Nataneal West "The Day of the Locust". Tod and Faye- comparison.

Nathaneal West is an important American novelist. He has specific point of view on American society and its behaviors. In the novel The Day of the Locust he describes the Hollywood dream world, and people who are trapped in that world trying to reach the goals they set for themselves. They are often fanatical and act obsessively. They do not see much of reality and are trapped in their self-centered dreams. Most of them seem to be good people, at a first glance, but they reveal they real selves in certain kind of situations: under stress, under influence of alcohol, or when their passions take over their behaviors.
Among all the characters in The Day of The Locust we meet Tod and Faye. Tod is a newcomer to Hollywood who is fascinated with that place in many different ways. Faye is an actress who dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. Both these characters are very fascinating and trying to compare them is very interesting. The way they act, their dreams, and how they want to make them come true are just seemingly different. They share many qualities, even though, at first, they seem to be far apart.
Tod came to Hollywood to work as a costume designer. His looks do not reveal how great talent he has. His slow and ?doltish? look on his face, his large body made him look very unattractive, unprofessional, and ?completely without talent?(2). His large body, and unattractive features made him look very off-putting to Faye. Once she even ??refused his friendship, or, rather, insisted on keeping it impersonal. She told him why. Tod had nothing to offer her, neither money nor looks??(10).
Despite his appearance, he is a very interesting and complicated man with a ??whole set of personalities, one inside the other like a nest of Chinese boxes?(2). He seems nice, and helpful but, on the other hand, he helps just if he has his own business in it. He doesn?t understand Homer?s good heart and the way he helps people by offering them his own place to stay in these economically difficult times. Tod knows what he wants and is willing to fight for it. Even though he seems harmless and calm, his fantasies and dreams are often very violent and brutal. He cannot accept Faye?s rejection. He is obsessed with her and is driven by that passion. We see Tod fantasies about raping Faye, often in a very brutal way. West constantly shows what is going on in Tod?s mind and describes his dreams: ?Tod waved him [waiter] away with a gesture more often used on flies. The waiter disappeared. Tod tried the same gesture on what he felt, but the driving itch [his obsession with Faye] refused to go. If only he had the courage to wait for her some night and hit her with a bottle and rape her?(127).
Tod is an observer of the surrounding world who tries to understand people around him. He is an artist that turns his emotions and anger in his drawings and paintings. Tod is a great individual that derives his inspirations from his desires, feelings, and pain. Every time he faces some difficulties in his life, he turns into art and becomes very involved in his painting: ?Despite the agony in his leg, he was able to think clearly about his picture, ? The Burning of Los Angeles.? After his quarrel with Faye, he had worked on it continually to escape tormenting himself, and the way to it in his mind had become almost automatic?(138).
Faye is Tod?s greatest muse and inspiration. She can awaken feelings and desires in him as nobody else can. He does not really love her. She is something that he can never have and that drives him crazy. She is unusually beautiful and charming. Although she was not very bright and often made foolish comments, Tod is an artist and is very sensitive to beauty. He enjoys being with her, but at the same time he realizes that he is chasing a dream that will never come true. He admits that chasing Faye is like ?carrying something a little too large to conceal in your pocket, like a briefcase or a small valise. It?s uncomfortable?(15). Although he sometimes gets tired of her and his obsession, Tod finds being with Faye very inspiriting and pleasant:
If Harry were asleep or there were visitors, Faye usually invited Tod into her room for a talk. His interest in her grew despite the things she said and he continued to find her very exciting. Had any other girl been so affected, he would have thought her intolerable. Faye?s affectations, however, were so completely artificial l that he found them charming. Being with her was like being backstage during an amateurish, ridiculous play. From in front, the stupid lines and grotesque situations would have made him squirm with annoyance, but because he saw the perspiring stagehands and the wires that held up the tawdry summerhouse with its tangle of paper flowers, he accepted everything and was anxious for it to succeed. He found still another way to excuse her. He believed that while she often recognized the falseness of an attitude, she persisted in it because she didn?t know how to be simpler or more honest. She was an actress who had learned from bad models in a bad school. (50)
Lets take a closer look at Faye now. Unlike Tod?s, Faye?s appearance is very attractive. West describes her as a ??tall girl with wide, straight shoulders, and long, swordlike legs. Her neck was long, too, and columnar. Her face was much fuller than the rest of her body would lead you to expect and much larger. It was a moon face, wide at the cheek bones and narrow at chin and brow?(10). Her hair is long and platinum. She is very vital ??taut and vibrant. She was as shiny as a new spoon?(39). Her look is professional and distinguished. She always takes care of her clothes and make-up. Her appearance is perfect, even artificial. She is always showing-off. Her ??beauty was structural like a tree?s, not a quality of her mind or heart?(75). In Tod?s greatest painting ?The burning of Los Angeles? ??Faye is the naked girl in the left foreground being chased by the group of men and women who have separated from the main body of the mob?She is running with her eyes closed and a strange half-smile on her lips?(54).
