Masquerades and The People Who Stare

Tod said the starters had "came to California to die.".
             The masquerades and starters were both drawn to Hollywood for the same reason: glamour. Glamour is a strange perfection that humans cannot attain. The masquerades create this impression of success and glory because they want to be adored the same way actors are adored for playing a role which is not true to themselves. In the fourth chapter of the book Tod visits Claude Estee, a Hollywood screenwriter and a masquerade himself. When Tod tries to talk to Claude about his love life, Claude remains constantly focused on feeding his audience. "What the barber wants is amour and glamor." (72). It would seem the middle class barber in Purdue would want love and success, but he only yearns for the false appearance of these things. The movie industry has taught the mass public to want promise but not fulfillment. You watch a movie set in Paris, but you never go see the real Eiffel tower with your own eyes. The Masquerades sell hope but not achievement, and the starers lap it up gratuitously.
             The relationship between the masquerades and the people who stare replicates performers to an audience. In this way they sustain each other simultaneously. Without the audience there would be no performers and without the performers there would be no audience. The performers feed off of the attention they receive, whether good or bad. They want to feel important; they want to feel special. However, the masquerades are not alone in stroking their ego. The starers are jealous of the false happiness the masquerades convey. The people who stare yearn for a chance to see the masquerades in tragedy because it makes them feel better about themselves. In a description of lithographs called "The Dancers," Tod recognizes the audience as playing a more crucial role "It was their stare that drove Abe and the others to spin crazily and leap into the air with twisted backs like hooked trout" (62).