The Day of the Locust Chapter 13 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Tod (remember him?) visits Harry every night, but the dude isn't getting any better. He sleeps a lot lately, which is usually when Tod creeps to Faye's bedroom to talk.
  • Faye spends a lot of her time "making up stories" (13.7). Really. lies lays back in bed, cranks up the tunes, and dives headlong into the realm of imagination.
  • One day, Faye tells Tod one of these stories: she will become a famous, successful, and mega-rich screenwriter. The details are a little blurry, but she seems fully confident.
  • Faye even gives Tod her first pitch. It's about a rich girl who falls in love with a brash ship hand on her father's yacht. They're eventually stuck on an island and get married.
  • Tod isn't paying attention. Instead, he's thinking about the "dreamy repose" in which he will depict Faye when he paints "The Burning of Los Angeles" (13.28).