<Li> Adore Loomis--a precocious child actor who teases Homer until he snaps . Homer's stomping Adore to death coincides with the eruption of mob violence outside the blockbuster film premiere . </Li> <P> West's characters are intentionally shallow, stereotyped, and "derive from all the B - grade genre films of the period" (Simon, 523). They are what Light calls "grotesques". Tod Hackett's first name is a derivative of the German word for death, and his last name refers to a common epithet for Hollywood screenwriters and artists, who were pejoratively called "hacks ." In the first chapter of the novel, the narrative voice announces: "Yes, despite his appearance, Tod was really a very complicated young man with a whole set of personalities, one inside the other like a nest of Chinese boxes ." </P> <P> Tod Hackett is the novel's protagonist . He moves from the east coast to Hollywood, California in search of inspiration for his next painting . The novel is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression . Most of the characters exist at the fringes of the Hollywood film industry, but Hollywood is merely the backdrop for Tod Hackett's revelation . Tod is employed by a Hollywood studio "to learn set and costume designing ." During his spare time, Tod sketches scenes he observes on large production sets and studio back lots . The novel details Tod's observation of the filming of the Battle of Waterloo . His goal is to find inspiration for the picture he is getting ready to begin, a work titled "The Burning of Los Angeles ." </P> <P> Between his work at the studio and his introduction to Faye's friends, Tod interacts with numerous Hollywood hangers - on . Characters like Abe Kusich, the dwarf, Claude Estee, the successful screenwriter, and Earle Shoop, the fake California cowboy, all of whom have difficulty changing their personas from the characters they play to who they are . As a result, there is a clear sense of acting that spills beyond the confines of Hollywood studios, into the streets of Los Angeles . </P>

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