Comparing The Day Of The Locust And The Last Tycoon

Best of the Hollywood Novels: The Day of the Locust and The Last Tycoon
In the early 1940s, people were moving towards California for escaping from poverty and seeking the opportunity. It was the time of the World War II that the United States government was busy to participate in the war as a supplier of munitions. In these manic social circumstances, ironically, the literatures and films became popular. The writers and movie makers tried to include the social moods and issues in their works. Nathanael West and Scott F. Fitzgerald are one of the popular American writers, well-known for their implicative works of the time: The Day of the Locust and The Last Tycoon. Both stories share certain views of 1940s social issues, and sometimes both authors have different views. Although the characters of the both

In 1940s, California was described as a dream land or a land of opportunity. The literature and film industries of the Los Angeles showed quite conspicuously stability at that time. The image of the Los Angeles was the place of the opportunity and success. In the Nathanael West’s book, The Day of the Locust, the story starts with the actors marching in the Hollywood (West 59). Massive number of people out in Hollywood waiting to be hired or luckily be hired. The main character, also similar to those actors, Todd Hackett, meets love, job, and his future in the Hollywood. All characters in the Day of Locust come to Hollywood with certain hopes and dreams: fame, success, or money. Every character lives day by day with unattainable desires. In the Last Tycoon, it also happens in Hollywood. The main character, Monroe Stahr who is a young-successful producer, works and seeks his happiness in the Hollywood (Fitzgerald ep5-6). Both the authors try to put reality into their novels by using actual factors of the Hollywood. People come to Los Angeles with some hopes that most of them would never