As Ragtime drew to a close, the story came full circle. The book ended with a sort of epilogue where we learned about each fictional character and where they ended up.
First we have Younger Brother who traveled down to Mexico in Coalhouse’s Model T to fight alongside the zapatistas in the Mexican revolution. He pledged his life towards the cause, so severely that even the zapatistas thought of him as reckless. His shift to this new fight caused me to question his legitimacy. When Younger Brother was fighting in Coalhouse Walker’s army, I wondered whether he was doing it for himself or rather for the context of bringing justice towards the mistreatment of a black person. I think Younger Brother’s new role in the revolution delegitimized his fight for me. His immediate shift from one cause to another and made him seem as if he was working for his own purposes of self fulfillment. I did not get a sense that he was fighting in the revolution to help the people but instead because he found a place where he belonged. Although this is the case, I think it is nice that Younger Brother finally knows what he wants to do and commits himself. Throughout the novel we saw him struggling with who he was and what he wanted to do, but I think he realized that he wanted to fight for struggling people, which even though may be for himself ultimately contributes to the greater good.
Then we have Father who supplied the US Army with Younger Brother’s artillery and died in the Lusitania marking the beginning of WWI. In the broader historical context, Father’s death on the Lusitania made me realize that the finishing of Ragtime represented not just the end book but also the end of the Ragtime era. His death represented the death of the era, as the US entered war beginning a new chapter of history, but also the death of the old family, as it caused Mother and Tateh began their new life together.
Finally we have Mother and Tateh who got married and moved to California. I remember in class we discussed whether or not they had a nice ending, and I would argue that they did. Their story to me seemed like the nicest ending out of all the narratives. "She [Mother] adored him, she loved to be with him", meaning that they finally seemed to be happy and in love, something Mother and Tateh have struggled with throughout the entire novel.
Mother and Tateh's ending feels less than satisfactory to me. Our first interactions with him in the book are as a pretty outspoken misogynist - dismissing his wife for entering sex work and Evelyn for similar reasons. So why should we be happy that Mother ended up with him? Additionally, the way Tateh appears to view his new stepchildren - as obligations rather than part of a new family, is a little discomforting. He doesn't actually appear to care about them and is instead obsessed with making movies about them for his own gain.
ReplyDeleteWe talked in class about how Father is sort of a relic of the 19th century: His exploration well past the age of American exploration, his focus on patriotism (sort of), the way he feels himself slipping out of his position of power, becoming obsolete. The way he dies seems right: trying to drag himself into the next era and getting destroyed by it.
ReplyDeleteEverybody seems to be focusing on Father, Mother's Younger Brother, and Coalhouse when it comes to the conclusion of the novel, but I think Mother and Tatehs relationship is just as interesting and satisfactory. Contrary to some other people, I rather liked the ending of that relationship - I felt that Doctorow was trying to inject a little bit of happiness into an otherwise bleak ending of the story, and I was quite content with the happiness that the two children and the two adults seemed to get from eachother.
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