Research Paper on:
Nathaniel West's The Day of the Locust and Nihilism

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
on "nothing," audiences roared and television critics discussed it for days. The Seinfeld show itself was about nothing - nothing more than the day-to-day existence (hopeless existence, one might say)  of single, neurotic 30-somethings living in New York City. Despite its lack of discernable plot week after week, the show was a bonafide television hit. This was nihilism at work;  the concept of nothing, and people embracing it. However, when Nathanael West wrote his biting satire, The Day of the Locust, Hollywood  didnt laugh at all; in fact, Hollywood wasnt ready to hear about itself in this way. Hollywood in the 1930s was young and brash and, so it seemed, in comparable.  The last thing this city needed was some screenwriting upstart to come in and show Tinsel Towns nihilistic side, the dark side in which dreams were little more substantial than  cotton candy, and in which even when a dream was reached, it was found to be empty. This paper will connect the concept of nihilism to The Day of The  Locust; the book, in fact, was one in which every nihilist could embrace, point a finger and smugly say "I told you so." The definition of nihilism  Mention "nihilism" and the first thing that could come to mind, especially if one is a student of philosophy (or a chronic watcher of Seinfeld),  is "nothing." This is the common, unofficial description of nihilism, a belief in nothing (Nihilism Defined, see also Pratt). Beyond this, however, there are a variety of offshoot definitions. One,  for example, can define this concept as "the rejection of that which requires faith for salvation or actualization . . ." which would include pretty much everything from religion to