Ragtime

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the
homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The above lines are found inscribed inside the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands. In a way those lines represent the spirit of US, and what it primarily stands for. It is a nation built by immigrants. Immigrants fleeing from poverty( East Europe, Italy), famine( Ireland), political persecution( Jews during World War II). Basically the US has had 4 layers of immigration, first were the British, then we had the Irish and Germans. At the turn of the 20th century, a vast majority of the immigrants came from Italy and Eastern Europe. After World War II, most of the immigration was driven from Asia, with the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans making it first, and then during the 70’s it was the Fillipinos, Vietnamese and during the 80’s and 90’s, the immigration was largely driven by Latinos, Indians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans. But ironically for all it’s reputation as an immigrants paradise, US also has experienced the most virulent anti immigrant violence. And again it was the previous immigrants who led that violence. So the Irish who themselves were immigrants, led the violence against the Italian and Polish immigrants. The Italians and Polish immigrants were again notoriously racist against non white Immigrants namely Blacks, Latinos and Asians. Italians in particular had a notorious reputation for racism.

Ragtime is a novel that takes a look at the US during the turn of the 20th century. It is the story of 3 different families and how their lives in a way are interconnected to the famous people and events in the early half of the century. The stories of these 3 families gives us an insight into how the US was structured at the beginning of the 20th century. The novel begins in 1902 and ends with the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Countess Sophie which leads to World War I.

The first family is an upper class New York family, in the town of New Rochelle. The narrator belongs to this family and he simply refers to the characters as Father,Mother and Mother’s Younger Brother. We never know what their real names are. Father leaves for an expedition to the Arctic with the famous explorer Robert Peary who discovered the North Pole. Mother’s Younger Brother meanwhile falls in love with Evelyn Nesbit, a socialite, whose husband Harry Thaw, has been charged with the murder of her ex lover, architect Stanford White.

The second family is a Jewish immigrant family from Eastern Europe consisting of Tateh, his wife Mameh and their little daughter, who live in the squalid settlements of New York’s notorious Lower East Side. When Mameh is forced to submit to her employer’s lust for money, Tateh leaves the place along with his daughter. Evelyn Nesbit, enchanted with Tateh’s little daughter, keeps visiting the Lower East Side. Tateh is impressed by the socialist ideals of Emma Goldman, an anarchist and a revolutionary feminist. Tateh meanwhile travels to Lawrence, Massachussets, where he makes a living selling flip books.

The third family is that of a black man, Coalhouse Walker and Sarah, who works in Mother’s household as a servant maid. Sarah is pregnant before marriage, and is carrying Walker’s child. She agrees to marry him, after repeated visits by Coalhouse to Mother’s home. However things take a nasty turn when Coalhouse’s Model T car is damaged by some racist white guys led by the fire chief Willie Conklin. Coalhouse is arrested over this, and what is worse he finds no lawyer to represent him.

Ragtime in a way is a social commentary on the life in the US during that period. The Upper Crust family to which the narrator belongs is quite rich and well settled, but in a way it is a family that is never happy. Father’s frequent expeditions weaken him and he can never have a happy married life. He feels lonely after comming back from the Polar expedition. Mother’s Younger Brother is confused over what to do, he keeps drifting from place to place. He shadows the beautiful socialite Evelyn Nesbit, and finally ends up as a rebel in the Mexican revolt led by Emiliano Zapata. Another kind of loneliness is experienced by the billionaire J.P.Morgan, who for all his wealth and power, finds himself missing something in his life. He feels empty, he finds the people who flock to him, essentially shallow persons, who have no depth of knowledge. He is however impressed by Henry Ford and his Model T. He invites Ford for lunch, and tries to discuss religion and spirituality with him, but at the end of it, he still remains searching for answers. In spite of his interest in Egyptian heritage and culture, and his expeditions to various nations, Morgan, never finds the answers he is seeking and dies broken hearted. In a way the book depicts the loneliness and depression which people face beneath all their riches and power.

The Immigrant family to which Tateh and his little girl belong to, depict the miserable conditions of the immigrants to the US. During the turn of the century, the US saw a large number of immigrants, many comming from Italy and Eastern Europe. Most of the immigrants from Eastern Europe were Jewish, escaping the discrimination they faced there. And many from Italy to escape the dire poverty in that nation. However living conditions in the Promised Land were no better. In a wonderful passage, the narrator shows the miserable living conditions, most of them living in rat infested quarters with no sanitation and heating. Most of these slums were breeding grounds for crime and all kinds of vices. And on top of it, they had to experience racism. Ironically it was the second generation Irish people who led the attacks against the new immigrants. The Irish themselves immigrated in large numbers during the Potato Famine during the 18th and 19th centuries, and faced discrimination. In fact in later stages, the Italians would be the most notoriously racist when it came to Blacks, Latinos and Asians. Tateh’s story however typifies the archetypal American dream, an immigrant comming with nothing and making money with whatever he knew. Though a socialist in belief, Tateh later become an entrepreneur selling flip books. Basically in the olden days, before movies, you had books with pictures on every page. When you flipped the pages, it appeared as if you were seeing a movie or cartoon. America is a nation that runs on individual enterprise, and that is why most of the rags to riches stories come from there.

And finally Coalhouse Walker’s story depicts the horrendous conditions of Blacks during that time. Unlike the immigrants who had to deal only with poverty, Blacks had to deal with poverty as well as social discrimination. Coalhouse is attacked for the sole reason that he dared to have his own Model T car, something which was sacrilege. Henry Ford’s idea of producing the Model T Car, was that every American should be able to own a car, however there was a large class of Americans, who did not come in that view, simply because of their skin color. What is worse Coalhouse is arrested on flimsy charges, and no lawyer is willing to take up his case. When Sarah tries to petition the then Vice President, she is taken to be an assasin and beaten up to death by the secret service men. And that represents one of the worst characteristic of the American society, insecurity and an inability to understand people different from themselves. Even to date, for all their lofty talk about equality, Americans remain one of the most insecure, neurotic bunch of people, always seeking to find an enemy in the other. This is a novel to be read to understand not just the character of the American society, but also it’s people, why they have evolved in such a way, and what makes them what they are. The unconventional mode of narration might be difficult, but it is still worth a read.