  '''''The Day of the Locust''''' is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West, set in Hollywood, California during the Great Depression, its overarching themes deal with the alienation and desperation of a broad group of odd individuals who exist at the fringes of the Hollywood movie industry.  In 1998, the Modern Library ranked ''The Day of the Locust'' #73 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. ''Time'' magazine included the novel in its list of 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005, and noted critic Harold Bloom included it in his list of canonical works in the book ''The Western Canon''.[ Bloom. Western Canon]  == Plot summary== The book follows a young man named Tod Hackett who thinks of himself as a painter and artist, but who works in Hollywood as a costume designer and background painter. He falls in love with Faye Greener, an aspiring starlet who lives nearby. Between his work in the studio and his introduction to Faye's friends, he is soon interacting with numerous Hollywood hangers-on, including a cowboy who lives in the hills above the studios and works as an extra in cowboy movies, his Mexican friend who keeps fighting cocks, and Homer Simpson, a hapless businessman whom Faye is taking advantage of. The book ends with a riot at a movie premiere.  == Biblical allusions == The original title of the novel was ''The Cheated''.Aaron, Daniel. &quot;Review: Waiting for the Apocalypse&quot; ''Hudson Review'', Vol. 3, No. 4 (Winter, 1951) pp. 634-636  The title of West's work is likely a biblical allusion to certain passages in the Old Testament. Susan Sanderson writes:    The title may also refer to the plague that appears in the Book of Joel.  The riot that occurs at the end of the book—and its foreshadowing in Tod Hackett's painting—may be a reference to the apocalypse.  The climactic mob riot and violence may also be a direct reference to the swarming pattern of a plague of locusts.  From an entymological aspect, singular locusts pose no danger per se.  But if the density of the group is increased due to drought, limited food resources or overhatching, their clustering together and the forced physical interaction with one another causes them to become overstimulated, so that their serotonin levels spike. That chemical stimulates their nervous system and causes them to them enter what is known as a &quot;gregarious phase.&quot;  This triggers the desperate group to take part in what is termed &quot;collective motion&quot; - in the locust's case, taking flight and becoming a predatory and collective swarm, consuming anything in their path on a frenzy of destructive feeding.  ==Symbols and metaphors== James F. Light has suggested that West's use of mob violence in the novel was an expression of a generalized anxiety about the rise of fascism in Europe. Light also suggests that West may have written into the novel a more personal anxiety about his marginalized role as a Jew in America.Light, James F. &quot;Nathanael West and the Ravaging Locust&quot; ''American Quarterly'', Vol. 12, No. 1 (Spring, 1960), pp. 44-54  ===Themes=== All of the characters are outcasts who have come to Hollywood in search of a fulfillment of some dream or wish: &quot;The importance of the wish in West's work was first noted by W.H. Auden, who declared (in one of the interludes in ''The Dyer's Hand'') that West's novels were essentially &quot;parables about a Kingdom of Hell whose ruler is not so much a Father of Lies as a Father of Wishes&quot;.&quot;Barnard, Rita. &quot;'When You Wish Upon a Star': Fantasy, Experience, and Mass Culture in Nathanael West&quot; ''American Literature'', Vol. 66, No. 2 (Jun., 1994), pp. 325-351 In this respect, Light suggests that ''Day'' falls in with a general project that pervades West's fiction: namely, exposing certain hopeful narratives that pervade modern American culture as frauds.Light, James F. &quot;Violence, Dreams, and Dostoevsky: The Art of Nathanael West&quot; ''College English'', Vol. 19, No. 5 (Feb., 1958), pp. 208-213 As some critics point out, West's novel was a radical challenge to modernist literature. Modernists set themselves up in opposition to mass culture; West depicts it and makes it an integral part of the novel.[ Jacobs, ''The Eye's Mind: Literary modernism and visual culture'', p. 243 ff]  == Characters == For the most part, West's characters are intentionally shallow and iconic, and &quot;…derive from all the B-grade genre films of the period…&quot; (Simon, 523).Simon, Richard Keller (1993). &quot;Between Capra and Adorno: West's Day of the Locust and the Movies of the 1930s&quot;. ''Modern Language Quarterly'' 54 (4): p. 524. West's characters are Hollywood stereotypes, what Light calls &quot;grotesques&quot;.Light, &quot;...Ravaging Locust&quot; The novel's protagonist, Tod Hackett (whose first name likely derives from the German word for death and whose last name refers to a common epithet for Hollywood screenwriters and artists, who were pejoratively called &quot;hacks&quot;), is a set painter who aspires to artistic greatness. In the first chapter of the novel, the narrative voice announces: &quot;Yes, despite his appearance, Tod was really a very complicated young man with a whole set of personalities, one inside the other like a nest of Chinese boxes. And 'The Burning of Los Angeles,' a picture he was soon to paint, definitely proved he had talent.&quot; Over the course of the novel, we are introduced to several minor characters, each corresponding to a given Hollywood trope. There is Harry Greener the fading vaudevillian, his daughter, Faye the starlet, Claude Estee the successful screen writer, Homer Simpson the hopelessly clumsy &quot;everyman,&quot; Abe Kusich the diminutive, yet vicious gangster, Earle Shoop the cowboy and Miguel his Mexican sidekick, Adore Loomis the child star/prima donna, and Adore's doting stage mother.  ==Film== In 1975 a film based on the novel was made, starring William Atherton as Tod Hackett, Donald Sutherland as Homer Simpson and Burgess Meredith as Harry Greener.  ==Pop culture== The book is mentioned and remarked upon in ''Y the Last Man''. The main character describes it as &quot;the greatest novel of all time.&quot; The Pop Chronicles documentary includes an excerpt dramatically read by Thom Beck.[ Show 44 - Revolt of the Fat Angel: Some samples of the Los Angeles sound. [Part 4&amp;#93; : UNT Digital Library]  Although it has been suggested that ''The Simpsons'' creator Matt Groening named his most famous character, Homer Simpson, after the character of the same name in the novel, he likely named him after his own father. In several interviews given in 1990, however, Groening stated that he named the character after the Homer in this novel.[ Turner, ''Planet Simpson'', p. 77]  Donald Sutherland, who played Homer Simpson in the movie adaptation of West's novel, later provided a guest voice on ''The Simpsons''.  == Works cited == *  