John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is one of the representative American novels of the 1930s. Describing the predicament of migrant farmers challenged by the disaster of the Dust Bowl and deprived of their traditional ways of life, the novel is usually thought to epitomize the well-known images of America of the 1930s, such as the "Depression Era" or the "Red Thirties." Not only was it an age of socialist movement and labor dispute, but the 1930s also witnessed broad debates, as Eric Foner puts it, over "the redefinition of freedom" among politicians and intellectuals. These debates, inseparable from the foundation of the New Deal, were no less influential than those of the contemporary left-wingers. This paper clarifies the structure and esthetics of The Grapes of Wrath, one of the "canons" of the 1930s, by reading it against the background of the liberal discourse in the New Deal period. First, I analyze the arguments of Michael Szalay's New Deal Modernism and Sean McCann's Gumshoe America, both of which examine the literature of the 1930s in reference to the culture of liberalism. Through this analysis, I will argue the significance of the discourses on the relation between the whole and its parts, or the group and the individual, in the New Deal era. I then focus on Steinbeck's biological philosophy, integrating and epitomizing non-teleological thinking and the phalanx theory, which are reflected in both the theme and structure of the novel. The former refers to an attitude toward observing things as they are, as opposed to teleological thinking that seeks to explain things through causal nexuses. The latter theory assumes that a group is an entity different from the mere sum of its members as well as individuals being not the mere components of a group. Through interpreting Steinbeck's philosophy within the framework of the New Deal liberalism, I reveal how it is resonant with contemporary liberal discourse of the time. In conclusion, his ideas can be viewed as a response to the concerns for the New Deal governing theory. The following parts of the paper investigate The Grapes of Wrath with an emphasis on its modernist narrative structure composed of the alternating interchapters and narrative chapters. Steinbeck describes anonymous migrant farmers in the former, whereas the latter depicts the specific story of the Joads, as the exemplary migrant family. Preceding studies on the relation between the two sorts of chapters tend to see the Joads as a representative family, stressing the organic unity of the novel. Considering that the narrative chapters thoroughly portray the Joads as "real" rather than "typical" individualists, however, they can be regarded as opposed to the anonymous mass groups in the interchapters. My thesis concludes that the novel is structured over the dialectic between the value of individualism and the newly emerging significance of government, represented in the narrative chapters and interchapters, respectively. Ultimately, the ending scene functions precisely as a conclusion of the novel because it offers an imaginary unity between the opposing values of the New Deal.

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Alain Locke (1885-1954), a seminal African American intellectual of the early twentieth century, is today best known as a midwife of the Harlem Renaissance and editor of The New Negro (1925). His multi-faceted contributions to the artistic and intellectual landscape of the Harlem Renaissance are widely recognized, but the depth of his philosophy-specially his pragmatism, cosmopolitanism, and multiculturalism-remains underappreciated. This essay aims to fill that gap by examining Locke's philosophical works, arguing that cosmopolitanism is an important philosophical foundation both for Locke and The New Negro. In addition, this essay seeks to provide a detailed account of Locke's relationship with Horace Kallen, another important philosopher of cultural pluralism, and William James, a pragmatist philosopher. Their relationships reveal the way in which Locke's cosmopolitanism builds on the cultural pluralism fostered by these important philosophers. The beginning of this article investigates why Locke's cosmopolitanism has been misunderstood for a long time. One reason is that the term "cosmopolitanism" in the early-to-mid twentieth-century was associated with the ideal of the universal human community, one that requires a person to transcend all particular racial, ethnic, and local differences and divisions. This sense of cosmopolitanism was problematic for African Americans; cosmopolitanism for African Americans meant abandoning their racial differences and assimilating into the dominant group. As a result, at the time when Locke articulated his ideal of cosmopolitanism, he was criticized by other African American artists and critics for espousing cosmopolitanism as an assimilation strategy. However, this was only a partial understanding of Locke's cosmopolitanism. By closely examining his unpublished manuscript "Cosmopolitanism" (1908), this essay reveals that, rather than theorizing cosmopolitanism as a way to assimilation, Locke created what can be called multicultural cosmopolitanism (or critical cosmopolitanism). Locke's cosmopolitanism articulates a vision of a multicultural America, in which ethnic and racial differences are part of a shared national community. Locke's critical cosmopolitanism, in this sense, resonates with Horace Kallen's "cultural pluralism," which rejected the melting pot theory and expectations of conformity during the great wave of European immigration. By juxtaposing Locke with other contemporary multiculturalists in this way, this essay analyzes what is unique about Locke's cosmopolitanism. The latter half of this essay argues that Locke's theory of multicultural cosmopolitanism opens up a new understanding of The New Negro. Traditionally, critics have identified this anthology as a cultural nationalist text that forged a new racial consciousness among African Americans. At the same time, however, the scope of The New Negro is actually far larger. In this anthology, Locke collects a variety of contributions that support his view of multicultural cosmopolitanism. Among the selections in The New Negro, John Matheus's short story "Fog," winner of the 1925 Opportunity prize, is of great importance for this essay. The story foregrounds American cultural pluralism-or what Locke calls a "cosmopolitanism within a nation" and "unity through diversity"-in the context of the modern urban landscape. Describing a variety of immigrants and racial minorities sitting side by side in a single train car, "Fog" represents Locke's multicultural-cosmopolitanism that sought an inter-racial, inter-ethnic, and intercultural communication.

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