Many of the people and incidents that make up the the plot of Ragtime are real, even the sensational ones. For instance, Harry K. Thaw really did shot and kill architect Stanford White, and he really was married to Evelyn Nesbit. Emma Goldman really did conspire with Alexander Berkman to assassinate Henry Clay Frick.
Check the historical validity of an incident in Ragtime and post your results. Use an incident that neither I nor any of your classmates who have responded before you have mentioned. In doing so quote the passage from Ragtime, mention what chapter it is from, and provide a confirming or dis-confirming link.
October 4, 2017 at 4:01 pm
While reading “Ragtime” written by E.L. Doctrow, I was puzzeled by the account of Henry Houdini escaping from a prison cell on Murder’s Row located on the top floor of the prison. This was mentioned during Chapter 5 of the novel, Houdini was challeneged to escape from the new leg irons that were claimed to be way better than the standard prison equipment. After Houdini managed to escape these leg irons, the novel stated, “with the press crowded around, Houdini now proposed his own challenge: that then and there he be stripped and locked in a cell and his clothing placed outside; if everyone would then leave he would contrive to escape from the cell and appear fully dressed in the Warden’s office within five minutes.” (pg. 28) The novel, later on, stated that Houdini successfully escaped from the cell within two minutes and in the cell across of him, the prisoner/killer Harry K. Thaw “came up to the front of his cell and raising his arms in a shockingly obscene manner he thrust his hips forward and flapped his penis between the bars.” (pg. 30) After doing my own independent research, it turns out that Houdini was actually placed into a cell that was inhabited by a fellow prisoner named, Walter W. Hamilton. Houdini did successfully escape from the cell within two minutes just like the novel had stated but the incident which included Harry K. Thaw did not actually ever happen. According to my research, after Houdini escaped from his cell, he opened up the gates to the other cells that inhabited prisoners and criss-crossed and mis-matched the prisoners by placing them in completely different cells rather than the ones that they were assigned too in order to screw with the Warden and his prison. I found out this information regarding Henry Houdini from doing my own intensive research and reading this article posted on: http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2015/03/houdinis-escape-from-murderers-row.html.
October 6, 2017 at 9:06 pm
When reading Ragtime I was fascinated by Coalhouse Walker’s story and the Emerald Isle Engine explosion in Westchester. In the book, during Chapter 28, the author mentions, “Two of the volunteers were in the hospital, one with burns so severe that he was not expected to live through the day. And at least five men were known to have been on duty at the time…The field was scorched and the building was a pile of charred ruins” (206). The explosion was not ordinary, as it had outside involvement. The police backtracks and realizes that it was no accident, instead, the men were initially shot. From the hospital bed, a survivor of the attack is able to recount the event and describe the man who attacked them. The killer is believed to be an unidentified black man, demanding to know where Willie Conklin was located. Later on in the story, Coalhouse Walker informs the newspaper that he was involved in the act and wants his car to be fixed. I was wondering whether this story of revenge from Coalhouse Walker, which resulted in several people dying, was real. After typing in “Emerald Isle firehouse explosion” nothing came up but the book itself. I tried to research Coalhouse Walker but I did not find any information about this man as well as , Willie Conklin. There was one website (http://foundationsofamerica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=559:156-coalhouse-walker&catid=34:ragtime-articles-of-interest&Itemid=62 ) that made it sound as if the story was a historical event, however, when I clicked on the citations below, the pictures were taken from a J.P Morgan history.
October 7, 2017 at 6:10 pm
While reading the book, I was not sure if every character was a real person in history. People like J. P. Morgan, Harry Houdini, and Booker T. Washington, I immediately recognized, because I have studied them in the past or have at least heard of them. But characters like Coalhouse Walker, I was not sure. So when Booker T. Washington was introduced at the end of chapter 36 to speak with Walker, I got the sense that he might actually be a real person since Washington is in fact a real person in history. At the end of chaper 36, Booker T. Washington agrees to speak to Walker, after “the District Attorney got in touch with the great educator, asking if he would come to the scene and use his moral authority to resolve the crisis.” (page 278) In real life, Washington was a famous and influential speaker, believing in the success of separate, but coexisting societies of black and white people (https://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_people_booker.html). So naturally, it made me wonder if the interaction between Walker and Washington was a real event. Upon research, many sites confirmed the fictionality of Walker, among them, the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/05/specials/doctorow-ragtimemovie.html). Although Washington was a real historical figure, with his true beliefs reflected in the book, the encounter between Washington and Walker was not a real event.
