Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1986

Thesis Director

William D. Miller

Abstract

Since the publication of his first novel in 1931, Nathanael West has presented significant problems for critics in their attempts to arrive at conclusions about his work and to classify him among twentieth century novelists. Various critical approaches have helped to clarify some of the ambiguities in West's four novels, but the bibliographic, source, and psychological studies have often often neglected specifics of the texts in favor of finding West a niche in relation to his twentieth century contemporaries.

Most criticism of West's fiction discusses dreams to some extent. His fictions are considered dreamworlds, and each novel's ordering dream is emphasized in most critical works. However, there has not been any concentrated effort to focus on West's complicated use of dream. This paper is an attempt to do just that: to distinguish the various dreams in the novels and to analyze the importance of each distinctive use of the word "dream." The notion of dream is considered in three categories: dream as fiction, dream as illusion, and dream as hope.

The dream as fiction refers to West's creation of "peculiar half-worlds," a phrase which he used to describe The Day of the Locust specifically, but which can be applied to the other three novels as well. The half-worlds of the novels are most closely associated with nocturnal dreams: the characters are not well-rounded and are often described as actors, automatons, or masked figures; violence dominates the action of the novels; and the overall settings are shadowy and symbolic. By eliminating the "normal'' aspects of waking life, West was able to focus completely on man's place in the modern wasteland that forms the setting of the novel.

The dream as illusion considers the novels' presentations of man grasping at empty and meaningless ordering dreams offered by the media. Man is in this position because his once powerful dreams have been reduced to childish illusions by the same media. This chapter also points out the consequences of the dream as illusion—the bitterness and anger of men when they find that what appear to be realizable dreams are actually extensive lies.

Since West's half-worlds, in concentrating on the modern wasteland, do not include normal characters or situations, there are not many instances of the dream as hope in the novels. The few examples of dreams which may give life to the wasteland are connected to art. The wastelands of the novels are characterized by a lack of communication or inability to create dreams of hope, but West suggests that artists who can communicate the ugly reality of the modern world may be able to give man fulfilling dreams as hope.

Although an analysis of the notion of dream in West's fiction does not provide a complete reading of his novels, the distinctions should be noted and considered in any critical approach.

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