NATHANAEL WEST^S ATTITUDE TOWARD
WOMEN AS EXPRESSED IN
HIS NOVELS
by
BARBARA YARDLEY OAKES, B.S. IN ED.
A THESIS
IN
ENGLISH
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Approved
Accepted
May, 1974
%5
Ti
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I am deeply indebted to Dr. Jack Wages for his
direction of this thesis.
11
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I,
II.
III.
IV.
V,
VI.
ii
INTRODUCTION
1
THE DREAM LIFE OF BALSO SNELL
21
MISS LONELYHEARTS
32
A COOL MILLION
43
THE DAY OF TH£ LOCUST
51
CONCLUSION
60
BIBLIOGRAPHY
65
111
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Nathanaei West wrote only four novels before his death
in 1940.
These four novels, which are an important part of
twentieth century American fiction are:
The Dream Life of
Balso Snell (1931), Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) , A Cool Million
(1936), and The Day of the Locust (1939) . In each of these
novels. West presents an indictment of certain aspects of
the American society as he perceives it.
West uses the
techniques of parody and satire to comment on the effects
of a powerful society on its members.
In the American
society West sees spiritual values replaced by material
ones and individuality overshadowed by stereotyped roles .
West uses the interrelationships and interactions of
his characters in these four novels to make his indictments.
Society has so shaped its members that they have warped
values which they themselves cannot understand.
Manipulated
by a senseless society, they live meaningless lives; the
one character (Miss Lonelyhearts, in Miss Lonelyhearts) who
does actively search for a meaning to his world loses touch
with reality.
It is his realization that there are no
answers and that there is no meaning that causes his
eventual insanity.
West's characters are portrayed with a sense of
pessimism and hopelessness.
In trying to survive in their
world, they are frequently cruel and unfeeling.
West does
not condemn these characters so much as pity them.
Rather
than pass judgment on their weaknessess and failings, he
seeks to show motivation behind their behavior.
The women in West's four novels are among the emptiest
of his characters.
They are often cruel and unthinking,
and, in most cases, they are incredibly stupid.
Although
several critics have taken the portrayal of West's female
characters to be an indication that he felt a type of
antagonism toward women, this attitude is incorrect.
West pities his female characters just as he does the
male characters in the novels.
These women have been
mistreated by their pasts and their society to the extent
that they have been molded into vapid, self-centered
creatures.
An analysis of the principal female characters
in West's novels will show that he is understanding and
sympathetic toward their plights; he is no more antagonistic
about them than he is the rest of suffering humanity.
West
may hate society as a whole, but he does not hate the
individuals who comprise it.
Only a moderate amount of analysis has been directed
toward this topic.
The criticism available to date can be
divided into two major areas:
the question of homosexuality
in Miss Lonelyhearts and the question of West's general
attitude about the female characters in his novels.
The question of homosexuality in West's
Miss Lonelyhearts has been raised and discussed by several
of West's critics, particularly Stanley H3n]ian, Victor
Comerchero, and Randall Reid.
If Miss Lonelyhearts were
a homosexual, as Hjnnan and Comerchero contend, then West's
attitude toward the female characters in the novel would
be seen in a different light than if Miss Lonelyhearts were
not a homosexual, as Reid rightly contends.
There is little doubt that the principal women in the
novel--Betty, Fay Doyle, and Mary Shrike--are not altogether
admirable.
Betty is unable to comprehend Miss Lonelyhearts'
situation and frustration because of her utterly simplistic
view of life; Fay uses Miss Lonelyhearts for her own
sexual gratification and treats her crippled husband with
cruelty; and Mary Shrike uses both Miss Lonelyhearts and
her husband to satisfy her faltering ego.
Are these
characters presented the way that they are as a result of
Miss Lonelyhearts' homosexual interpretation of them, or
are their actions a result of the way society has treated
them?
With these two alternatives in mind, the question of
homosexuality of Miss Lonelyhearts becomes one of great
importance with regard to West's attitudes toward his
female characters in the novel.
Stanley Hyman is the critic who first presents the
idea that Miss Lonelyhearts is a latent homosexual. The
scene in which this homosexual tendency is most prominently
revealed is the one in which Miss Lonelyhearts is shot.
This scene is, according to H3mian, a homosexual tableau, in
which the two men embrace and the bullet (a phallic symbol)
passes into Miss Lonelyhearts' body.
This crucial scene in Miss Lonelyhearts is found in
the final pages of the novel:
He rushed down the stairs to meet Doyle with
his arms spread for the miracle.
Doyle was carrying something wrapped in a
newspaper. When he saw Miss Lonelyhearts, he put
his hand inside the package and stopped. He shouted
some kind of warning, but Miss Lonelyhearts continued
his charge. He did not understand the cripple's
shout and heard it as a cry for help from Desperate,
Harold S., Catholic-mother, Broken-hearted, Broadshoulders, Sick-of-it-all, Disillusioned-withtubercular-husband. He was running to succor them
with love.
The cripple turned to escape, but he was too
close and Miss Lonelyhearts caught him.
While they were struggling, Betty came in
through the street door. She called to them to
stop and started up the stairs. The cripple saw
her cutting off his escape and tried to get rid of
the package. He pulled his hand out. The gun inside
the package exploded and Miss Lonelyhearts fell,
dragging the cripple with him. They both rolled part
of the way down the stairs.^
Stanley Edgar Hyman. Nathanaei West (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1962) , p. 22.
Nathanaei West. Miss Lonelyhearts in The Complete
Works of Nathanaei West (New York: Farrar, Straus, and
Cudahy, Inc., 1957), p. 140.
Hyman sees Miss Lonelyhearts' relationship with Doyle
as being an indication of homosexuality.
At two points in
the novel the two men clasp hands--once in Delehanty's bar
and once in Doyle's home. This homosexual tendency, as
Hyman sees it, is a result of a "case history" which Hyman
has conceived.
In this case history of Miss Lonelyhearts'
past, one sees a child who is terrified of a strict and
religious father and who, as a result, turns to his soft
and loving mother for comfort. He develops an Oedipus complex, which Hjrman contends is enacted in the scene in
which Miss Lonelyhearts tries to seduce Mary Shrike but
must relinquish her to her waiting husband. According to
Hyman, West was conscious of the homosexual tendency in
Miss Lonelyhearts as he wrote the novel. He contends that
West's awareness is revealed in the name West assigned to
the character. Miss Lonelyhearts is given a feminine name
3
because of his feminine nature.
Victor Comerchero agrees with Hyman's interpretation
of Miss Lonelyhearts' sexual inclinations. He points out
a niomber of phallic symbols and images which are seen
during moments of emotional disturbance for Miss Lonelyhearts.
3
Hyman, p. 23.
Victor Comerchero. Nathanaei West: The Ironic
Prophet (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1967), p. 96
For example, the morning after Miss Lonelyhearts and Shrike
torment the old man, Miss Lonelyhearts takes a walk and ends
up sitting on a bench opposite the Mexican obelisk, which
West describes in this way:
The stone shaft cast a long, rigid, shadow on
the walk in front of him. He sat staring at it
without knowing why until he noticed that it was
lengthening in rapid jerks, not as shadows usually
lengthen. It seemed red and swollen in the dying
sun, as though it were about to spout a load of
granite seed.^
Comerchero also feels that other parts of the novel
hint at Miss Lonelyhearts' homosexuality.
At one point,
for instance. Shrike asks Miss Lonelyhearts, "Oh, so you
don't care for women, eh?"
Furthermore, Comerchero
contends that Miss Lonelyhearts' reactions and responses
to Betty and to the old man reveal his homosexual
tendencies.
Miss Lonelyhearts is preoccupied with breasts,
is usually sexually imresponsive, and enjoys being sexually
pursued by Fay Doyle.
Comerchero sees all of these actions
as being indicative of Miss Lonelyhearts' true sexual
nature.8
\est, p. 89.
Sest, p. 72.
Comerchero, p. 97,
Q
Comerchero, p. 98.
Comerchero finds further support for his contention
that Miss Lonelyhearts is homosexual in the dream which
Miss Lonelyhearts experiences.
In this dream.
Miss Lonelyhearts and some school friends attempt to
slaughter a sheep in a sacrificial manner. Miss Lonelyhearts
is the one responsible for their lack of success, because
he breaks the knife on a stone.
Comerchero sees this
breaking of the knife as a reflection of Miss Lonelyhearts'
9
castration anxiety.
Comerchero sees this type of sexual repression
expressed in Day of the Locust, as well as in
Miss Lonelyhearts.
Homer, Comerchero contends, is an
example of a sexually repressed character.
His sleep
disturbance is a symbol of repressed conflict; his hands
reflect sexual frustration.
When he is around women, his
hands become a great source of embarrassment to' him.
Randall Reid disagrees with both Hyman and Comerchero,
and the points he makes in disagreeing with their interpretations are quite valid.
Reid begins by pointing out
that West once stated that pyschology has nothing to do
with reality.