October 8, 2017 at 10:07 am
When reading “Ragtime” by E.L. Doctorow, I was astonished to learn that Henry Ford treated his employees harshly in the factories. Doctorow states, “He did not want a worker to stoop over or to take more than one step from his worksite. The worker must have every second necessary for his job but not a single unnecessary second” (Chapter 18). He depicts Ford as a robber baron who exploits his employees to work constantly without caring for their health. I decided to research if Ford really did treat his employees as poorly as the novel stated. However, according to the research I did, Henry Ford provided many benefits to his employees during the time this novel took place, 1902-1917. By increasing the worker’s wage by almost double to $5, the employees were able to become financially stable and could purchase the products that they produced such as the Model T. He also decreased the number of hours that one can work in a day from nine to eight. Ford cared deeply for the welfare of his employees and displayed this with the creation of a sociology department. This department would ensure that all employees were living in suitable conditions and that they could support themselves in the future through saving money.
https://www.biography.com/people/henry-ford-9298747
http://hfha.org/the-ford-story/henry-ford-an-impact-felt/
October 8, 2017 at 9:09 pm
One incident that caught my attention in Ragtime was the Lawrence, Massachusetts textile strike. In Ragtime, Tateh is living with his daughter in Lawrence amidst the strike and is able to escape with her by train to Philadelphia in order to flee the violence (Chapter 16). I decided to research the historical validity of this incident and found that it was very accurate. There was a major strike in January of 1912 in Lawrence, Massachusetts during which 30,000 textile workers left their jobs. Strikers paraded and rioted through the streets of Lawrence in what became known as “The Bread and Roses Strike”. As violence and tensions continued to escalate, striking families in Lawrence sent their children by train to Manhattan to live with relatives or strangers who could provide them with food and shelter. The children were paraded along Fifth Avenue in what became known as the “children’s exodus”. This event generated substantial publicity for the strike, and authorities in Lawrence sought to prevent any further demonstrations. On February 24th, city authorities tried to prevent families at the train station from boarding 46 children onto a train bound for Philadelphia. This is accurately presented in Ragtime as chaos breaks out at the train station when the city marshal issues an order to prevent Tateh’s daughter and the other children from leaving Lawrence on the train to Philadelphia (Chapter 16). While Tateh and his daughter may not have been real people, the events of the influential Lawrence textile strike did actually take place and were presented fairly accurately by E.L. Doctorow in Ragtime.
http://www.history.com/news/the-strike-that-shook-america-100-years-ago
October 9, 2017 at 1:15 pm
One part of this novel that I found interesting was in Chapter 20 when Henry Ford visits J.P. Morgan for lunch and they end up talking about religion. In the novel, Morgan is portrayed as a man obsessed with reincarnation and ancient Egyptian practices. Morgan says he believes they were born into a class of men meant to run the world. Morgan also shows his beliefs toward science and religion when he says “The rise of mechanistic science, of Newton and Descartes, was a great conspiracy, a great devilish conspiracy to destroy our apprehension of reality and our awareness of the transcendentally gifted among us”. He even asks Ford if he wants to come to Egypt with him to see the pyramids. Given that Morgan was a credible financier and not theologian, I researched if JP Morgan actually had these beliefs and I found he did not. Instead, I found that Morgan was actually a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church, and by 1890 was one of its most influential leaders. (https://books.google.com/books?id=At9_oYCiRnAC&pg=PT239&lpg=PT239&dq=Morgan+was+a+lifelong+member+of+the+Episcopal+Church,&source=bl&ots=DXwnnl80nu&sig=yyJe_5z7d18MHoM2v15UaRtLz5o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwih6eCWg-TWAhVF44MKHfFqBWYQ6AEIMzAC#v=onepage&q=Morgan%20was%20a%20lifelong%20member%20of%20the%20Episcopal%20Church%2C&f=false)
October 9, 2017 at 5:57 pm
