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Livingston Morris

Ms. McGriff

Am Lit

20 April, 2018

Nothing to Something

Ragtime is overall all about changing with the times and adapting. In the plot, the ways

and ideals of America old and new mix together as technology advances and social barriers

collapse. Some characters adapt while others struggle while being stuck in their old ways as

America changes tremendously with the concept of sexism, racism, and justice over the course of

the novel.

For example, Mother always had been content with her traditional thought to be destined

gender role, but when Father leaves for an Arctic voyage with his counterparts, she is forced to

adapt to being in a main leadership role in the house and take care of all of Father’s

responsibilities while he’s gone. She holds down the house and the family business with ease,

shocking herself. As a result of the changing ways of the time seen on TV with women

protestors, she takes control of her own life and others that depend on her. Also, she accepts even

more responsibilities while adapting to a leadership role by taking in a poor stray woman with a

baby. While Mother breezes through work at the family business she loses a lot of respect

for Father when she comes to the realization that running the business isn't as difficult as Father

made it seem all of these years. She becomes a visionary and innovator on her journey through

being an independent individual with the help of the women protestors, and she doesn’t feel
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subject to sexism or the old fashioned ways of men being superior anymore. The burst of

confidence and individuality inspires her to venture out and look for a new source of excitement

and emotion, two things she complained that her husband couldn’t give her.

“When the entire house was asleep he came to her room in the darkness. He was solemn and

attentive as befitted the occasion. Mother shut her eyes and held her hands over her ears. Sweat

from Father's chin fell on her breasts. She started. She thought: Yet I know these are the happy

years (Doctrow).

There is an indignity attached to sex, the physical way of expression your passion, at the

beginning of the novel that she suffers through. She feels like it’s the women’s role to allow their

husband to do whatever he wants to them. She feels that she has no choice because at this time

she wasn’t independent. She claims that she believes these are her happy years, but she is

anything but pleased, instead she is lackluster about sharing herself with her significant other that

she feels second to. After taking over the family business and keeping up with the

responsibilities of the house not only was she more empowered to say no the next time she

wasn’t in the mood, but she genuinely felt entitled to express her say which is something she

never would’ve done before Father went on his trip to the Artic.

Father, stubborn and simple minded, is an example of a character who struggles to adapt

to the change. When he returns from the Arctic voyage everything confuses him, from the new

vacuum (he doesn’t see new gadgets and technological innovations as a good thing), to Mother's

confidence and sense of self-worth in the bedroom, and how the members of the house listen to

mother more than they ever listened to him.

Coalhouse's (a black musician struggling for work) appearance in the home magnifies

Father's “traditional” personality. Although Father respects Coalhouse as an extremely talented

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musician, he absolutely refuses to view him as an equal no matter how much Coalhouse has

proved himself and its solely because of his skin color and how black people are perceived at the

time. Father has nostalgia for the past when the traditional American ideal where being rich and

white gave him ultimate power to say, do and act however he pleased without having to respect

or view anyone different from him or not of a similar status as an equal. When

oppressed/disrespected characters: immigrants, women and negroes began revolting and making

productive strides against social norms by protesting, Father panics at the sense of “entitlement”

of these groups of people and feels it’s his duty as an upper class white male to stomp these

characters back into their place.

Coalhouse was one of the participants of the civil rights march that turned violent. He

joined the march initially because he was beaten severely outside of a firehouse by a group of

white men for simply being black. He took the firefighters to court and tried to sue them for

battery and harassment and get them arrested, but the justice system dismissed his case because

the courts and laws were prejudice towards blacks. Coalhouse marched so that maybe cases like

his would be brought to attention and justice could be had for blacks. Coalhouse was one of the

protestors that turned violent. He attempted to blow the firehouse of with fireworks, but was seen

leaving the scene of the crime slightly before the rockets went off. Father disregarded the fact

that Coalhouse was supposed to be seen as family in the house and turned in Coalhouse when he

returned from the rampage.

“When helping the police bring down Coalhouse, he could feel queer pulses of bitter

glee breaking over his back" (Doctrow).

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Basically Father gets off in a sick way to being seen as a higher class/rank than the

oppressed groups. Father's inability to change displays itself as pent up anger and fear taught to

him by his parents and so on throughout the family.

Tateh (a small subplot in Ragtime connected directly with the technology in Mother and

Father’s house) is perhaps the best example of self-made change in Ragtime. He arrives in New

York as a poor immigrant, but through a fortunate series of brilliant ideas and inventions, he

becomes wealthy. By rolling with the punches and adapting to every difficult situation presented

before him, Tateh accomplishes the impossible for people in situations like his.

America in the early 1900s was filled with racism, sexism, and cruel injustice that held

back many groups of people from living a full and happy life. This is expressed mostly through

the experiences of traditionally ostracized people such as Immigrants, African Americans, and

Women of any race.

Change was quick for some, but not all. At the end of the novel, Tateh and Mother have

the happiest ending because they have accomplished more than they ever thought they could and

have experienced true pleasure by overcoming the odds to their respected situations. Coalhouse’s

story ended with him executed, but his court case later being brought back to trial and winning

verdict. The reluctance to change by people in power caused the conflict for the thought to be

lesser individuals. Ragtime shows that with persistence and passion you can change a stubborn

world.
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Works Cited

Doctorow, E L. Ragtime. New York: Random House, 1975. Print.