Comerchero and Hyman, therefore, contradict
West's own viewpoint concerning his characters with their
g
Comerchero, p. 99.
Comerchero, p. 145.
8
somewhat Freudian analysis of Miss Lonelyhearts.
Furthermore, Reid points out that Hyman's hypothetical
case history of Miss Lonelyhearts* childhood rests too
heavily on mere speculation.
For example. West reveals
that Miss Lonelyhearts had a religious father; he does
not state that Miss Lonelyhearts' father was stern, nor
does he imply that Miss Lonelyhearts was terrified of his
f a t h e r . •'••'•
Hyman's interpretation of the final scene in the
novel as a "homosexual tableau" is not a valid one, as
Reid aptly demonstrates.
He writes that Miss Lonelyhearts
has lost his sense of particular identity of people.
Miss Lonelyhearts instead projects an abstract idea upon
the person of Doyle, whom he really does not recognize.12
Miss Lonelyhearts does not rxjn to embrace Doyle as a
lover, but rather as an example of suffering humanity.
If
one reads the passage carefully, he will see that when
West writes that Miss Lonelyhearts thinks that Doyle's
shouted warning is a "cry for help from Desperate, Harold
S., Catholic-mother, Broken-hearted, Broad-shoulders, Sickof -it-all, Disillusioned-with-tubercular-husband," he is
Randall Reid. The Fiction of Nathanaei West: No
Redeemer, No Promised Land (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1967T, p. 74.
•^^Reid, p. 76.
not writing about homosexual love. Miss Lonelyhearts
embraces Doyle, because he truly wants to "succor them
with love." Miss Lonelyhearts loves Doyle as a representative of all suffering people, rather than as a sexual
partner. To interpret this crucial passage as evidence
of Miss Lonelyhearts' sexual tendencies is simply to fail
to read it carefully and in context.
While it is true that Miss Lonelyhearts frequently
fails to respond to the female characters in a normal
sexual manner, Reid points out that this deadness on the
part of Miss Lonelyhearts is not limited to sexual matters
13
alone; it is seen in all of his responses.
This obser-
vation is a valid one, for "wasteland" images are seen
frequently throughout the novel. For example, as
Miss Lonelyhearts walks through a park on his way to
Delehanty's speakeasy, the scenery is described as barren.
West describes Miss Lonelyhearts' view in this way:
As far as he could discover, there were no
signs of spring. The decay that covered the
siorface of the mottled ground was not the kind
in which life generates. Last year, he
remembered. May had failed to quicken these
soiled fields. It had taken all the brutality
of July to torture a few green spikes through
the exhausted dirt.14
"^^Reid, p. 80.
""•^est, p. 70.
10
This barrenness found in Miss Lonelyhearts' life is
essential to West*s major themes in the novel.
It is only
natural, therefore, that Miss Lonelyhearts would be
imresponsive to sex in its socially acceptable form. To
say that he is a homosexual, however, is to push the point
to an extreme. Although Miss Lonelyhearts responds only
infrequently to women in a sexual way, he never responds
sexually to men. He holds hands with Doyle, it is true,
but only as an attempt to humble and rejuvenate himself;
no sexual feelings are involved.
In fact, Miss Lonelyhearts
must force himself to grasp Doyle's hand at all. After
they leave the speakeasy where they had held hands under
the table, Miss Lonelyhearts is happy and busy thinking of
"the triumphant thing his humility had become."
Randall Reid most aptly counters the interpretations
of a homosexual Miss Lonelyhearts by Hyman and Comerchero
by stating that the homosexual interpretation is "...so
weak that it requires us to ignore many of the novel's
details and invent others. It is also quite irrelevant to
the novel's issues."
^^West, p. 126.
^^Reid, p. 77.
11
Although a moderate amount of writing has been devoted
to the question of homosexuality in West's novels, very
few critics have devoted their attention to the question
of West's true attitude toward his female characters. This
attitude must, however, be determined if one is to have a
thorough understanding of West's novels. One may be prone
to accept James Light's statement that West showed a
parodoxical mixture of idealization and contempt for
women.
This superficial type of interpretation, however,
avoids facing the problem directly; it is a problem which
must be faced directly, and it is one which can be understood.
Irving Malin attempts to understand West's attitude
toward his women characters by classifying them into one
of two groups: maternal or destructive. The first group,
maternal, contains such characters as: Betty and Fay in
Miss Lonelyhearts, Mrs. Pitkin in A Cool Million, and
Miss McGeeney in The Dream Life of Balso Snell. Faye
Greener, a character in The Day of the Locust, is classified
by Malin as a destructive female. 18
James F. Light. Nathanaei West: An Interpretative
Study (Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1972),
p" 182.
"*-°Irving Malin. Nathanaei West's Novels (Illinois:
Southern Illinois University Press, 1972) , p. 5.
12
Malin's system of classification is valid, but it is
somewhat limited in scope and should be extended.
The two
major divisions of the classification system should be:
maternal characters and sjnnbols of nature. The second
category can be divided further to include symbols of
innocent nature and symbols of destructive nature.
Mrs. Pitkin (A Cool Million), Miss McGeeney (Balso
Snell), and Betty (Miss Lonelyhearts) should be included
in the maternal category.
Each of these women tries to
mother the main male character in their respective novels.
Mrs. Pitkin, Lemuel's mother, plays the stereotyped
maternal figure in A Cool Million.
She is a widow whose
mortgage on her house is foreclosed.
She depends upon
Lemuel to take care of her, and West writes that "like all
mothers, Mrs. Pitkin was certain that her child must
succeed."19 It is for his mother that Lemuel strikes out
to make his fortune, and she is thereby the indirect cause
of all of his suffering. Miss McGeeney, in The Dream Life
of Balso Snell, plays several different roles with Balso
Snell, but one of her roles is somewhat maternal in nature.
At first he sees her as a desirable young girl, and he
embraces her.
"But when he closed his eyes to heighten the
fun," West writes, "he felt that he was embracing tweed.
1 Q
Nathanaei West. A Cool Million in The Complete Works
of Nathanaei West (New Yorlcl ^Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy,
Inc., 1957), p7~r57.
13
He opened them and saw that what he held in his arms was a
middle aged woman dressed in a mannish suit and wearing
hornrimmed glasses," ^
She later reveals herself as his
childhood sweetheart, but for a moment, at least, she
appears as a quite matronly figure.
Although Betty fits into more than one category, she
does play a maternal role in Miss Lonelyhearts.
When
Miss Lonelyhearts is sick, she brings him hot soup.
West
writes that Miss Lonelyhearts "was too tired to be annoyed
by her wide-eyed little mother act and let her feed him
with a spoon."21 She also takes Miss Lonelyhearts to the
country in hopes of curing him; this action is also in
keeping with her maternal attitude toward Miss Lonelyhearts.
Betty can be classified as a character who is symbolic of
nature's innocence as well as a maternal figure.
Stanley
H)rman writes of Betty and Miss Lonelyhearts that "she is an
innocent Eve to his fallen Adam, and he alone is driven out
of Eden."22 Victor Comerchero also sees Betty as a
representative of innocence in nature on a mythic level.
Nathanaei West. The Dream Life of Balso Snell in
The Complete Works of Nathanaei West (Farrar, Straus, and
Cudahy, Inc . , 1957) , pT^T]
West, Miss Lonelyhearts, p. 105.
22
Hyman, p. 17.
14
She symbolizes, he contends, the restorative feminine
principle which is found in nature. This restorative principle can be seen in her actions of taking Miss Lonelyhearts
to the zoo and to the farm in Connecticut.
Both Fay Doyle (Miss Lonelyhearts) and Faye Greener
CDay of the Locust) are s3mibols of the destructive aspect
of nature in contrast to the innocent aspect of nature
which Betty represents. Fay Doyle is an embodiment of
powerful and destructive elements of nature. She is
described in terms of nature when she and Miss Lonelyhearts
are alone for the first time. West writes that:
She made sea sounds; something flapped like a
sail; there was the creak of the ropes; then he
heard the wave-against-a wharf smack of rubber
on flesh. Her call for him to hurry was a
sea-moan, and when he lay beside her, she
heaved, tidal, moon-driven.24
Randall Reid contends that "Fay embodies that mindless
force of nature which is doomed by its own voracity....
Nature is ruthlessly indifferent to its own products--and
incapable of being satisfied by them." For this reason,
Reid feels. Fay's being married to Doyle is ironic. Their
marriage is disasterous and indissoluble, because it joins
23
Comerchero, p. 86.
^^est, p. 101.
15
the life force, which Fay represents, and its victims,
which Doyle represents.
This destructive element of Fay's character destroys
what is left of her crippled husband's ego.
she reduces him to the level of an animal.
At one point,
While
Miss Lonelyhearts watches, she becomes furious with Doyle.
