I think
exploring the demographic history of Los Angeles is quite frankly fascinating; for
a city that considers itself so profoundly diverse today, it is fascinating to
think that much of our settling and history came from a yearning for a safe
place for the American, white, Protestant farmer from the Midwest. From 1880 to
today, Los Angeles has gone through a wave of change, almost arriving back to
what it was originally. While we laugh at Compton being settled by Iowans today,
Los Angeles was congratulated for being a “Model Christian Community” by over
sixteen different organizations; from 1900-1920, Los Angeles was a utopia for
the “Middle Westerner.” As witnessed by both history and Nathanael West’s interpretation
in Day of the Locust, the “utopia”
experienced by the Middle Westerner is finite, and experiences a painful demise
for both the Middle Westerners of Los Angeles’s history and Homer Simpson in Day of the Locust.
I find
Homer’s existence in Day of the Locust
very interesting, because he, while in many ways is a personification of the Midwestern
mentality, came to Los Angeles in the 30s. Homer was not a part of the original
mass migration to Los Angeles, but he still embodies many Midwestern ideals. He
came to Los Angeles looking for an escape just like the original “Middle
Westerners”. While on the surface Homer’s reason for coming to Los Angeles was
his pneumonia and doctors’ orders to go to California; Homer is really coming
for an escape from a terrible memory. In some ways, both Homer and the original
“Middle Westerners” came to Los Angeles for an escape from sin; Homer flees from
the actions of his hands and his shame stemming from his interaction with Miss
Martin, and the Middle Westerners flee from the sin of the new immigrants.
At the
same time, I think both Homer and the Middle Westerners don’t really find what
they were looking for in Los Angeles. They both have a time where they are
enchanted with the city – the Middle Westerners during the “Model Protestant
City” time and Homer during his “relationship” with Faye. They both experience
a time of happiness and contentment, but then they come to a realization of
just how much things have not been going their way. Hollywood crushes the
Middle Westerner. As illustrated by the riot at the end of the book, when Homer
loses it, so too do the rest of the Middle Westerners.
I do agree with most of what Emily has stated but I do not agree that "Middle Westerners" migrated to Los Angeles to "escape from sin." I see the parallels drawn between Homer Simpson and these Midwesterners but it seems that they were not running away from a past of sin, but more towards a future of opportunity. I do think that the common made in class on how Los Angeles was "America's America" ties into this. The midwestern mindset was to move to Los Angeles in search of the "American Dream" (or in this case the Californian Dream). Homer differs from this because he is fleeing his past mistakes. I believe that Homer's background is very different from the typical midwesterners, making his story particularly more interesting. He does not move west in search of a dream, but rather to leave behind a nightmare. We can observe this lack of ambition in his passive and neutral mindset. Again, I have to disagree with Emily when she says that Homer does not find what he is looking for but I do believe that she is right with the disappointment of midwesterners. I don't believe that Homer necessarily didn't find what he was looking for because when he set off for California, he wasn't looking for anything in the first place. In other words, his hopes were not let down because he didn't bring any with him in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI agree; West's Los Angeles is nowhere near Utopia. It's a place where everything fades away and dreams die. Faye Greener is the perfect embodiment of this. Faye's dreams of stardom, of writing movies, of making it big in Hollywood never happen. She herself is a literal "dream dump," a collection of "new" (or rather, unoriginal and recycled) ideas that shrivel up quickly in the California sun. Yet she continues to dream, just as Hollywood continues to produce--and people continue to flock to both of them. When Homer finally sees the hopelessness of pursuing Faye, a reality that will never be as true as he dreams it to be, he becomes one of the people who comes to California to die.
ReplyDeleteHollywood in this time period, like Faye, was full of empty promises. As a Midwesterner, Homer comes to California in search of an escape. Homer is told the west as a place to improve his mental and physical health. I find this ironic since it actually helps to destroy both. As we can tell from the novel, the dream of coming west to improve your life is fraud. There is rarely any truth to it. What is interesting about this novel is that there is a direct correlation between Hollywood and Faye. Hollywood provided a distorted getaway for people who needed to escape reality. Faye is the exact same way. She was unrealistically perfect that people were drawn to her. She was grotesquely over the top and craved attention from others. She sucked people in and never let them go. Hollywood did the same. It provided people with false hope that one day they may be able to take part in its glory. For the majority of the people, this dream would never become reality. The dream of one day being with Faye was never going to come true for anyone. Faye played with people’s emotions. She, like Hollywood, attracted people who were susceptible to be played with.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Homer and the other midwesterners don't find what they were looking for in the Los Angeles dominated by Hollywood portrayed in Day of the Locust. I'm really interested in the idea of "escaping sin"–surely none of us believe that small town America was without flaws in the early 20th century, right? I think the midwesterners have a flawed notion of that sin that ensured they would never find utopia here as they conceived of it. Both their analyses of the big city and the rural community misinterpret basic human nature: multiculturalism and the new wave of immigration were never really as scary as they seemed to be, and Small Town, USA was never supposed to be the standard-bearer of christian purity. Perhaps that is why LA was such a disappointment, suspended as it was between rural and urban America.
ReplyDeleteThough they are characterized throughout our discussions and readings as sworn enemies, migrant midwesterners and foreign immigrants alike came to Los Angeles looking for a similar feeling of prosperity and well being. Both parties left their respective homes searching for greater opportunity. Both parties arrived to a city in flux. And both parties ultimately felt betrayed when the city failed to deliver them a certain level of success. I find the two groups' seemingly disparate views remain separated mostly by the wall of religious difference. Without conflicting ideals about sins and saints, good and evil, these people might just have been strong allies.
