The dream life of Nathanael West: The dismantling of the American Dream

Nathanael West's four novels create a body atrophied by the American Dream. The Dream Life of Balso Snell initially births this body by providing a scatological dreamworld where themes prevalent in West's later writings flourish. Miss Lonelyhearts follows this first novel to an American scene, but uses a coexistence of dream and reality to invalidate its religious Christ dream. This Christ dream signifies part of a larger, problematic dream---the American dream. West drops the dreamlike premises of his previous novels and creates a more direct assault on the American body via A Cool Million's protagonist, Lemuel Pitkin. His assault is too direct, but he finds perfect balance to his attack in The Day of the Locust. West's final novel brings closure to a career shortened by his untimely death. It also provides American literature with a novel whose body is crippled by the falseness of the American Dream.