West writes that:
She rolled a newspaper into a club and struck her
husband on the mouth with it. He surprised her by
playing the fool. He growled like a dog and caught
the paper in his teeth. When she let go of her
end, he dropped to his hands and knees and continued
the imitation on the floor.26
It is shortly after this total loss of his self-esteem
that Doyle decides to shoot Miss Lonelyhearts.
Faye Greener is even more destructive than is Fay
Doyle.
Faye, in The Day of the Locust, represents, as
Stanley H3niian suggests, nature that is deceptive.27 The
artificiality of society is a major theme in The Day of the
Locust, and it therefore is appropriate that the main female
character is an embodiment of destructive, deceptive nature.
^\eid, p. 99.
^^West, p. 128.
27
Hyman, p. 34.
16
Whatever the causes, Faye is extremely artificial in both
her speech and use of gestures.
Malin points out that it is appropriate that the first
view the reader has of Faye is a picture.
"Even when she
appears in person," Malin writes, "she is on film as it
were--an object to behold."^^
The first description of Faye
that West gives the reader is a description of a photograph.
West describes Faye in this manner:
In it she was wearing a harem costume, full
Turkish trousers, breastplates and a monkey
jacket, and lay stretched out on a silken divan.
One hand held a beer bottle and the other a
pewter stein.29
From the first, then, Faye is seen as an artificial
character.
She is also terribly destructive.
She is the
cause of Homer's breakdown, and as a result, she is indirectly
responsible for the death of Adore and the mob violence
which marks the end of The Day of the Locust. Randall Reid
states that "when Faye, the whore of everybody's dreams,
succeeds in totally destroying Homer, the fury of all the
cheated dreamers is unleashed.
The mob riots, threatening
^^Malin, p. 88.
29
Nathanaei West. The Day of the Locust in The
Complete Works of Nathanaei West~rNew York: Farrar, Straus,
and Cudahy, Inc., 1957) , p. 27117
17
to destroy everyone and everything except Faye herself."^^
Faye, like the destructive power of nature, is
invulnerable.
West explains that "nothing could hurt her.
She was like a cork.
No matter how rough the sea got, she
would go dancing over the same waves that sank iron ships
and tore away pieces of reinforced concrete."
Like Malin, Comerchero tends to categorize West's
female characters, but his classifications are much more
loosely structured than those of Malin.
Comerchero presents character types.
Basically,
He sees, for example.
Miss McGeeney of The Dream Life of Balso Snell as a
character used by West to point out the way overintellectualism causes women to be unfeminine.
Comerchero writes
that "what West wanted women to be is unclear; but he did
not want them to be intellectual.
appear ridiculous.
When they are, they
When they are the opposite, they are
either insipidly wholesome of destructively animalistic..."
Comerchero sees both Bettys (of Miss Lonelyhearts and
A Cool Million) as vapid and without depth.
This type of
female character is serene and terribly simpleminded.
^^Reid, p. 139.
^•'•West, p. 406.
18
Betty in A Cool Million, for example, is so simple that
nothing affects her, not even repeated rapes or being sold
32
into slavery.
Both of the Bettys suffer some physical
violance and are victims of hostility, yet they both
continually respond calmly.
At the other extreme, Comerchero sees the female
character type which is exemplified by Fay Doyle in
Miss Lonelyhearts and Faye Greener in The Day of the Locust
These characters are as stupid as the Bettys, but the
Fayes are sensual and self sufficient.
and has strong sexual desires.
Fay Doyle is vulgar
Faye Greener, Comerchero
points out, acts instinctively to use her strong power
over the male characters.
Men are degraded before her
throughout The Day of the Locust.
Comerchero states that female dominance in sexual
matters is found in all of West's novels, but this motif
is most fully developed in The Day of the Locust.
"From
the moment Abe Kusick is introduced," Comerchero writes,
"women dominate the action of the novel."
32
Comerchero, p. 154
33
Comerchero, p. 155
Comerchero, p. 156
The major
19
female characters in the novel, he points out, are whores
and unfaithful wives.
Despite the unfavorable way in which West's female
characters are presented, Comerchero does not see West as
a misogynist.
The relationship between men and women in
the novels is pessimistic, however, and every major male
character seems to be involved in an unsatifactory relation
ship with a woman.
Of West's attitude toward his women
characters, Comerchero writes:
Despite his tendency to give them degrading roles,
he reveals a genuine ambivalence toward them.
With the exception of Mary McGeeney, the prototype
of the modern female intellectual, they are almost
universally simple-minded. Within this large
classification, some are well-meaning and innocent;
others are destructive without being themselves
destructible. They are...the stronger sex, and
stronger because so naive, stupid, resilient,
eogcentric, and annoyingly self-sufficient.^"
Of all of the critics, Randall Reid seems to have the
most insight into West's true attitude toward women in his
novels.
Sex is an important element in the novels, and
West's usage of sex is quite in keeping with his presentation of the significant themes.
35
Comerchero, p. 143.
Comerchero, p. 152.
20
Reid points out that both sexes are given nightmarish
attributes.
He comments that "the phallus is just an
instrument of sadistic impalement, and the female genitalia
are a smothering, swallowing, devouring sea." Furthermore,
Reid contends that in Miss Lonelyhearts the central
character is afraid of both male and female, and he is also
sympathetic to both.
Reid writes that "like all the other
forces in the novel, the sexes are, in their active forms,
irreconcilable and mutually destructive.
But in their
passive forms, both sexes are victims. .. ."37
The female characters, then, may be seen as victims
of themselves, their pasts, and their society as much as
can the men.
Instead of being antagonistic toward women,
West is very sympathetic, as an analysis of the major
female characters in West's four novels will reveal.
•^^Reid, p. 82.
CHAPTER II
THE DREAM LIFE OF BALSO SNELL
West's earliest novel, Th£ Dream Life of_ Balso Snell,
is generally considered to be an inferior example of his
writing.
The novel's loosely constructed plot revolves
around the central character's dream of being inside of the
Trojan Horse.
There are numerous obscure allusions to art
and literature, and the use of imagery is usually of a
scatological nature; the novel is, for the most part, a
parody of various aspects of society.
The novel begins with the dream in progress; as a
result, a sense of reality is never present in the work.
To place further distance between the reader and reality,
part of the novel consists of writings by characters in
the dream, and part of the novel consists of a dream within
a dream.
Because of the distance which West places between the
i:eader and reality, the female characters in the novel are
rather difficult to analyse in a comprehensive manner.
The
characters are not real; some are even created by other
unreal characters, and they are all one-dimensional characters.
It is possible, nevertheless, to gain some insight
into West's attitude toward the female characters in
The Dream Life of Balso Snell by analysing them.
21
22
As a group, the women in the novel seem to represent
the brutal and base aspects of sex. Hyman writes of the
novel that "the overwhelming impression the reader gets is
of the corruption and repulsiveness of the flesh."^ There
is a great deal of brutality in the novel, part of which is
related to sexual relationships.
There is also a great deal of deception involved in
the attainment of sexual satisfaction. John Gilson, the
twelve year old child who writes the journal and pamphlet
which Balso Snell reads, describes his use of deception as
a means to procure sexual relations with women. He tells
Balso Snell that he wrote the journal, which he terms
"ridiculous," because "Miss McGeeney, my English teacher,
reads Russian novels and I want to sleep with her." Gilson
also tells Snell that he knows a fat girl who will only
sleep with poets.
"When I'm with her I'm a poet, too. I
won her with a poem," he admits. His poem, which follows,
reveals Gilson's complete lack of compassion for the girl he
seduced:
0 Beast of Walls!
0 Walled-in Fat Girl!
Your conquest was hardly worth
The while of one whom Arras and
Arrat, Pelion, Ossa, Parnassus, Ida,
Pisgah and Pike's Peak never interested.^
^Hyman, p. 12.
2
West, The Dream Life of Balso Snell, p. 23.
23
Throughout John Gilson's writings, one finds the same utter
lack of compassion for the women with whom he (or the male
characters whom he creates) comes into contact. West shows
Gilson as a cruel and thoughtless person, thus condemning
Gilson's attitude toward women.
Gilson's attitude toward women in general can best be
exemplified by his relationship with Saniette. The story
of this relationship is related in the pamphlet which he
sells to Balso Snell. The pamphlet begins with the writer's
learning of the death of his lover Saniette. The narrator
feels nothing when he learns the news.
The pamphlet begins
with the words, "Yesterday, while debating whether I should
shave or not, news of the death of my friend Saniette
3
arrived. I decided not to shave." The following day he
searches for some sorrowful emotions; finding none, he
decides that this lack of sorrow is a sign of his intelligence, which conquers emotion. Actually, the writer finds
pleasure in the death of Saniette. He writes, "The
inevitability of death has always given me pleasure, not
because I am eager to die, but because all the Saniette's
must die....When death prevailed over the optimism of
Saniette's, she was, I am certain, surprised.
of Saniette's surprise pleases me..."
\est, p. 24.
S^est. p. 25.
The thought
24
The relationship between the writer and Saniette is
warped in every way.
