The Acceptance of Change
Ragtime takes place near the beginning of the Progressive Era, causing change to be a big part of the novel. Some characters accept change like Mother, while others like Father refuse to accept it. The premise of this book is social change in which characters have to adapt to a changing world in 19th century America. Racial barriers, gender roles, and immigration are some of the major themes that change through the course of the book, and how each character welcomes it varies.
Mother is ready to accept the change in the world. Before Father’s absence from the household, she was accepting of gender roles and “being in her place”. When Father leaves for his trip to the Arctic, she is required to modify her life in order to complete Father’s responsibilities and her own at home. Mother feels incompetent to complete Father’s duties. “It was an historic moment for the business and neither Father nor Younger Brother was on hand. She fled to the garden for solace” (Doctorow, 67). Without Father or her Younger Brother being able to fulfill their business duties, she feels inept in completing them and runs to the garden for comfort. As time passes, she takes care of his business and takes in a slave and her child. She feels a sense of responsibility and begins to thrive in Father’s absence. “She felt keenly in her husband's absence..” (Doctorow, 71). As she runs Father’s business, she notices the “dreary unimaginative thing it was" and that the business was not as hard to run as Father made it seem (Doctorow, 33). This causes her to lose respect for her husband while also giving her a confidence boost. She begins to embrace her sexual identity and starts to search for exhilaration and feeling in her life, both which Father doesn’t provide her.
Father is someone who is not accepting of change. The world that he once knew changes before his eyes. He thinks of himself as being progressive while his thoughts disprove this belief. During his voyage to the Arctic, Father’s idea of how a women should act is given away from the quote “The woman was actually pushing back..and found himself resenting primitive women’s claim to the gender” (Doctorow, 75). In his mind, women should be submissive and obedient to their husbands. As he comes back from his voyage to the Arctic, he notices differences in Mother and her “lack of obedience”. “She was in some way not as vigorously modest as she’d been. She took his gaze. She came to bed with her hair unbraided. Her hand one night brushed down his chest and came to rest below his nightshirt. He decided God had punishments in store so devious there was no sense trying to anticipate what they were…Her hands pulling his face to hers did not feel the tears” (Doctorow,111). He notices Mother’s change in “modesty”, and notes her change multiple times throughout the book. “She [Mother] was doing what she could to lose her place. She was no longer efficient or respectful” (Doctorow, 110). Father’s characters show the standards of 19th century America, where women were submissive and “people of color” acting the way they should act.
When Coalhouse Walker comes on weekly visits to their house, Father is surprised at his attitude and demeanor not being that what he thinks a black person should act like. “It occurred to Father one day that Coalhouse Walker Jr. didn't know he was a Negro… Walker didn't act or talk like a colored man.” (Doctorow, 162). Father believes that Coalhouse does not know his “place in society” and that his current behavior is unacceptable. His rigidity to change causes him to find comfort in segregation and traditional gender norms, unwilling to change as society progresses.
In Doctorow’s novel, times are changing, and people are either swept along or left behind. As technologies advance and social hierarchy disintegrate, America changes swiftly as individuals decide whether to accept or disprove it.
Wow wow wow! Great post Alina! Times were a' changin back then but I didn't fully pick up on that during my first read. Your points on mother's change occurring when father was absent is a very good point. Father is a very old fashioned man... I suppose because the old fashion ways benefit him. I also love your comment on how change will come whether or not these individuals will accept it. Keep it champ!
ReplyDeleteI agree that change is a core theme of Ragtime, and this blog post helped me realize that Father is most likely a caricature of a stagnant middle-aged, middle class white man in the 70s. Where Father achieves the American Dream and declines, Tateh ironically seems to climb higher and higher.
ReplyDeleteI really like the topic that you chose because I feel like you have a lot to pull from throughout the novel. I especially agreed with the point about Father being someone who is not ready or willing to accept change. I also felt that while other characters were discovering themselves and establishing their place in the novel, Father was quite static and seemed to be lagging behind.
ReplyDeleteFather is indeed the character who is most resistant to change throughout the book, and we see him as "left behind" by the advent of the 20th century in a range of ways. His wife starts reading Emma Goldman, and she becomes more assertive and therefore more alien to him. He's off at the North Pole (a quintessentially 19th-century kind of activity) while the world is moving on without him in New Rochelle. His family has literally become more racially diverse during the time he's away, and his racial views are much less tolerant and civil than Mother's and certainly Younger Brother's, who finds him an embarrassment. When he sinks with the Lusitania, Doctorow leaves the impression that he simply cannot survive into the 20th century and the modern world--this relic of the colonialist era, who is so disturbed by the shipload of immigrants entering NY harbor, is himself "replaced" by Tateh, a Jewish immigrant (and the most "modern" character in the book, as a guy who gets in on the film industry at a very early stage).
ReplyDeleteThis is a truly epic post. I greatly enjoyed reading this as a Mother stan, and I definitely agree that father was just an old fashioned guy not handling the changin times very well. He just wanted to explore Antartica and be a rich, white guy- and didn't agree with the more modern ideals of the era as Mother does. Kind glad he got blown up. Excellent work!
ReplyDeleteVery unique idea of change. Interesting to think about this. I think you are right in Father's analysis of how he is generally close-minded and limited in his thinking. It does seem significant that he is generally a hard character to connect with. I think that the ragtime era that the novel depicts was significant in its 'changes,' both with racial and class dynamics and Doctorow might be using father to contrast the changes that are occuring.
ReplyDeleteThis blog really drew my attention to the monumental shifts that took place after Father's return from the North Pole. If Father had not departed on the journey, Mother would not have been able to make the decision to take in the abandoned black baby and she might not have been confident enough to advocate for Coalhouse's courtship of Sarah. Father's hiatus allowed mother to adapt to the changing times, equipping her with the necessary insight to make prudent decisions that would drastically change the family's future.
ReplyDelete