Many people have a variety of places or things to run to in order to find happiness. Whether it is crawling into a warm set of blankets and writing about all the trouble you had in your math class today or maybe even going bike riding because you"re mad at your boyfriend. The one thing that drives someone into a peaceful state of mind will always keep him or her happy. In the novel The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West portrays a character that believes Jesus Christ should be everyone's resort to fulfillment. He believes that his own belief in Christ gives him the power to help others in need and bring them happiness, however their lack of faith is the cause of his unhappiness. .
Miss Lonelyhearts answers to woeful letters of the Desperate, Sick of it all, Broad Shoulders, and the Broken Hearted in the New York Post and tries to create some sort of hope for life. He tries to give his subscribers all the answers to life's hardships, but according to his editor Shrike, asking his readers to believe in God is like giving them false hopes. Shrike suggests on giving them stones. "Miss Lonelyhearts, my friend, I advise you to give your readers stones. When they ask for bread don't give them crackers, as does the church, and don't, like the State, tell them to eat cake. Explain that man cannot live by bread alone and give them stones. Teach them to pray each morning: "Give us this day our daily stone" (page 5). Shrike's unwillingness to believe in Christ tears Miss Lonelyhearst up inside. Shrike is a very cynical man who takes pleasure in all the seven deadly sins. .
Miss Lonelyhearts takes with him everywhere his depression that he gains from work. At Delehanty's, a bar, he comes across an old man sitting in a bathroom stall. He asks the old man what his life story is, but when he refuses to answer, Miss Lonelyhearts and his friends decide to beat him up. "When the old man remained silent, he took his arm and twisted it.