Comerchero writes that "the entire
sequence between Saniette and the narrator is so insistent
in its presentation of neurotic dishonestly and incompatibility in human relationships that if one were oriented
toward deriving insights from it, one could."^
annoys the narrator because she is passive.
Saniette
He writes that
his dislike for Saniette largely consisted of "that...
natural antipathy felt by the performer for his audience.
My relations with Saniette were exactly those of performer
and audience."
The narrator, however, is the one res-
ponsible for this type of relationship, because he
consistently assumes the role of performer.
He admits in
his pamphlet, "I have forgotten the time when I could look
back at an affair with a women and remember anything but
a sequence of theatrical poses....All my acting has but one
purpose, the attraction of the female."
The narrator even beats Saniette in order to get a
reaction from her.
She accepts his treatment when he
mentions the names Marquis de Sade and Gilles de Rais.
She is overly passive in their relationship, but it seems
Comerchero, p. 66.
^West, p. 25.
^West, p. 26.
25
that West places the responsibility on the narrator rather
than on her.
The narrator cares nothing for her, gets his
way with her by assuming sophistication, and takes the role
of performer for himself.
Nothing is left for Saniette but
the passive role in the relationship.
Gilson, who writes the narrators' parts in the journal
and pamphlet, seems to feel great antagonism toward women.
He is not, however, West's mouthpiece, for West reveals
Gilson as a cruel person who is unsure of his own sexual
identity.
This lack of sexual identity is seen in Gilson's
journal; after killing the idiot, the narrator writes that
he felt like a young girl.
He says, "I caressed my breasts
like a young girl who has suddenly become conscious of her
body on a hot afternoon.
I imitated the mannered walk of
a girl showing off before a group of boys.
In the dark I
o
hugged myself."
Janey Davenport is a character in Balso Snell's dream
within a dream.
lobby.
He dreams that he is in the Carnegie Hall
There he discovers Janey, who is one of "the many
beautiful girl cripples who congregate there because Art is
their only solace, most men looking upon them with distaste."
Balso Snell, however, does not dislike the crippled girls,
because he "had ever preferred the imperfect, knowing well
®West, p. 22.
26
the plainess, the niceness of perfection."^
West portrays the character of Janey Davenport in a
sympathetic manner.
Her story is pathetic; a hxmchback,
she is deserted by her lover. Beagle Darwin.
He adds to
her pain by writing her two letters which describe what he
says he feels would have happened should she have remained
with him.
In an egocentric and unfeeling manner, he
describes her loneliness with him, her pregnancy which he
will not make acceptable by marrying her, and her suicide
which results from her situation.
He even describes the
artificial pose of sorrow that he would assume in accepting
the news of her death.
Janey has not only been thought-
lessly cast aside by her lover, but she has also had to
suffer the indignity imposed by his cruel letters.
Like
John Gilson, Beagle Darwin is condemned by West for being
so lonkind in his relations with a woman.
Although Janey
herself is uneducated and trite. West does portray her in
a compassionate way.
West also uses Janey to parody the way that American
society expects and trains a young girl to act.
Randall
Reid writes that Janey uses the cliches of a nice, but
unintelligent American girl.
~^West, p. 37.
^^Reid, p, 32.
The scene in which
27
Balso Snell attempts to seduce Janey reveals this parody
of the triteness that American society attempts to enforce
upon its female members.
As Balso Snell tries to seduce
her in the hallway, she tells him, "Love is sacred.
How
can you kiss if you do not love?. . .Would you want some one
to ask of your sister what you ask of me?
you invited me to dinner?
So this is why
I prefer music. "^•'- This parody
is extended even further to satirize traditional literary
concepts of women and love.
Janey finally agrees to
Balso's demands, on the condition that he will first prove
his love as "knights of old" did.
To prove his love, he
must kill Beagle Darwin, the man who betrayed her.
This type of parody may appear at first
to be an
indictment of women and therefore inconsistent with the
view that West is sympathetic with the female characters
whom he creates.
The parody is not, however, a parody of
women; it is rather an attack on the society which tries
to mold women into trite, senseless beings.
West also uses parody with the character of Miss Mary
McGeeney, the most significant female character in The
Dream Life of Balso Snell.
Miss McGeeney undergoes a
change of character in the novel, perhaps as a result of
Balso Snell's being in a state of dreaming.
^•••West, p .
39.
This change of
28
character does not make Miss McGeeney a djmamic character;
West merely uses this change to present two one-dimensional
characters.
Characters change forms, as they do in dreams;
West uses this technique to emphasize the distance between
the reader and reality.
The first time Miss McGeeney is seen, she is a young
girl whose conversation consists of sexual imagery.
She
says to Balso Snell, "Feel, oh poet, the warm knife of
12
thought swift stride and slit in the ready garden."
Soon
afterwards she changes into a middle aged woman writing the
biography of another biographer.
She is ridiculous in her
pseudo-intellectualism, but she is a part of the literary
scene which West seems to satirize throughout the novel.
Miss McGeeney's main function in the novel is to
serve as a means of parody, much as Janey Davenport is used
for parody.
During the seduction scene of Miss McGeeney,
Balso Snell uses all of the cliche filled arguments that he
feels a man should use.
Miss McGeeney goes along with the
protestations which society has included in the ritual, but
all the while she waits quite willingly.
West writes,
"Miss McGeeney lay down on her back with her hands behind
her head and her knees wide apart.
^^West, p. 32.
Balso stood over her
29
and began a speech the intent of which was obvious."^^
The
intent of West's irony is obvious as well.
Before the actual physical contest begins, Balso Snell
lectures Miss McGeeney with his various arguments.
He uses
political, philosophical, artistic, and carpe diem arguments,
all of which are satiric parodies of the traditional and
stereotyped arguments used to persuade women to engage in
sexual activities.
After these arguments, Balso Snell throws himself
down beside Miss McGeeney.
Victor Comerchero has divided
the rest of the seduction scene into several sections of
paragraphs.
Each section is a parody of various attitudes
towards women and their sexual roles.
The first paragraph
contains a parody of Renaissance love language, for West
writes that "...Balso threw himself to the ground beside
his beloved."
The third paragraph contains a parody of
an eighteenth century heroine, as well as a satiric comment
on the stereotyped vision of the American frontier.
In
this paragraph West describes Miss McGeeney as being
innocent and confused, with thoughts of "...the old farm
••••^West, p . 5 8 .
Comerchero, p. 58-9.
^^West, p. 60.
30
house, old pump, old folks at home, and the old oaken
1 c.
bucket--ivy over all."
In the fourth paragraph West
includes a parody of the sentimental heroine.
He describes
Miss McGeeney's reactions to Balso's advances in this way:
"Sirl
Stamping her tiny foot--imperative, irate.
dare you, sirl
Do you presume!"
Sir, how
Paragraph six describes
Miss McGeeney's eyes "...aswim with tears" and her voice
"...throaty, husky with repressed passion." Miss McGeeney
tells Balso, "Oh, I'm melting.
My very bones are liquid.
I'll swoon if you don't leave me alone."18 This paragraph
reflects the type of love relationships found in pulp
fiction.
The twelth and final paragraph of the seduction
scene describes the consumation of the sexual encounter
with a parody of the final monoloque of Joyce's Ulysses.
In this paragraph West writes:
"Moooompitcher yaaaah.
Oh
I never hoped to know the passion, the sensuality hidden
within you--yes, yes.
Yes!
Drag me down into the mire, drag.
And with your hair the lust from my eyes brush.
Yes...Yes...Ooh!
Ah!"^^
•••Sest, p.
60
•'•^est, p.
60
•''^West, p .
60
•••^West, p . 61
31
Miss McGeeney, then, is instrumental in West's parody
of fictional women.
As in the case of Janey Davenport,
however, it must be made clear that West parodies a warped
society's concept of women, rather than women themselves.
The female characters in The Dream Life of Balso Snell
are, perhaps, too far removed from reality to be credible.
Despite the weakness of the novel, it can be seen that
West uses his characters as a means of pointing out the
failures of society.
If these characters are trite and
melodramatic, it is because they are products of a society
which molds them to be that way.
CHAPTER III
MISS LONELYHEARTS
West's attitude towards both sexes can be seen easily
in Miss Lonelyhearts. because both male and female
characters are searching for their sexual and emotional
identities in this novel.
The characters live in an
incomprehensible world; the problem is further compounded
by the fact the characters (with the exception of
Miss Lonelyhearts himself) are unaware of the chaos in
their world.
They are groping for order and sanity, but
they do not really understand why they are doing so.
Miss Lonelyhearts alone realizes the utter hopelessness
of his situation, and this knowledge eventually drives him
to madness.
He considers the answers to life which the
other characters offer, and he finds that none of these
answers are viable.
In their search for identity and order, the characters
form sets of combinations with one another, both in the
form of triads and couples.
