Ragtime

Brilliant, excellent, and beautiful are only a few words that can describe E.L Doctorow’s Ragtime. This novel represents many historical events and people in a fact and fictional manner. The story starts out in New Rochelle, New York just years before the First World War. Harry Houdini crashes his car into a telephone pole outside of the home of an American family. From here, the novel takes many shocking turns through history and fiction such as the murder of Stanford White all the way up to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Ragtime teaches the relationship between exploitation and violence by using many comparisons throughout history and by appealing to the reader’s portrayal of what is moral versus what is immoral. History and the influence of others such as parents, is what helps us define what we portray as justified and unjustified in certain circumstances that are reflected by Doctorow. For example, the Coalhouse Walker situation is one of many circumstances throughout the novel that helps the reader think about whether his actions are portrayed as justified or not. Doctorow’s portrayal of Coalhouse Walker helps the reader define how they think of what is justifiable or unjustifiable. The way this story is written, is to show that everyone has their own view of what is moral and what is immoral. Throughout the story, there are several characters that test this idea of moral versus immoral through the relationship of exploitation and violence. Another example of this idea would be the exploitation that is relayed through the story when the textile mills strike and the violence is portrayed through the Children’s crusade. These examples are just two of the several examples that exemplify the relationship between ...

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... The people that surround the reader, whether it is their parents or friends, and the historical events that have taken place may cause these acts of violence due to the exploitation of situations. This text shows many conceptual ideas about exploitation and violence. Therefore, this is vital in the fact that everyone understands each person has their own view on what is justifiable and what is not. Doctorow shows us how to see different views of what is justified or not and gives us a better understanding on what other people may be thinking when it comes to their own moral system. Therefore, having all the knowledge as why the relationship of exploitation and violence is present and what teaches a person their own moral system could help others around these types of situations defer much of the exploitation and violence that occurs by not repeating past mistakes.