In chapter 6 of E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, Sigmund Freud arrives to New York on the George Washington and accompanies Jung and Ferenczi, as well as Jones and Brill to a meal. The party dines at Hammerstein’s Roof Garden where they listen to live violin music and Freud absorbs the New World around him. After some pondering, Freud concludes that “what oppressed him about the New World was its noise” (Doctorow 36). The fast-paced nature of the city, including the clanking horses, wagons, automobiles, and people all rushing by, was a shock to Freud who was used to the more peaceful nature of Europe. Later in the chapter, Freud makes an expedition to Niagara Falls where the doctor later comes to his decision that “he had had enough of America” (Doctorow 38). He thought the trip had irritated his bowls and he depicted the population as rude; additionally, he viewed America’s architecture as a cheap imitation for Europe’s beautiful art. Freud himself was a true historical figure, however Doctorow played with the fine line of reality and fiction in his novel, thus I wanted to explore the validity behind Freud’s visit to New York City and initial opinions of America. As I explored the truth and fiction of Doctorow’s novel, I found that the party of five men did indeed dine at Hammerstein’s Roof Garden in Coney Island and then explored the city, which included a visit to Columbia University. Then in the article I researched, Freud visited the falls as well, just as the novel described. The novel somewhat dramatizes the horrors of the industrial era, specifically in chapter 6; “one hundred Negroes a year were lynched..miners were burned… children were mutilated” (Doctorow 40). These facts among other characteristics of America in the novel fueled Freud’s dislike of America- a reality that ‘The Father of Psychoanalysis’ reiterated after his first and only visit to America in 1909.
http://www.americanheritage.com/content/sigmund-freud%E2%80%99s-sortie-america
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/health/11first.html
October 9, 2017 at 6:40 pm
One of the things I found interesting was the fact that Harry Houdini went on a European tour searching satisfaction in his work that he didn’t have in the U.S. He became repeatedly disappointed and unsatisfied with his performances. Because of this, the book goes on to say how he became involved with aviation. The narrator says, “Then one day he attended the public demonstration of the French-made flying machine, a Voisin… Houdini moved decisively. Within a week he was the owner of a new Voisin biplane,” here Houdini immediately fell in love with flying (101). It is shown later by his first flight how much it astonished him. “The machine lifted off the ground. He thought he was dreaming. He had to willfully restrain his emotions… He was flying!” Houdini couldn’t believe what was happening (102). Because of his love and skill for flying he was asked to perform a demonstration flight, but he didn’t know who it was for. It was later revealed that it was for the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, the Countess Sophie. The narrator says, “The Archduke Franz Ferdinand didn’t seem to know who Houdini was. He congratulated him on the invention of the aeroplane,” Houdini wasn’t recognized by the archduke and was mistaken for the inventor of the aeroplane (105). I had only known that Houdini was a magician and so I was curious as to whether or not this was actually true. As I researched if it was true or not, I found that Houdini was in fact an aviation pioneer, however I wasn’t able to find if he had done a demonstration flight for the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-harry-houdini
October 9, 2017 at 6:49 pm
While reading Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, there was an incident where Houdini actually demonstrates his airplane skills to Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. I found this amusing and odd since Houdini is known for his magic. In Chapter 13, Houdini observes a demonstration of a “flying machine.” He decides to buy one for himself and he takes flying lessons. It turns out that flying actually gave Houdini joy and happiness. One day, Houdini is asked to perform for a man in a white car. After he performs, he meets with the person who he performed for. It turned out to be Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Countess Sophie. The Archduke then mistakenly congratulates Houdini “on the invention of the aeroplane.” After doing some research on this incident, I didn’t find anything that said Houdini performed for the Archduke. Not surprisingly, he also wasn’t the person to invent the airplane. However, he did learn how to fly an airplane. He was also the first person to make the first controlled, powered flight of an airplane in Australia. He actually did get thrill and joy from flying planes.
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/houdini_bio.html
October 9, 2017 at 8:22 pm
Based on the prompt of this thread as well as reading many of the other responses, I realized that a lot of the content in El Doctorow’s Ragtime would be based on true facts (or some version of it). So I looked a bit more into J.P. Morgan. I already knew he was a real person and a lot of novel’s descriptions of him seemed accurate; wealthy, philanthropist, a sort of entrepreneur, his character seemed fairly solid to me. However, one thing that I did not realize was that J.P. Morgan was interested in other things other than business and economics. What I was not aware of and mentioned in Chapter 19 was that he was also a collector of art. With my personal interest in the arts, I was surprised that someone so oriented in business also shared an interest in the fine arts.