Randall Reid points out that
the Miss Lonelyhearts/Fay/Doyle triad inverts the situation
found in the Miss Lonelyhearts/Mary/Shrike triad.
Reid
writes that "Shrike is as viscious as Doyle is helpless,
and Mary is as frigid as Mrs. Doyle is aggressive.
The two
triads define the novel's opposed forces with almost
32
33
diagrammatic neatness."
Each of the two triads cancels the potency of the
other; West, then, is further communicating his theme of
hopelessness and meaninglessness in life.
In their futile
attempts at emotional survival, these characters form
groups which cannot save them; they are powerless because
they are self-defeating.
These characters have as little
strength together as they do alone.
Even in one-to-one relationships, the partners cancel
out one another.
The major partnerships--Miss Lonelyhearts/
Betty, Miss Lonelyhearts/Fay, Fay/Doyle, Miss Lonelyhearts/
Mary, and Mary/Shrike--are all dead relationships, despite
the fact that in some instances at least one partner is
attempting to bring life into the union.
Usually, however,
one partner is exploiting the other for self-gratification.
Miss Lonelyhearts, despite his inability to respond
sexually in many instances, is very guilty of exploiting
the women with whom he comes into contact.
Malin writes
that "A woman is a 'thing' for his momentary pleasure--for
relaxing his muscles.
She does not exist as a person."
Miss Lonelyhearts sees Betty as a Buddha, serene and blank.
2
Mary, although she frustrates him, is a sexual object to him.
^Reid, p. 99.
2
Malin, p. 45.
34
It must be pointed out, however, that Mary is just as
guilty of exploitation, for she uses Miss Lonelyhearts for
a means of sexual stimulation.
Then, in turn. Shrike uses
both Miss Lonelyhearts and Mary for his satisfaction.
Fay Doyle also uses Miss Lonelyhearts for sexual release.
Her husband cannot provide her with the sexual satisfaction
which she desires, nor the love that she equates with sex.
Despite the great deal of cruelty and selfishness on
the part of the characters. West is sympathetic to their
situations . Hjnnan points out that in Miss Lonelyhearts
the "obsessive theme...is human pain and suffering, but
it is seen almost entirely as female suffering."
This
female suffering is easily seen in the letters which
3
Miss Lonelyhearts receives.
The earliest view of Miss Lonelyhearts given to the
reader connects Miss Lonelyhearts with his letters.
The
constant flow of letters, most of which are from women, is
what first causes him to become aware of the hopelessness
of the h\aman condition of pain and suffering.
A close look
at the letters which Miss Lonelyhearts receives will aid
in revealing West's attitude toward the females who write
the letters.
Each of these women seems to be a victim of
forces which she can neither comprehend nor control.
3
Hyman, p. 19.
35
The first letter presented in Miss Lonelyhearts is
written by Sick-of-it-all, She has had seven children in
twelve years and writes that she is "...in such pain I
don't know what to do sometimes I think I will kill myself
my kidneys hurt so much. My husband thinks no woman can
be a good catholic and not have children irregardless of
the pain.
I was married honorable from our church but I
never knew what married life meant as I never was told
about man and wife."
Sick-of-it-all is pregnant again, but cannot have an
abortion because of her Catholic faith and her religious
husband. Miss Lonelyhearts, of course, has no answer for
her; there is none. She is in an unbearable situation
because of her ignorance, her religion, and her husband's
dominance over her.
The second letter, which is signed "Desperate," is
perhaps even more pathetic than the first. The author of
this letter is a sixteen year old girl who was born without
a nose. A victim of nature and of a society which will
not accept the physically deformed as members, she asks
Miss Lonelyhearts, "T^at did I do to deserve such a terrible
bad fate?
Even if I did do some bad things I didn't do any
-West, Miss Lonelyhearts, p. 66.
36
before I was a year old and I was born this way
Ought
I commit suicide?"^ Again, Miss Lonelyhearts has no
answer to give her.
Other letters received by Miss Lonelyhearts follow the
same patterns as these first two. Harold S. writes
Miss Lonelyhearts because his retarded sister has been
raped and he fears that she is pregnant; Broad Shoulders
marries because she is expected by society to marry her
fiance who is going into the service. He deserts her
frequently and apparantly is insane. A victim of society,
her husband, and a chance automobile accident. Broad
Shoulders lives in a never-ending battle for survival.
Other female characters in the novel seek help from
Miss Lonelyhearts, but they do not find it either. Fay
Doyle and Mary Shrike both turn to him for comfort.
Fay Doyle first presents herself to Miss Lonelyhearts
in letter form, but she seeks to meet him face to face in
order to discuss her problems. She is so desperately in
need of love that she seduces Miss Lonelyhearts before
she even tells him her story.
She tells him that she had
trusted a man who had caused her to become pregnant, but
he deserted her and refused to give her enough money for
an abortion.
Unable to raise the money. Fay married Doyle,
\est, p. 67.
37
a cripple. The father of her child would not acknowledge
her, even after he was confronted by Fay and the child
several years later. Cornered by her poverty, ignorance,
and marital situation. Fay finds no acceptable means of
escape and turns to Miss Lonelyhearts for help. Like the
others, she is past his help.
It is true that Fay is unkind and aggressive. Malin
points out that when Miss Lonelyhearts and Doyle go to the
Doyle's apartment, "She possesses more power than either
man, and she exerts it..."
her for her actions.
However, West does not condemn
It seems unlikely that he can be
overly critical of her behavior after having presented her
pitiful story.
Instead of judging Fay, West has explained
her actions sympathetically.
After being deceived by a
man and placed in a powerless situation by a critical
society, it is only natural that Fay will be the aggressor
whenever she is able.
She has had little control over
her own life and, as a result, must exert power over whomever she can. The descriptions of Fay imply that she is
powerful, but, for the most part, she is powerless when it
comes to controlling her own life.
^Malin, p. 58
For example, see West's Miss Lonelyhearts, p. 100.
38
Another character who seeks satisfaction from
Miss Lonelyhearts is Mary Shrike. She is a frigid woman
who uses sex as a weapon.
She leads Miss Lonelyhearts to
believe that she can give him sexual satisfaction, but
she never does.
The game she plays with her medal is
only part of her attempt to manipulate Miss Lonelyhearts'
feelings. Mary is the victim of manipulation, as well as
the employer of it, however.
She admits to Miss Lonelyhearts
that Shrike allows her to go out with other men only because
they will arouse her to the point that Shrike will be able
to use her for his own satisfaction.
Mary is not, however, an extremely weak or passive
person. Malin writes that:
The men use Mary to get at each other.,.The
woman, perhaps, is more powerful than they.
She is a fighter--"sleeping with her is like
sleeping with a knife in one's groin." She is
thus equated with the phallic knife...Her
shadow dominates her sexual partners. And they
like this situation 18
Mary, like other female characters, confides in
Miss Lonelyhearts.
She begins her story by telling him,
"From the beginning, I've had a tough time. When I was a
child, I saw my mother die. She had cancer of the breast
^Malin, p. 45.
39
and the pain was terrible.
She died leaning over a table."^
Miss Lonelyhearts cannot help, and he does not even attempt
to do so.
He answers her statement about her mother's
death by asking her to sleep with him.
Every time that
she tries to tell him about her mother or about her
father's mistreatment of her mother. Miss Lonelyhearts quits
listening to her.
In an attempt to survive the truth of her life, Mary
alters reality.
Light writes that due to a conflict of
body and mind, Mary seeks something about which to dream.
Her desire for beauty is what leads her to a place like
El Gaucho.
El Gaucho is a place of artificiality where
people go in hopes of finding happiness.
El Gaucho, "I like this place.
Mary says of
It's a little fakey, I
know, but it's gay and I so want to be gay."
Mary realizes that her happiness can exist only in the
realm of artificiality, but she sees no way of changing.
Controlled by sexual problems, burdened by a husband who
goes out with other women and manipulates her for his own
satisfaction, entangled by an unhappy childhood, Mary is
\est, p. 94.
•^^Light, p. 78.
^•^West, p. 94.
40
reduced to an empty person searching for happiness with no
hopes of ever realizing it.
By showing Mary's background
and present situation. West reveals a sympathetic attitude
towards her character.
Betty, \inlike her female counterparts in Miss
Lonelyhearts. does not seek answers from Miss Lonelyhearts;
instead, she tries to give him her answer.
Betty, in her
attempt to make sense of life, approaches life with a
passion for simplicity, nature, and order.
Of all of the
characters, Betty most nearly achieves contentment and
happiness.
Light writes that "This...ability to put her
iiniverse in order leads Betty to an inner peace that is
reflected even in her physical smoothness."12
The problem with Betty's solution to life is that it
simply is not workable.
Her "order" is not real, because
it fails to include the suffering which exists in the real
world. 13 Betty is indirectly responsible for Miss
Lonelyheart's death.
"This involvement of Betty is
meaningful," he writes, "for Betty's fragmentary view of
the universe would leave out pain and violence.. .Betty' s
14
fragmentary view is false and cannot endure."
