saddle River:  Prentice Hall, 2002. (219-220).

    Read More

More about The Day Of The Locust Summary

Open Document