The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

Response Questions : The Day of the Locust

Question One

Great fiction often surprises the reader , and Homer 's violent response to Adore 's taunts is just such a surprise . This is not to say that when Homer is struck in the face with the stone , the reader does not feel a violent response is possible . But throughout the novel , the longsuffering Homer bears his cross with a "sweet grin (West 358 Perhaps a more prescient reader could foresee some latent violence in Homer 's "unruly hands " but this seems unlikely (264 . And

while there are signs that Homer is not mentally sound , his voyeurism outside Faye 's apartment being a prime example , there is little to hint at violence Throughout the novel , Homer meekly suffers Faye 's abuse . As the scene in the Cinderella Bar closes , Homer shies away from Faye "as though she were going to hit him (346 . This hardly seems like the same character who is capable of violently stomping a little boy to death

Question Two

At the end of chapter 19 , Homer attends a revival meeting at the Tabernacle of the Third Coming and observes the kind of people who "come to California to die (264 . The "drained-out , feeble bodies and [the] wild , dised minds " of the churchgoers presage the qualities of the rioters in the novel 's final scene (337 . On one Friday night , a man next to Tod , whose name "most likely was Thompson or Johnson and his home town Sioux City " stands...