"••^Light, p. 79.
^\ight, p. 80.
^^Light, p. 87.
41
In her attempts to survive in a chaotic world, Betty
depends on playing roles.
As a result, she cannot help
Miss Lonelyhearts when he needs her help the most. When
he leaves Shrike's apartment, he is near the peak of his
madness, and Betty can do nothing but engage him in a
ridiculous game of role playing and following cues.
Betty,
in her "little-girl-in-a-party-dress" pose, goes to get a
strawberry soda with Miss Lonelyhearts.
She tells him that
she is pregnant, and they make plans for their marriage.
Miss Lonelyhearts sees the episode as the farce that it
is, but Betty, in her simplicity, believes it.
In the
end, Betty falls victim to her own innocence and naivete.
Miss Lonelyhearts is killed, and she is left alone and
pregnant.
As Comerchero points out, it is a poignant
irony that her patience and innocence make her pregnant
and destroy Miss Lonelyhearts.
Innocence and good intentions
are not enough for survival.
Betty's solution is an
empty one, and her dependence on this solution leaves her
empty as well.
As Reid states, "Betty is largely just an
animated cliche."
Women are seen as victims in several areas of the
novel, and although West may not see them as "innocent
Comerchero, p. 81.
^Seid, p. 95.
42
victims," he does feel compassion for them.
For example,
the men in Delahanty's bar discuss women captured and
repeatedly raped; although the men tell the stories with
pleasure, one feels that West does not share their feelings.
The women who are discussed in these stories about rape are
writers.
Although some criticism on West's part is directed
at these female writers, he does feel compassion even for
them.
Not only does he feel compassion for the women in
the stories, however;
he feels just as great a sense of
compassion for the story tellers themselves.
West writes
that:
Miss Lonelyhearts stopped listening. His
friends would go on telling these stories until
they were too drunk to talk. They were aware of
their childishness, but did not know how else to
revenge themselves. At college, and perhaps for
a year afterwards, they had believed in literature,
had believed in Beauty and in personal expression
as an absolute end. When they lost this belief,
they lost everything.17
The characters in Miss Lonelyhearts, whether male or female,
are understood and forgiven by West; West should not be deemed
a misogynist based on his representation of the female
characters in this novel.
They are all part of the
suffering humanity with whom West S3r[npathizes very strongly.
•^^West, p. 83.
CHAPTER IV
A COOL MILLION
A Cool Million, subtitled "The Dismantling of Lemuel
Pitkin," is an obvious parody of the American success story.
The characters, as a result, are stereotypes and parodies
of "success story" characters.
The two principal female
characters, Mrs. Pitkin and Betty Prail, are used by West
to satirize the typical roles given to women by American
society.
In Mrs. Pitkin, Lemuel's mother, one sees the "woman
behind every successful man." The satiric irony, of course,
is revealed in Lemuel's somewhat dubious success. Although
at the end of his story Lemuel is a famous martyr, in the
process of becoming one he loses his home, his teeth, an
eye, a thumb, a leg, his hair, and eventually even his life.
Lemuel begins his search for success because
Mrs. Pitkin, his widowed mother, is about to lose her home.
The story of a villain who forecloses the mortgage on a
poor widow's home is a familiar one, and West parodies this
melodramatic plot.
Malin writes that Mrs. Pitkin "is not a ferocious
woman like Fay Doyle; she is beyond sex.
But she is still
domineering enough for Lemuel to seek his fortune with men,
43
44
rather than women,"
Malin's type of interpretation of
the character of Mrs. Pitkin is misleading.
She is not
domineering, as Malin states, but rather she is weak and
passive.
She is modeled after what the American society,
as West perceives it, expects a widow to be, and West
follows the model with every detail. Mrs. Pitkin is always
a "lady;" she does not forget to be polite even when
surprised by Mr. Slemp, and she offers him the best chair
in her home.
She decorates her home in a style so American
that an interior decorator places it in his store exactly
as she had designed it.
She defends her son with pride when
Slemp suggests that Lemuel should be working instead of
going to school.
When faced with misfortune, however, she
has no strength to sustain her.
and in tears.
Slemp leaves her broken
It is the American concept of masculine and
feminine roles which forces Lemuel, the younger of the two,
into the world to support his mother.
Lemuel takes the
initiative, and Mrs. Pitkin follows his plan unquestionably.
West writes, "The lad then told her what the ex-President
had said.
She was quite happy for her son and willingly
2
signed the note for thirty dollars." Mrs. Pitkin is used
by the men whom her society has taught her to trust, and she
••'•Malin, p . 6 7 .
^West, A Cool Million, p. 157.
45
loses her cow and home as a result of her trust and ignorance.
She has followed the role which her society has
defined for her, and she is victimized by that role.
West uses the other principal female character,
Betty
Prail, as a means to parody another female stereotype
created by the American society,
Betty represents the
young and innocent American girl who is used by the men in
her society.
Betty is used to parody the stereotyped female
who is little more than a physical object for the men
around her.
Even her name labels her as a sexual object,
for "Prail," as Randall Reid points out, is a combination
of the words "prat," "tail," and "frail."
As fits the role which society has prescribed for her,
Betty is, at least in the beginning of the novel, incredibly
n^ive and simple.
When Lemuel saves her from Tom Baxter's
dog, for example, she says things to Lemuel like, "How
brave you are!" and "Many boys would have run."
Her trite
conversation is matched by her predictable actions.
Betty
clasps her hands with fear, turns pale, and shudders; such
gestures are, of course, what society would deem appropriate
for a timid yoimg girl in her situation.
of solving her problems herself.
She is incapable
West satirizes Betty's
character by creating in her a personality which lacks
credibility.
Betty plays the role of the innocent and
^West, p. 152.
46
virtuous young American girl, but her background would make
her rather atypical and unlikely to be able to possess the
attributes of innocence and virtue that her society would
have her possess.
At the age of twelve, Betty's parents
were killed in a fire.
The firemen looted her home, and
the fire chief raped her.
of Lawyer Slemp.
She went to work for the family
The wife and two ugly daughters treated
her badly because they were jealous of her beauty; Slemp
beat her twice a week, but paid her a quarter each time.
As Comerchero points out, the situation in the Slemp household is an obvious parody of the Cinderella story.
Comerchero states, "The leering sexual innuendo in West's
tale tears away another mask of propriety, and the sordid
reality--the power of sex--is once again revealed."
There
is an important aspect of the Slemp episode which makes
Betty's innocence seem improbable.
Betty, West writes,
became used to the beatings and "did not mind them so much
as the subtler tortures inflicted on her by Mrs. Slemp and
her daughters.
Besides, Lawyer Slemp...always gave her a
quarter when he had finished beating her."
West uses this
aspect of the situation to criticize a large portion of his
society, for, as Malin states, "It seems as if victims--like
Comerchero, p. 106.
^West, p. 157.
47
their masters--will do anything for money."^
After her stay with the Slemps, Betty is captured and
sold into white slavery.
She is bought by Wu Fong, who runs
the "House of All Nations," a brothel which specializes in
girls from all nations, with decor to match.
In the des-
criptions of Wu Fong's brothel, one finds some of West's
best satire on the way that society tries to mold its
members.
Each girl is given a room decorated in a style
considered appropriate to her nationality.
Betty, being a
"typical" American girl, is dressed in this way:
The dress had a full waist made with a yoke and
belt, a gored skirt, long, but not too long to afford
a very distinct view of a well-turned ankle and a
small, shapely foot encased in a snowy cotton stocking
and a low-heeled balck slipper. The material of the
dress was chintz--white ground with a tiny brown
figure--finished at the neck with a wide white ruffle.
On her hands she was made to wear black silk mitts
with half-fingers. Her hair was worn in a little
knot on the top of her head, and one thick short curl
was kept in place by a puff-comb on each side of her
face.
Betty's apartment is equally "tjrpical." West writes that
"...it was a perfect colonial interior.
Antimacassars,
ships in bottles, carved whalebone, hooked rugs--all were
there."
In keeping with the role which West parodies,
Betty remains optimistic and cheerful in spite of her
^Malin, p. 70
^West, p. 170
48
difficulties,
She is even able to order a second helping
of breakfast on the first morning she is in Wu Fong's
brothel.
This enthusiasm which Betty shows in even the
most difficult situation is an intentional exaggeration
which West uses to emphasize the absurdity of the stereotype Betty represents.
Betty eventually escapes from the "House of All Nations"
and becomes a street walker.
At this point in the novel
one can see a change in her character.
She is still a
parody of the American girl stereotype, but she has lost
her innocence to a certain degree. West writes that
"Miss Prail was rouged most obviously.
She smelled of
cheap perfume, and her dress revealed much too much of her
figure.
She was a woman of the streets, and an unsuccessful
o
one at that."
When Betty and Lemuel are confronted by a
policeman, Lemuel wants to defend Betty in a way similar
to the way he tried to defend her from Tom Baxter.
