The Evolution of Social Commentary in Ragtime

Ragtime can be a bit confusing at first; it jumps back and forth between storylines, half of which are about unnamed characters. Once the reader manages to get a grasp on the different storylines, it becomes interesting to watch them overlap and become more intertwined. However, at this point in the book, the beginning feels like a completely different book because of the shift. The first half of the book seems to be focused on the issues of class, juxtaposing the upper-class Henry Thaw with the immigrant life Houdini. Later, Doctorow seems more focused on the racial aspects of Coalhouse’s storyline. This narrows on the racism Coalhouse faces despite his efforts to be an upstanding citizen, as well as his responses to continual discrimination.  

Along the lines of criticism of class differences, Houdini is placed in the same setting as Henry Thaw when he is in prison while Houdini is performing an escape. In class, we talked a lot about how Houdini became an icon for the lower class Americans, particularly among immigrants. As an immigrant himself, he became the image for the idea American dream, where he came to America to make a living for himself and worked hard enough to make his dream a reality. Similarly, his work as an escape artist is all about escaping bonds from places that seem impossible, which would have a message of hope that would particularly resonate with the working class immigrant population in America at the time. Across the hall from him, Thaw is in prison, completely relaxed and content with life. Unlike the poor immigrants who see their strife in Houdini’s magical escapes, Thaw, even when in the same bondage, has his privilege to cushion his experience and feels comfortable in the knowledge that said privilege means that he could get out at any time without much of a struggle. This section somewhat comes to an end with the narratives following Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan, who are undoubtedly both wealthy figures who left an enormous impact on the state of capitalism in America. The juxtapositions of the upper class characters, interacting with the lower class characters is a subtle commentary on the class disparities from Doctorow. As the book is set during the early 1900s, these social criticisms would have been common at the time.  As the state of capitalism and industrialism in America grew, class disparities and discontent grew along with it. During the turn of the century, many social activists (Jane Addams and Jacob Riis are two names that come to mind from US History) called for change to improve the lives of the working class immigrants.

            However, while Doctorow’s commentary and slight criticism of capitalism would fit within both the time period of the setting as well as the time Ragtime was published, his later commentary on racial issues definitely seem to belong more in the sixties and seventies than the beginning of the century. As the novel shifts for the narratives to focus more on the family and Coalhouse Walker, the racial commentary becomes less something that could fit in around the turn of the century and turns into something that would fit very well in the racial and political climate of the late sixties and early seventies when the book was published. The discrimination  and profiling Coalhouse experienced would definitely be something accurate of the time period in New York, but his pride and reaction of violence is something greatly ahead of its’ time. The armed people who help him attacking the fire stations are reminiscent of the militancy of the Black Panther movement.

            Not only does Doctorow flaunt his power as the writer in squeezing in information about real historical characters that is not in the historical narrative, but he also uses his power as a fictional writer to interweave themes and social commentary from both time periods of the setting and publishing dates of the book. In the beginning, he takes care to find pockets to insert information about the named real characters so that it doesn’t contradict the historical record. With Colehouse, he gives him an explicit name, despite being fictional, and also makes a point to not make up too much information about Colehouse, purposefully keeping the reader in the dark about what is going on inside his head.