The Day of the Locust is a 1939 novel by Nathanael West that offers a dark satirical look at the American Dream in the 1930s, focusing on the desperation and alienation of hopefuls on the fringes of the film industry, such as aspiring actors and extras.  It’s considered a classic for its biting critique of the emptiness behind the glamour, its surrealism, and its portrayal of the savage violence that erupts from shattered dreams, culminating in a riot at a movie premiere. 

I was today years old when I learned that West’s 1939 novel The Day of the Locust contains a character named Homer Simpson:

Except for his hands, which belonged on a piece of monumental sculpture, and his small head, he was well proportioned. His muscles were large and round and he had a full, heavy chest. Yet there was something wrong. For all his size and shape, he looked neither strong nor fertile.

In a 2012 interview with Smithsonian, Matt Groening said, “I took that name from a minor character in the novel The Day of the Locust, by Nathanael West. Since Homer was my father’s name, and I thought Simpson was a funny name in that it had the word ‘simp’ in it, which is short for ‘simpleton’ — I just went with it.”