In the
incident with Tom Baxter, Betty makes only a half-hearted
attempt to prevent the fight, and, as a result, she is
raped by Tom.
In the incident with the policeman, however,
one sees Betty dragging Lemuel away before the policeman
can injure him.
Obviously, Betty has learned something
from her experiences.
®West, p. 213.
This incident with the policeman is
49
the only incident in the novel in which Betty successfully
avoids trouble.
At all other times, she acts according to
the traits which society expects of a young girl; as a
result, she is continually abused by the men with whom she
comes into contact.
Several rapes of Betty are described
in the novel, and during each she loses consciousness,
leaving herself defenseless.
The female characters in the novels are continually
seen as victims of the men.
Even a character in Snodgrasse's
playlet, "The Pageant of America or A Curse on Columbus,"
is used to carry out this theme. An old lady is tricked
into losing all of her money to a salesman, and she ends
up starving in a gutter while the millionaires who tricked
her curse the street cleaning department for negligence.
Mrs. Pitkin and Betty are both victims of the roles
provided for them by their society.
Mrs. Pitkin is
financially ruined because of her passivity and trusting
nature; Betty, although she is able to adapt to any
situation, is almost consistently abused because of her
beauty and naive nature.
The men in the novel (with the
exceptions of Chief Raven and Lemuel) are cruel and
deceptive.
Lemuel and Raven, the only men who are not
cruel and deceptive, are killed.
Although the women sur-
vive physically , they are manipulated throughout the story.
The closing scene of A Cool Million finds them being used
'
^
" ^
* % %
50
by the National Revolutionary Party for an emotional appeal.
West's female characters in A Cool Million are parodies
of American stereotypes.
He sympathizes with the plight of
these women, and he does so by showing the absurdity of the
roles which American women are expected to fill.
West
creates female characters who seem incongruous with their
roles; the point is, of course, that the roles created by
society are incongruous with real women.
Most of the relationships between the characters in
the novel seem warped.
In almost every instance the male
partner is trying to satisfy himself at the expense of a
woman.
Even in the male/male relationships, there exists
an imbalance; the stronger character manipulates the weaker
character (who is usually Lemuel) in order to achieve
personal gain.
Only in the relationships among the naive
characters (Mrs. Pitkin/Lemuel and Betty Prail/Lemuel) is
there any true concern for another individual.
These weak
characters attempt to fulfil the roles set by society, and
consistently they are punished by that same society for
doing so.
A Cool Million directly satirizes certain aspects of
the ideal of the American Dream, particularly the acquisitive
nature of American society.
The female characters are
effectively and sjrmpathetically used by West as an integral
part of this satire.
CHAPTER V
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST
In The Day of the Locust West points out the artificiality prevalent in American society and the way in which
Americans have been warped by this artificial type of
environment.
The setting of The Day of the Locust is,
appropriately enough, Hollywood, California--the American
center of deception and illusions.
Throughout this novel West uses descriptive passages
to emphasize the quality of artificiality which surrounds
the characters.
All of the houses, for example, are built
as representations of foreign architectural styles. West
writes of these houses in Holljrwood, "Only dynamite would
be of any use against the Mexican ranch houses, Samoan
huts, Mediterranean villas, Egyptian and Japanese temples,
Swiss chalets, Tudor cottages, and every possible
combination of these styles that lined the slopes of the
canyon."
After revealing the absurdities of these houses,
however. West almost immediately shows his compassion for
the people who created them.
He writes, "It is hard to
laugh at the need for beauty and romance, no matter how
tasteless, even horrible, the results of that need are.
But it is easy to sigh.
Few things are sadder than the
51
52
truly monstrous."^
West sympathizes with the people who
are both the creators and victims of their society.
This artificial atmosphere pervades the life of all
of West's characters.
Not only are their physical surround
ings fake, but their own behavior reflects the illusions
which have becomes a part of their lives.
For example.
West describes Tod's meeting Claude at Claude's party in
this way:
While Tod mounted the steps to meet his outstretched hand, he shouted to the butler.
"Here, you black rascal! A mint julep."
A Chinese servant came running with a Scotch
and soda.2
Some of the artificiality reaches the point of being
quite grotesque.
While at Claude's party. Tod is led to
a swimming pool where he is shown "...a dead horse, or,
rather, a lifesize, realistic reproduction of one.
Its
legs stuck up stiff and straight and it had an enormous
3
distended belly."
This grotesque reproduction of a horse
has been placed in the swimming pool as a source of amusement for the guests at the Holljrwood party.
As a result of this illusory and sometimes grotesque
environment, the characters themselves become warped and
West, The Day of the Locust, p. 262
^West, p. 272.
^West, p. 274.
53
unnatural.
They are unsure of their own sexuality, and
natxiral man/woman relationships do not seem to exist.
Sexual relationships are not based on love , but they are
instead very artificial and businesslike.
Claude tells
Tod, for example, that Audrey Jennings'brothel is not
depressing because she "makes vice attractive by skillful
packaging.
Her dive's a triumph of industrial design."
The conversation between Tod and Claude reveals the extent
to which man/woman relationships have been degraded.
Tod
comments, "I don't care how much cellophane she wraps it
in...--nautch joints are depressing, like all places for
deposit, banks, mail boxes, tombs, vending machines."
Claude extends the comparison by replying:
Love is like a vending machine, eh? Not bad.
You insert a coin and press home the lever. There's
some mechanical activity inside the bowels of the
device. You receive a small sweet, frown at yourself
in the dirty mirror, adjust your hat, take a firm
grip on your umbrella and walk away, trying to look
as though nothing had happened.^
The scene at the Cinderella Bar again reveals the way
in which sex has become an artificial commodity in the
world of The Day of the Locust.
The female impersonators
who work there represent the extremity of the problem of
sexual identity in this artificial environment.
Sjest, p. 276.
The young
54
male singer acts most natural when he is impersonating a
woman.
When he tries to act the part of the male role,
however, he fails. West writes that the young singer's
"imitation of a man was awkward and obscene."
The female characters in The Day of the Locust are
surrounded by an environment which is hostile, artificial,
and confusing.
They often use sex as a weapon of defense;
in a world in which the problem of sexual identity is
prevalent, it seems that they have become incapable of
using sex as anything but a defensive weapon.
As a result,
the female characters seem to reject men whenever possible
and depend upon themselves . They use men much in the same
way that the men use them.
All of the inhabitants of this
artificial world come under West's criticism, although he
views their situation with understanding and sjrmpathy.
The most important female in The Day of the Locust is
Faye Greener.
Faye is an extremely complex character for
whom West feels great compassion, although most of her
actions make her thoroughly dislikeable.
Faye's nature at first seems to be somewhat contradictory, although in West's chaotic world of the novel her
nature is credible.
-^West, p. 370.
On one hand, Faye is exceedingly cruel,
55
destructive, and ego centered.
On the other, she is
obviously a victim of the artifice and cruelty of her
society.
She is not as contradictory in her personality
as she may at first seem, however, for perhaps it is the
fact that she has been victimized to such a great extent
that leads her to the destructive and meaningless life
which she leads.
West reveals the type of person that Faye has become
in the description of her physical appearance.
He describes
her as "a tall girl with wide, straight shoulders and long,
swordlike legs.
Her neck was long, too, and columnar."
Malin suggest that the details of her appearance are significant.
The "swordlike legs," for example, are a phallic
image which presents her man-killing abilities.
Faye exercises quite a bit of control over the men
around her, most of whom regard her as a sexual object.
She, likewise, views the men in much the same way.
Malin
writes that West "...shows us that Faye can never regard
men as more than objects for her own satisfaction because
o
she is so ambivalent toward her father."
Faye's relation-
ship with Harry, her father, is ambivalent in many ways.
^West, p. 270.
^Malin, p. 88.
8,
'Malin, p. 96.
56
One finds it difficult to comprehend Faye's true feelings
about him, as perhaps Faye does herself.
Faye and Harry
are both actors whose words and actions cannot always be
accepted at face value.
For example, Faye has become so
inured to Harry's feigned illnesses that when he dies, she
is at first unaware of his death.
Although both Harry and
Faye try to survive by acting and pretending, they are
almost diametrically opposed in their personalities. Malin
suggests that an irony exists between the father who is
passive in his sickness and the daughter who is active
because of her lustful nature.
Faye's sexual identity is clearer than that of most
of the other characters in the novel, although wealth and
attractiveness, rather than love or friendship, determine
her sexual partners.
Victor Comerchero writes:
The depth of West's pessimism and the immensity
of his indictment are suggested by a realization that
of all the characters in the novel, it is Faye whose
sexual responses are, incredibly, the sanest and most
wholesome. Sexual sanity is impossible in the "Unreal
City," but compared to the other characters, she is
neither apathetic nor lecherous; and in a world of
half-men, promiscuity is parodoxically a pardonable
quest.10
^Malin, p. 98.