ReplyDeleteI think that Emily draws a very interesting and accurate parallel between Homer and the midwesterners. Yes, they saw Los Angeles as a Mecca of opportunity and prosperity, but they also saw it as an escape from the flood of immigrants that had taken residence in their neighborhoods. They rejected the idea of diversity and viewed LA as the opportunity to recreate the all white community that they had pre-immigration. We talked in class today about how LA was viewed as the perfect place to continue and grow an Arian community. LA was going to be a safe haven for the white race, but that dream was short lived with the take over of Hollywood. Immigration began again and slowly but surely present day LA was born. The first wave of midwesterners lost their utopia, and thus LA was deemed a place where midwesterners come to die.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily that Homer followed in the footsteps of many other “Middle Westerners” to escape his past. However, I also think that the doctor’s orders to move to LA played a bigger role in his decision due to his pacifistic nature. He left because the doctor advised him to, if you connect it back even further, he left because his hands guided him there. Even though he was malcontent with Los Angeles, much alike the midwesterners, Homer does not seem to be going anywhere. Hollywood, and Faye in Homer’s case, hooked the midwesterners, sucked them in until the city became an underlying disappointment in their identity. They passively held down their hands until Hollywood’s pressure crushed them, when they woke up their hands and bore arms against the city.
ReplyDeleteI find the point regarding the discovered disappointment of California very interesting. In The Day of the Locust (and in my copy, page 157), West uncovers the basis of the Mid-Westerners anger- they realize that “sunshine isn’t enough” and “realize that they’ve been tricked and burn with resentment.” I think that Homer’s hands symbolize the growing resentment the Midwesterners feel. They (meaning hands) start dead and need cold water to awake them and bring them back to life, just as the Midwesterners go to California (according to West) to find purpose/new vigor and more importantly, jobs. As Homer realizes, through Faye, that California is a place of disappointment and grows angry at the reality of it, his hands grow more agitated and fidgety, uncontrolled by Homer himself. Homer finally blows and all hell lets loose; the riot explodes as people are trampled (poor Adore), thrown around, and raped(?). California, and Hollywood in particular, have claimed victory as the Midwesterners fight among themselves for what they can’t have and some even attempt to pack their bags and go home (as is the case with Homer).
ReplyDeleteThe problem (though not the only one) with utopia is that just about everyone wants it. Another issue of just slightly greater impact is the nonexistence of utopia, at least in terms of its perfection. In reference to Faye, it is the fact that everyone wants her and the fact that she welcomes them all as she pleases that causes Homer's vision of her to be broken. Her perceived perfection in Homer's eyes, artificial as it was, is torn away by reality. Translating this then to Los Angeles, or Hollywood, the "utopia" of homogenous, quiet, aryan L.A. was eventually torn away by the fact that everyone wanted a piece of perfection. By everyone, I mean every race, every religion, every sexuality--everyone who shaped the identity of L.A. into what it is today. Not even close to the Midwesterner's ideal vision of a city, instead an incredible mix of many different people.
ReplyDeleteI guess perhaps the solution is simply not to raise one's expectations of anything to perfection, so whether one is disappointed or satisfied, the negative feelings are lessened and the positive feelings are heightened. Fantasy, as is demonstrated in West's novel, is as dangerous an addiction as any other.
I definitely agree that Los Angeles is not a utopia.I do agree that in both of the major immigrant waves being discussed here (first protestant mid-westerners then general foreign immigrants) people found a place that seemed utopic (and in the case of the mid westerners was for a few decades) but ultimately proved to be flowed and hedonistic. The irony in this relationship being that both groups came for an easier happier life but both groups allowed religious and social differences to ruin it for everybody.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily, and I think that the transformation of Los Angeles from incredibly undiverse to a place known for its diversity is quite remarkable. Sadly, it also seems that Los Angeles had to go through a lot just to get to this point. I agree that Homer seems to resemble the typical Middle Western immigrant, but I also think that he moves to Los Angeles for other reasons than it being a “safe place”. He acts so detached and bland that I would have been surprised if he had decided to move to California without any outside influence, but he is fleeing like the other immigrants did. He resembles the Middle Westerner in other ways as well, soon becoming disappointed in the once dreamy city. After trying to convince himself that everything was alright in Los Angeles, he finally lost his control and set off a reaction among the many dissatisfied Middle Westerners who had been fooled into moving to Los Angeles as well.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes Los Angeles seemingly utopic is that it fills a void for the different needs of the Mid Westerners that travel to it, whether that be escaping a discomfort or a sickness they established back home. It also seems to be able to satisfy a variety of dreams and wants, like Faye who lived in Los Angeles with the dream of becoming a star. However, this facade of utopia crumbles when the reality sets in that this city does not provide immunity to the discomfort inherent in life; dreams can fail. The racial impurity that the immigrants searching for a Aryan community wished to avoid, seeped into the population. Faye never attained stardom, and Homer was never truly able to move beyond his unhappiness from his days in the Mid West. So, while many thought that life in the idyllic, utopic Los Angeles would solve their problems, it truly just brought these broken people together in one city.
ReplyDeleteTo foreigners (not from LA), Los Angeles depicts an illusion of utopia. The Middle Westerners and Homer flee from their “sins” and find a temporary solace in “pure” Los Angeles. Although the Westerners have escaped immigrants and Homer has escaped his illness, these aliens to Los Angeles face another challenge: the enigmatic culture of LA. Unable to deal with strangely foreign circumstances, Homer and the Middle Westerners are driven to insanity, and their depiction of utopian Los Angeles splits into a million pieces.
ReplyDelete