In Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, we learn about nonfictional character Evelyn Nesbit’s supposedly fictional tale. One day she ventures east of New York City one day to escape from her court cases and the constant paparazzi. Driving through the immigrant region of the city she stops her car when she comes across a little girl. “She was the most beautiful child Evelyn had ever seen”, so she visits the little girl everyday and gives the little girl and her Tateh money. Her relationship with the child can be seen positively as the little girl is a break from Evelyn’s struggles with the death of her lover and the imprisonment of her husband, something real that she can love and care for. Although this is the case, I believe her fetishization overpowers. Her relationship with the little girl is obsessive and invasive, and the more involved she is in the family’s life the more it seems as if she wants the little girl solely for her personal gain of having a beautiful child.
We see this same exact instance with Mother. In a bizarre turn of events, Mother encounters a baby buried in the ground. She contacts the police and finds the baby’s mother, Sarah, and takes both into her care. Though like Evelyn Mother is helping Sarah and the child, the way she looks after them feels fetishizing and more for her personal gain. Mother is also “awed by her [Sarah’s] beauty”, which again mirrors exactly Evelyn and the little girl.
Reading how similar these two stories were, I couldn’t help but wonder whether Doctorow was trying to make some sort of critique. I think it is notable that both Mother and Evelyn are both well to do white women, so it caused me to believe that maybe he was trying to say how the rich often exploited those below them even though they are technically helping.
I also noticed that both Evelyn and Mother have a connection with Emma Goldman, Evelyn seeing her at the Socialist Alliance and Mother reading her books. Their experiences differ though because after talking with Goldman Evelyn grows out of her relationship with the little girl and learns to let go. In addition, Evelyn donates to various social causes after Goldman enlightens her with the struggles of the poor and a drive to help others. We do not see this same growth with Mother, which I am not sure why their stories seem to mirror each other.
This is a really cool post! I never thought about this and I think it's super insightful. The fact that Mother doesn't grow out but Evelyn does, I think, will play into something towards the end of the book. It'll be cool to see how their stories diverge as the book comes to a close.
ReplyDeleteThis post is super interesting and I never made this connection before. I don't know if this is significant at all but Mother who adopts Sarah's orphaned child ends up marrying Tateh, whose daughter is the girl that Evelyn latched on to, so to some extent Tateh is playing the role to Coalhouse the 3rd that Evelyn played to his own daughter.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting, and I also had never really thought about this. While I think that both Evelyn and Mother do want to help, I totally agree that they seem mostly to be motivated by some quest for self fulfillment, and for some reason a little child is what gives it to them. I also agree that Doctorow seems to be critiquing the tendency of well off white people to help the poor in a way that actually paternalizes or fetishizes them.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is one possible explaination, on the other hand it is also possible that both women do it simply because they see the children and the distress they are in and want to help. Though they both go a little far for that it seems as if, especially in mother’s case, she really cares for the child. I also think both women do grow after their encounters with Emma Goldman. You mentioned how Evelyn donated to different social causes, but mother also changes too. She leaves father and marries Tateh at the end of the book. It seems like as soon as she read the Emma Goldman book her eyes began to open and she pushed away from Father to find someone new. At the end of the book she seems much more open, and as more of a character in herself than just as being fathers wife.
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