Comerchero, p. 141.
57
Faye is distinctly a product of her society; the
artificiality of her environment is reflected in many phases
of her personality,
Faye's movements are carefully described
by West, but her movements and gestures are often automatic
and meaningless.
For example. West describes Faye's trying
to impress Claude in the following way:
She repaid him for his compliment by smiling
in a peculiar, secret way and running her tongue
over her lips. It was one of her most characteristic gestures and very effective. It seemed to
promise all sorts of undefined intimacies. Yet
it was as simple and automatic as the word thanks.
She used it to reward anyone for anything, no
matter how unimportant,H
With regard to Faye's artificial gestures, Malin
writes, "Her mannerisms consist of arching her body in an
*almost formal way'...But her gestures are divorced from
any meaning.. .Faye is the mechanical toy, wound up to
perform cliches."
West acknowledges Faye's failures, but he does not
make her carry the full responsibility for them.
West's
compassion may be seen in Tod's attitude toward Faye. Tod
excuses Faye's shortcomings because he "...believed that
while she often recognized the falseness of an attitude,
she persisted in it because she didn't know how to be
^^West, p. 385.
^^Malin, p. 96.
58
simpler or more honest.
She was an actress who had learned
from bad models in a bad school."^^
West's compassion for and comprehension of a woman
such as Faye is further revealed in the description of her
dreams.
Living in a world of deception and emptiness, Faye
has discovered that reality can never measure up to what
her artificial society promises. As a result, she mechanically creates daydreams as a form of escape.
She recognizes
these daydreams for what they are, for she has the ability
to laugh at them.
Comerchero writes that Faye's "...dreamy
romanticism is a response to the emotional impoverishment
of the contemporary wasteland.
Her misfortune is to live
in an age wherein men are either sensitive and impotent,
or potent and insensitive."
Other female characters in The Day of the Locust
reflect the effect of their environment on their personalities . Two relatively minor characters, Mrs. Schwartzen
and Audrey Jennings, reveal two different reactions to their
predicaments.
Mrs. Schwartzen attempts to be witty in a
stereotyped masculine way, such as wanting to join the
men's conversation, which she thinks concerns sex. At the
same time, however, she tries to play the stereotyped
-''•^West, p. 316.
14
Comerchero, p. 140.
59
female role by being coy and fluttering her eyelids. The
result is, of course, both pathetic and ludicrous.
She is
ignored and avoided by the men whom she seeks to impress
with her behavior,
Mrs. Schwartzen represents the lone-
liness and the contradictory nature of American society.
The female characters realize that they are manipulated
by their society and perhaps even struggle against that
manipulation, but, for the most part, they fail to overcome
it.
Audrey Jennings, however, reacts to her situation with
more successful results than those of the other characters
in the novel.
She had once been an actress in silent films,
but the introduction of sound into movies cost her that
career.
Mrs. Jennings succeeds in adapting to the change
in her situation and somehow even manages to take advantage
of the artificial aspect of her society without falling
victim to it.
She runs a brothel which caters to the
illusions which the other characters desire. Mrs. Jennings
seems to be alone in her relative victory over the environment, and sadly enough, she only succeeds in avoiding being
victimized by this society by being a part of the problem
of artificiality in Hollywood.
West seems to regret and even criticize the characters'
failure to some extent, but he understands and forgives
them.
In Mrs. Jennings, the one character who attains a
relative amount of success. West indicates the high cost and
the questionable value of "success" in American society.
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSION
Nathanaei West's four novels--The Dream Life of Balso
Snell, Miss Lonelyhearts. A Cool Million, and The Da^ of
the Locust--reveal his attitudes about American society
and the men and women who constitute that society.
views his society as a complete failure.
West
The American
Dream, an ideal on which many of West's characters, both
male and female, rely, offers only false hope to society.
Many of the characters in the novels are used by West to
indicate the central aspect of the American Dream which
West considers particularly detrimental to the individual.
Some of the characters in A Cool Million, for example,
desire monetary gain to such an extent that they are willing
to reject all other values in order to attain it. This
type of behavior is indicative of the acquisitive nature
of American society as West perceives it.
The American
Dream, by the time of the early 20th century, has deteriorated to the point that it has lost any elements of
spiritual values.
In Miss Lonelyhearts, for example, the
spiritual values which once held hope for man are useless.
The American Dream has caused the members of American
society to strive for the wrong values; they are more
60
61
concerned with material gains than spiritual ones.
West's general attitude is negative and pessimistic;
he sees his characters stumbling in a chaotic and meaningless world, yet he is powerless to offer them either hope
or consolation.
As he reveals in Miss Lonelyhearts, West
does not believe in a heaven which will reward his characters when they die.
His characters live in a society
which is artificial, powerful, and incomprehensible; they
are always defeated in their struggle to establish order
in their world.
Because West understands the hopeless
plight of his characters, he is unable to condemn their
behavior; if their conduct is irrational, it is so because
of the fact that they exist in a realm of irrationality.
West is not antagonistic in his attitude toward his
female characters, as some critics mistakenly contend.
The
women in his novels are maimed by their society, as are
the male characters.
A careful study of the female char-
acters in West's novels reveals them to be victims of
their past and present situations, other characters in the
novels, and society in general.
The women in the novels
are not always innocent victims; often their own ignorance
and egotism contribute to their failure to cope successfully with their environment.
Even though freedom of
choice is found in the world of West's novels, the correct
choice is not clear, and in some instances it may not even
exist.
62
The men in West's novels are regarded in basically the
same way as are the women.
West views both men and women
as rather weak beings who collectively can create a powerful
and chaotic society, but who individually cannot contend
with that society in an effective manner.
They are mani-
pulated by the very society which they have created.
West uses the techniques of parody and satire extensively in order to make social comment in his novels. At
one level of interpretation the reader may see this satire
as being simply a means of ridiculing society.
On a deeper
level, however, one sees genuine despair in West's attitude.
The tone of the satire and parody becomes one of pathos
when one realizes that West is not only describing characters
who are searching for meaning in a cruel environment, but
he is also suggesting that there are no entirely satisfactory
answers to be found.
Miss Lonelyhearts exemplifies West's
attitude of despair and pessimism.
Miss Lonelyhearts is
offered various alternatives in the novel, but none seems
to be the one which he needs . The realization that all of
his alternatives are unsatisfactory destroys Miss Lonelyhearts;
however. West seems to imply that the knowledge of reality,
despite its horror, is preferable to the empty minds of
those characters who do not share Miss Lonelyhearts' knowledge.
Whatever degrees of awareness the various characters
have attained. West never seems to lose compassion for
63
them.
His attitude of despair forces West to forgive his
characters their foibles, for the characters cannot be held
accountable for their shortcomings; they cannot find any
acceptable alternatives to their behavior.
West's mode of
communicating these feelings about humanity is one of
satire; it must be emphasized, however, that while West
satirizes society through the way in which the characters
respond to it, he does not attack the characters themselves.
Almost all of the characters are rather flat and poorly
developed.
In an environment such as the one which is
described in West's novels, however, a fully developed
character would seem inconsistent.
The society in which
these characters live has molded most of them into onedimensional, mindless people. Most of them try to survive
by conforming to the roles provided them by society,
even though those roles are often ridiculous.
The char-
acters' capacity to think or to grow spiritually is
practically non-existent.
Besides being one-dimensional,
many of the characters in West's novels are quite similar
"in certain aspects.
They are all distortions; West seems
to draw his characters in extremes in order to emphasize
what society is capable of doing to a person.
The char-
acters are also egotistical in most cases; this is an
understandable characteristic in their case, however, for
they are struggling to survive, and, as a result, they
become so completely concerned with their own problems that
64
they can rarely see the difficulties of others. West's
characters all tend to be weak and insecure, even though
some of them try to appear otherwise as a defensive
measure.
Sexually, they lack identity; their sexual
relationships are never satisfactory for either party.
Few of them are likeable, for in their insecurity and
self-centeredness they often treat one another cruelly.
One can see, then, that West is not hostile toward his
female characters, for they are a part of the suffering
mass for whom West feels such pity.
An analysis directly
concerned with the female characters in West's novels
reveals not only VJest's attitude about women, but his
attitude about all of American life as well.
He views
women in the same way in which he views all Americans--as
victims of their own society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Comerchero, Victor. Nathanaei West: The Ironic Prophet.
New York: Syracuse University Press, 1967.
Hyman, Stanley Edgar. Nathanaei West. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1962.
Light, James F. Nathanaei West: An Interpretative Study.
Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972.
Malin, Irving. Nathanaei West's Novels.
Southern University Press, 1972.
Carbondale:
Reid, Randall. The Fiction of Nathanaei West: No Redeemer,
No Promised Land~! Chicago! University of CHicago
Press, 1967.
West, Nathanaei. The Complete Works of Nathanaei West.
New York: Farrar, Straus, and CuB^ahy, Inc . , 1957 .
65