They Shoot Horses, Don't They?: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Horace McCoy

First published: 1935

Genre: Novel

Locale: Hollywood, California

Plot: Existentialism

Time: 1935

Robert Syverten, a young man from Arkansas who has gone to Hollywood in the hope of becoming a film director. Although repeatedly frustrated in his efforts to get work with an established director, he maintains his optimism and holds down a variety of jobs, ranging from soda jerk to film extra, as he continues trying to break into the film business. He has just recovered from a near-fatal case of intestinal flu when he meets Gloria Beatty, an embittered aspiring actress who convinces him to be her partner in a dance marathon being held in a hall on one of the local piers. Robert dreams of winning the contest and using his share of the $1,000 prize money to make a two-reel film that he can use to illustrate his skills to the film studios. He fails in his efforts to cheer up the terminally gloomy Gloria, and as the marathon drags on for thirty-seven days, he becomes infected by her despair. He continues trying to catch an occasional glimpse of sunlight or ocean to remind him of the world outside the dance hall, but his ambitions soon dwindle simply to trying to survive the ordeal of the marathon. When the marathon ends prematurely with no winner, he obliges Gloria's request to shoot her and put her out of her misery, a crime for which he is sentenced to death.

Gloria Beatty, a film extra who has become disillusioned because of her inability to obtain acting work. An orphan who ran away to Dallas from her aunt and uncle's home in Texas, she decided to become an actress while recovering from a suicide attempt brought on by despair over her wretched life. Gloria hitchhiked her way to Hollywood, nurturing the hope of becoming a star overnight, but has since become discouraged with the film industry and with life in general. She repeatedly voices the wish that she were dead. When she asks Robert to be her partner in the dance marathon, it is her final desperate attempt to be noticed by film directors and film stars, who sometimes attend the marathons for their performance value. Cynical and hard-bitten, she picks fights with the dance marathon officials and persistently counsels a pregnant fellow contestant to have an abortion and spare the child a dismal existence. Gloria accepts each new indignity the marathon promoters inflict on the contestants in their effort to turn the contest into a popular spectacle, but she continually hopes out loud that someone will put her out of her misery. Utterly convinced of the futility of life when the marathon is terminated before a winner can be declared, she persuades Robert to “pinch hit for God” and shoot her dead.

Mrs. Layden, an aging woman who frequents dance marathons and laments that she is too old to be in them herself. She subscribes to the romantic fantasy that the promoters build around the contests and is especially drawn to Robert and Gloria, whom she convinces a beer company to sponsor. Secretly, though, she counsels Robert that a relationship with Gloria will only bring him misery. Her death at the dance hall by a stray bullet fired during an altercation at the bar terminates the marathon before a winner can emerge.

Vincent “Socks” Donald, a dance marathon promoter who callously engineers such events as a nightly footrace for the dancers and the marriage of two contestants during the mara- thon to increase his dance contest's popularity and draw an audience.