When I researched more into this, it was true that J.P. Morgan did have an interest in the arts, but not for the reasons I originally thought of. Apparently, Morgan had really bad habits of spending his money, expected from a man who established an entire monopoly. Morgan had no actual interest in the arts, he simply liked to purchase extremely ornate paintings. He was even the head of the board for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (of course, with his wealth he would own nearly everything that he was interested in, if not all). Even now, Morgan’s collection of art is growing, found in different collections in the Met and other various locations. It was interesting to learn about this side of Morgan, and how one of the biggest financial heads of the world had such bad spending habits.
October 10, 2017 at 11:05 am
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/arts/design/17morg.html
October 9, 2017 at 8:51 pm
While reading “Ragtime” by E.L. Doctorow, I was fascinated by the immense variety of incidents that occur throughout the novel and was interested to find out if some of these incidents actually happened. For instance, in Chapter 11, I did not believe that Evelyn Nesbit ended up donating all of her wealth accumulated from the trial to those who were affected by poor working conditions in addition to radicals. I felt this way because of the way the novel portrays wealthy individuals who donate money to the poor. It’s implied in the novel that wealthy people wanted to be perceived as being generous and concerned about impoverished New Yorkers, while in reality, they could care less. Also, Evelyn Nesbit expected to receive a million dollars, rather than twenty-five thousand, which is why I found it hard to believe she was so willing to donate it all. In the novel, it states, “She supported radical appeals that came to her from all over the country… She gave money to the parents of children mutilated in mills and factories.” As it turns out, this is half true. Yes, it is true that Evelyn donated the money she received to radicals such as Emma Goldman, however, there is no mention of donations to families who may have lost their son or daughter to factory work.
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/dec/11/local/me-then11/2
October 9, 2017 at 8:53 pm
I was intrigued by the relationship between Evelyn Nesbit and Emma Goldman. They first meet in chapter eight, when Tateh takes Nesbit to an event where Goldman is a featured speaker. Goldman is there to share her anarchist ideas and to help raise money in support of the striking shirtwaist factory workers. Nesbit admits that the thought of seeing “the notorious Emma Goldman frightened her”. Goldman even addresses Nesbit directly during her speech, stoping to make eye contact several times and refers to her using an off-hand reference to a woman whose “name is scandal”. They continue a relationship in which Goldman often derides and criticizes Nesbit for her willingness to adhere to societies standards of female sexuality. She denigrates Nesbit’s sexual encounters and claims that they make her less of a free woman, rather one who is subservient to men. I wanted to know if these two women had indeed known one another. Evelyn Nesbit was a real woman, a well known actress, model, and chorus girl, sometimes called the world’s first supermodel. Her relationship with Harry Thaw as well as her relationships with several other men, notably architect Stanford White were true as well. Emma Goldman was a well known anarchist writer and activist, who was at one point in her life implicated in the assassination of President McKinley. However, there is no known record of the two ever having even met, considering their wildly different social circles. There are no references to Nesbit or anyone resembling her in Goldman’s 1910 essay on anarchism. And Nesbit’s biography never mentions anyone aligning with the description of Goldman.
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141222-the-worlds-first-supermodel
https://www.panarchy.org/goldman/anarchism.1910.html
October 9, 2017 at 11:18 pm
Before reading the novel, a few of the characters struck out me. I knew that J.P. Morgan and Booker T. Washington were, in fact, historical figures. As looked for connections, I found a few accurate events as well as some discrepancies between the events of the novel and historical events. In chapter 34, Coalhouse and his gang invaded J.P. Morgan’s library and takes Morgan’s collection as ransom for the NYFD’s chief and his car. Upon research, I can confirm the existence of the J.P. Morgan library (http://www.themorgan.org). In fact, most of his biographies mentioned that he was a patron of art, so it was no surprise that he erected a museum. However, there was no mention of any attack on the Museum on both the museum’s main website and biographies of Morgan (https://www.biography.com/people/jp-morgan-9414735). In addition, there weren’t any mentions of Washington’s encounter with Coalhouse. Even so, it is worth noting that his negotiations with Coalhouse did align with Washington’s beliefs. In chapter 37, Washington almost faints from hearing Coalhouse’s ideas. He believes that black segregation and discrimination will only end through non violence while Coalhouse affirms that the use of violence is the only way to achieve respect for black people. While the incident itself isn’t accurate, Washington’s ideas and beliefs were accurately represented. On a final note, there was one more historically accurate event regarding Morgan. His death in 1913, for instance, did occur in Italy. Though the novel didn’t specially mention that he traveled to Italy, it was noted that he traveled to Europe.
