Doctorow’s Depictions of Change

Ragtime is an amalgamation of various writing methods employed by Doctorow. He utilizes an unusual point of view, mixes both historical and fictional events, uses a nameless family to represent a generic upper class white family, intertwines multiple seemingly unconnected smaller stories, constantly flows from one idea to another, etc. But in particular, Doctorow’s depiction of change throughout the novel stood out to me.

In the very first chapter of the book, Doctorow provides an example of a changing America in the lines “Everyone wore white in summer. Tennis racquets were hefty and the racquet faces elliptical. There was a lot of sexual fainting. There were no Negroes. There were no immigrants” and “Her underclothes were white. Her husband habitually whipped her. She happened once to meet Emma Goldman, the revolutionary. Goldman lashed her with her tongue. Apparently there were Negroes. There were immigrants.” The first thing I noticed when reading these sentences was just how Doctorow goes from one idea to the next like it’s no big deal. It ends up making these sentences seem dense and hectic. But, the lines at the end were the ones that really stood out to me. In the first half, Doctorow says there are no negroes or immigrants, but then later says that there apparently were negroes and immigrants. To me, it’s like the narrator is relaying to us something he just learned. But more importantly, it highlights the unexpected differences between the past and present, and presents to us an example of the changes occurring in America during this time period.

But Doctorow doesn’t just highlight America’s changes in these two sentences. In Chapter 30, Father attends a baseball game with the Little Boy. During the game, Father can’t help but notice the number of immigrants playing. This is in contrast with the baseball games he attended 20 years prior, where there were few immigrants. Father, a character that represents the typical upper class man, can’t help but feel nostalgic about the games during his days. Here, we see a fictional example of how America has changed that is difficult for Father to accept. By creating this inner conflict within Father, Doctorow highlights the fact that yes, America is different than it used to be, and some people aren’t going to be happy about that.

Father’s character as a whole represents someone who is unable to deal with change. In addition to being unable to accept the immigrants flowing into America, he also fails to deal with changes occurring in his family. After Father came back from the Peary expedition, he noticed that Mother became less modest and she became more focused on Sarah’s baby. Father felt isolated from his family, and even by the time he died, he never really seemed to have overcome the changes occurring in both his family and America. All in all, I think Doctorow’s depiction of Father and a changing America helps showcase that change is something inevitable, and perhaps that change should be welcomed with open arms, unlike what Father has done throughout the entirety of the novel.