Ragtime

Jordan Marendino

Professor Ruiz-Velasco

English 300

10 April 2014

Accepting Change in Ragtime

Edgar Lawrence Doctorow, named after the famous Edgar Allen Poe, has been recognized in literature for his “overwhelming critical and commercial success of Ragtime,” published in 1975 (“Doctorow, E.L” 427). Critics raved about Doctorow’s success to capture post World War I zeitgeist with the help of historical figures such as Harry Houdini and J.P Morgan. The novel was later turned into the film making commercial success in the movie industry in 1981. Although Ragtime was written regarding society in the early twentieth century, the social tension and change was relevant in the 1970’s. Society was constantly changing in culture, making it harder for generations to adapt to their new, strange surroundings. Ragtime reveals how change can either be accepted or rejected within society.

During the twentieth century, the gap between social classes was exponentially growing, making society more like a hierarchy system. Rather than applauding the efforts of successful businessmen, Doctorow sympathizes for the undervalued individuals that went unrecognized in society. Miners injured on the job or the homeless who camped along the street were being demoralized by the wealthy. The new social gap was a big change for people to accept. The wealthy didn’t see the poverty in the nation and continued their superficial lifestyles. It soon became “fashionable to honor the poor,” illustrating the higher class’ poor inability to sympathize with the lower class (Doctorow, 34). Doctorow describes the Poverty Balls that the higher class would throw:

Guests came dressed in rags and ate from tin plates and drank from chipped mugs. Ballrooms were decorated to loo...

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...y Doctorow, is to write them back in” (Wright, 14). Wright explains that Doctorow indicates his novel as "truthful fictions," which are poetically if not historically true (14). Matthew Henry, a famous literary critic, writes in Critique that Doctorow, “has made a career out of historical fiction, as he is renowned for both examining and rewriting the American past… because for Doctorow there is no fact or fiction, only narrative” (McClure 740). Doctorow not only adds these historical people, he creates fictitious ideas and thoughts in each of them. Did J.P Morgan really feel his business was undermining the workers or that Houdini was unfulfilled with his escape tactics? Doctorow twists these characters and creates a story that makes readers puzzled, but intrigued. Doctorow examines how society finds it difficult to change when already accustomed to something else.