Her movements show her strong confidence and self-efficiency and at the same time they are very charming and lovely. She can easily drive men?s attention. She enjoys that it gives her vitality, sense of her own value, and importance. She likes to talk about herself to get attention. Even when she was saying nonsense, men were very involved in the conversation. It did not matter what she said, because her sensuality and sex appeal was overwhelming. All of them were under her spell:
None of them really heard her. They were all too busy watching her smile, laugh, shiver, whisper, grow indignant, cross and uncross her legs, stick out her tongue, widen and narrow her eyes, toss her head so that her platinum hair splashed against the red plush of the chair back. The strange thing about her gestures and expressions was that they didn?t really illustrate what she was saying. They were almost pure. It was as though her body recognized how foolish her words were and tried to excite her hearers into being uncritical. (110)
Faye can never regard men as something more than objects for her own satisfaction. She always uses people for her own purpose. Faye does not care about men and gives them just enough to keep them under her spell. She was not capable of real love or understanding. She is so ambivalent even to her own father who raised her as a single parent. When he was getting sick she was not able to show him compassion. When Homer suggested that her father could be really sick she did not even look at him and said, ?No, he?s crazy?(43).
Faye is very self-absorbed. She does not care much about other people?s feelings. When she came home one day, she was so occupied with herself, her looks and stories that she did not even notice that her father was laying dead on bed. After some time that he was not answering to her questions, and not responding to her annoying talking about the things he did not like ?she realized that he must be pretty sick. She didn?t turn around because she noticed what looked like the beginning of a pimple?(70).
All that Faye wants is a career. She is able to do a lot to make her dreams come true. She has childish ideas about working in the business and is not very talented. Tod remembers her in one of the movies where she worked as an extra. She had one line to say and ??she spoke it badly?(10). West gives us an explanation of why she thinks she faces difficulties becoming a movie star: ?The reason she [Faye] wasn?t a star was because she didn?t have the right clothes?(87). Again we see her using somebody for her own reasons. Faye made a ?business agreement? with Homer: ?He had money and believed in her talent, so it was only natural for them to enter into a business arrangement?(87). He was very generous to her and offered her whatever she wanted and still she was not satisfied with that, and was not able to be even nice to Homer.
She always acts. All of her moves, words, or gestures are not sincere and are ??so completely meaningless, almost formal??(40). When her dad was sick ?Faye bent over him. He saw, from under his partially closed eyelids, that she expected him to make a reassuring gesture. He refused. He examined the tragic expression that she had assumed and didn?t like it. In a serious moment like this, her ham sorrow was insulting?(41). Faye says, ?He [her dad] is an actor. I?m an actress. My mother was also an actress, a dancer. The theatre is on our blood?(44). She is a drama queen who states ??I?m going to be a star some day,? ? ? If I?m not, I?ll commit suicide?(44). Even her affectations are always played. West tells us that her ??affectations?were so completely artificial that he [Tod] found them charming?(49).
Faye is a dreamer. She dreams about being a movie star and she is creating stories in her head. Not really good ones, but ?all these little stories, these little daydreams of hers, were what gave such extraordinary color and mystery to her movements. She seemed always to be struggling in their soft grasp as though she were trying to run in their soft grasp as though she were trying to run in a swamp?(53). Faye dreams even about her dreams. She has that idea of selling her stories to the studios. Of course, again she wants to use somebody for her purpose. She asks Tod to write down her stories, because he is ?educated?. ?He agreed and she described her plan?As soon as they sold one story, she would give him another. They would make loads and loads of money. Of course wouldn?t give up acting, even if she was a big success as a writer, because acting was her life?(51). We see that she does not live in the reality. Faye, trapped by her dreams, is unable to be critical about them.
In conclusion, Faye and Tod, even though seemingly apart, are very similar. Beautiful Faye treats men as targets to fulfill her dreams, or wishes. Unattractive Tod treats women like objects of his desires. They do not know what love is or how to be compassionate. They just want to satisfy their desires and do not care much about what others think. They both are trapped by their dreams, and have a hard time dealing with reality. Tod is very contradictory person in compare with quite simple Faye, but both share the same narcissistic desires and attitudes. Both of them are egoists. They are both artists. The reality seems to be less creative for them than their dreams. Tod is seemingly nice, but has his violent dreams about raping Faye. For the reader it is easier to dislike Faye, but her behaviors are childish, and it seems like she just does not know any better. Both of them are very interesting characters.


Works Cited:
West, Nathaneal. The Day of The Locust. N.Y.: New Directions, 1975