Pining for Faye

In Nathanael West’s “Day of the Locust”, it seems that almost every male character’s ultimate goal is to end up with Faye. Fights broke out over her, and hearts are broken because of her. Tod, the character who most seems to want her, has an obsession so great that he might even want to hurt her in some way. Faye doesn’t have much to offer to these men, almost as boring of a character as Homer but because she is beautiful, it makes up for her lack of other skills in the eyes of these characters. Being a naturally flirty and outgoing person, men misunderstand her intentions, believing that she wants them when in reality, she has no intention of ending up with them. Tod struggles with this especially when his feelings for her start to become violent, especially when he feels that he could even rape her. Tod sees her as self-absorbed and focused solely on her own goals, a common conception of people living in Hollywood, a place where people go to obtain their own selfish dreams, without a care for other peoples goals. Homer, who also is pining for Faye, is the most boring and uneventful character in this book. By the end of the book, I was very caught off guard by the violent outbreak that took place during the cockfight. Faye, a symbol of the misunderstood norms of Hollywood, is also misunderstood herself. Men want her, but not for her, only for what she can give them.