Ragtime is over. Honestly, I’m relieved. I enjoyed parts of the novel and saw themes and motifs that interested me, but as a whole, I didn’t enjoy the book. One of my bigger complaints is the awkward changes in content and style. The story completely changes halfway through and adopts a very serious tone after chapters that contain frivolity and a lot of ridiculous sexual allusions and situations that are completely lacking in the latter part of the novel. I found Doctorow pretentious and while there were themes, the book did not seem to coalesce into a grand story with a big meaning. It just sort of ended.
However, there is one thing that I loved in the end of the novel. After seeing a lot of racial tension surrounding Coalhouse and his run-in with the firemen, I feel like there is a general sense of despair in the novel. The racism in America is inescapable and ever-present, turning the reasonable, likeable Coalhouse into a crazed terrorist. Despite this, in the last chapter, a man who got out of a comparable unenviable situation has a thought that can make a difference.
"He suddenly had an idea for a film. A bunch of children who were pals, white black, fat thin, rich poor, all kinds, mischievous little urchins who would have funny adventures in their own neighborhood, a society of raga muffins, like all of us, a gang, getting into trouble and getting out again."
Tateh, a Jew almost living on the street, who had to tie his child to himself so she would not be stolen, has this idea in a tiny bit of the ending that I believe saves the novel. He has gained influence in the world to the point where he can carry himself as a baron. He also has seen the condition of the working populace of New York. On top of all of this, he has a very real way to disseminate his view. The novel ends on hope; hope and optimism that Tateh’s great view will spread through his art and fix the fucked up world we see in Ragtime.
But of course, any "hope" glimpsed in the closing moments of the novel are maybe tempered by the reader's awareness of history--we know where this century is headed, and it ain't necessarily a cut to a future of interracial brotherhood. These children are going to grow up to face a violent civil rights movement, another world war, genocide, and the cold war. But there is an optimism here, and for me it has to do with a vision of art, and what the role of art might be in *imagining* (giving image to) a possible future. Tateh's movie won't end racial inequality any more than the actual "Little Rascals" did; but in a small way, perhaps it will help make the vision of such a future seem more "thinkable."
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