"Brother"

Throughout Doctorow's Ragtime, the character of Younger Brother plays an important role in connecting the different worlds that Doctorow has created. Younger brother has a presence throughout the novel that cannot be ignored. From the beginning he is an allusive and mysterious member of the New Rochelle family but he branches out beyond the family and becomes part of the snippets of other stories that Doctorw gives us. Such as becoming Evelyn Nesbit's lover and eventually a fan of Emma Goldman anarchist ideas. Later on, younger brother becomes deeply intertwined with Coalhouse Walker and his story.

Coalhouse walker also connects several of the different character plots. When he "captures" J.P. Morgan's library, he is also bringing Morgan and those affiliated with him back into the picture. Along with being a means of helping all of the smaller meta-narratives come together, there are several parallells between younger brother and coalhouse walker. Both have loved a woman of whom they have lost due to circumstances out of their control. They also both see apparent problems in the justice system and how society functions (Younger Brother is influenced heavily by Emma Goldman's teachings).

It could be argued that Younger Brother becomes a follower of Coalhouse in part because of the similarities between them (since Doctorow does not explicitly mention their parallels, perhaps it is a subconscious understanding).

The novel really starts heating up (pun noted) when Coalhouse sets off an explosion at the fire station and begins killing other firemen with no differentiation. Before this event, Younger Brother has been a meek sort of character that has not yet found himself, but is exploring outside the bounds of the "safety" of the New Rochelle middle class society. After Coalhouse's first strike, there is a crucial scene between Father and Younger Brother where they get into a heated discussion over the justifications of what Coalhouse Walker has done.  In this scene, Doctorow refers to Younger Brother simply as "Brother." "Brother stood up so abruptly that his chair fell over." He then goes on to criticize the hypocritical statements that Father has just made. Perhaps Doctorow did not have a particular reason for dropping "Younger" from Brother's title, but it helps to show that in this key scene Brother is moving away from his relatives and becoming his own person.

Brother goes on to join Coalhouse, becoming a follower again but of a different kind. Then he goes off on his own and wanders without a desired outcome. He never truly finds himself in the sort of situation where he believes in something strongly enough to stand up against what he knows. He stays titled as "Younger Brother," symbolically showing that his moment of self-actualization has passed. He finds himself in the throngs of the Mexican Revolution fighting for causes more because of the fight than his belief in the cause itself. The end for Younger Brother is a slightly more positive one because he seems to have found another outlet for his skills and even shows his own leadership in leading guerrilla raids. "He was respected by the zapatistas but was thought also to be reckless" (Doctorow 305). It is with a positive note that Younger Brother has earned himself respect, but also sad that his recklessness stems from loosing everything (and thus having nothing to loose).

It would be absurd to claim that Doctorow's Ragtime is about one thing. However, in light of Younger Brother's story I think it is fair to say that the theme of pushing, breaking away from, and finding ways around the constraints of society is a key element in this novel.

Father: A man of his times.

Throughout Coalhouse Walker's appearances in Doctorow's Ragtime, Father has shown mixed signals. Initially Father hates Coalhouse because of the nerve that this colored man shows (nerve in the sense that he is a respectable, car-owning black man). Eventually as Mother and the rest of the family get caught up in the courtship of Coalhouse to Sarah, Father begins to partake in the excitement. When the fire incident occurs Father bails Coalhouse out of jail. At this point I gained more respect for Father because he shows some moral fiber.

However, as soon as the homicidal destruction of the firehouse takes place, Father becomes disenchanted. It seemed like the other family members we under the courtship "spell" but saw the romance for its true beauty. Father on the other hand participated more because of the happiness that it brought Mother. Now that that Coalhouse has stricken back at the Firemen, Father's previous feelings indicating some respect have disappeared. During the courtship, father seemed to be much more progressive in his nature and behavior than before. The event of revenge pushes father several steps back as seen when he lashes out at mother for her "sentimentality." The point of Coalhouse's act may have been to show the white people not to disregard a black man's issues simply because of his race. The effect on father simply reaffirms his racist ideals. Father wonders if "his dislike for Coalhouse Walker, which had been instantaneous, was based not on the man's color but on his being engaged in an act of courtship..."

For this reason, I found it particularly ironic when later in the story Father discusses himself as a "progressive" man saying that he thinks colored people could be equal to white people. In speaking of his forward ideas though, it shows how deeply ingrained racism has been in Fathers upbringing.

Some Fictional and Historical Reflections

Does knowing that something is fiction or history change how I see a novel or story? When we were first discussing the relationship between history and fiction in class and the prospect of knowing  whether or not an event or character is "real" or "made up" I did not think that this knowledge would make much of a difference for me. However, now that I am more aware of this debate, I think that knowing that an event actually occurred can make a huge difference it is viewed.

During this years student productions, one of the plays was a musical about the dutch tulip mania. One of my family members saw the performance and thought this play was nice, but did not realize that the tulip mania was a historical event. While the story was creative and clever in itself, upon learning about the actual tulip mania, my family had a much greater respect for the musical. At this point, I realized that knowing something "actually happened" does indeed make a difference in my appreciation of the story.

I have greatly enjoyed E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime thus far, but while reading this novel and taking into consideration the historical and fictional elements, I have come to question the novel more than I might if I knew for certain which aspects were fictional and which real. Doctorow does such an excellent job blending the fiction with the history that it is not always clear what actually happened. For example, the character of Coalhouse Walker is fictional in that no person with his name and background ever existed in this world. To me though, this character seems more real and human than many of the characters in the novel. Perhaps it is in part because his views and behavior are more strongly aligned with that of current times that I find him more sympathetic. But then again, another factor contributing to my sympathy is certainly that I know of "pranks" in history of the same nature and caliber as the one "pulled" on him. 

At first I was disappointed when I did a google search on Coalhouse Walker and discovered that he only exists in Ragtime but after further consideration I realized that it makes sense for Doctorow to have created this character. In history, there has only ever been one Harry Houdini; no one else in history even comes close to comparing to Houdini and the art he created, fame, publicity, attention, and awe that he received. Even today Emma Goldman is the face of anarchy. Who doesn't know about the one and only J.P. Morgan. Ford invented the assembly line. All of these historical figures that Doctorow draws upon are well-known for something that they (and only they) have done. There have been one of each of them whereas there have been many Coalhouse Walkers to walk through the early 20th century. In not utilizing one particular history of a situation similar to Coalhouse Walker's, Doctorow allows Coalhouse to represent all of the colored people who were treated in such a disturbing manner.

Knowing what is historical and what is fictional does make a difference in how I view the given situation. Oftentimes I find historical characters in a novel more compelling, but Doctorow has impressed me by showing that sometimes knowing something is fictional can make it all the more powerful.