October 9, 2017 at 11:50 pm
Something that struck me while reading E.L. Doctorow’s “Ragtime” was the extent to which several of its characters, particularly those drawn from real life, were interested in and fascinated by death and the afterlife. Considering the time of the book, which opens in 1902, this is not overly surprising. The Victorian period from the late 1830’s to the early 1900’s was marked by a morbid fascination, curiosity, and perhaps even obsession concerning death and dying. Long, grand-scale mourning was glamourized, and rituals surrounding death became very extravagant and prominent in culture. The growing popularity of magicians and mediums led many people to believe in the afterlife, communication with spirits, and psychic power.
An example of such a character is Harry Houdini. After being incredibly close to and dependent on his mother for much of his life, he was absolutely devastated by her death. He spent many years seeking out mediums and attempting to communicate with her, to the point where it became an obsession for him. When he was finally discouraged, he then devoted several years to exposing mediums as frauds. Two other characters that meet and discuss religion, technology, and death are Henry Ford and J. P. Morgan. In chapter 20, Ford visits Morgan’s library, and is given a tour of Morgan’s collection of Ancient Egyptian artifacts. After initially discussing the assembly line, they begin discussing religion and reincarnation. Morgan makes several comments about his negative beliefs about science, and how he believes it will destroy people’s fear of reality. Morgan invites Ford with him on a trip to Egypt, which Ford refuses. The two believe that reincarnation explains their genius, for they have lived more times than others, and the two believe there is a life for them after death. The two found a very exclusive club called the Pyramid.
According to the plot, J. P. Morgan later goes to Egypt, where he seriously contemplates being buried in a pyramid, as he has the money, and considers himself to be so great. This trip to Egypt did in fact happen- In a New York Times article dated December 31st, 1911, Morgan is reported to have said, “I am going up the Nile from Cairo in a steel dahabeah that I have had constructed after my own ideas of comfort.” When the reporter asked for the date of return, Morgan said, “That I do not know as my plans are not definitely fixed. I like Egypt very much and enjoy the Winter climate there.” According to this interview, Morgan planned to stay in Egypt due to the appealing winter weather. He and his friends chartered a trip down the Nile and took photos in front of Egyptian ruins.
Carey, Charles W. “J.P. Morgan Dug Into Egypt’s Past.” American History Online.
Facts on File, 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. .
October 9, 2017 at 11:57 pm
For my own research, I decided to analyze J.P. Morgan’s trip to Egypt as described in the final chapter of Ragtime, chapter 40 from 306 to page 312. Ragtime by E.L Doctorow starts the story of Morgan’s end with a discussion of his travels throughout Europe. In this discussion, the inefficiency and unruliness of kings is noted, which doubly foreshadows events that will occur later in the story: J.P. Morgan’s obsession with the kings of old and the turmoil and chaos created by kings after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. There is also a visual allusion that Doctorow makes in that the aristocrats of old now bow down and become the peasants to the new type of aristocrat, the aristocrat of business and merit. The novel then recounts how J.P. Morgan went to Egypt in order to choose a site for his pyramid. Here, the narrator points out that Morgan “expected that with the modern construction techniques, the use of precut, stones, steam shovels, cranes, and so forth, a serviceable pyramid could be put up in less than three years.” (Doctorow 308). This is a rather arrogant claim to make for the sole purpose of one-upping the ancient monarchs of Egypt. This further places J.P Morgan as the ruler of the new world order. But it because he can actually achieve this claim that this new world order actually settles down as this real thing. He is not just boastful about his claim to the throne above the world; he is actually the rightful monarch. This also mirrors a previous conversation that J.P. Morgan has with Henry Ford earlier in the novel. In that past conversation, he highlights his belief that the two of them are chosen individuals who will run the world and, as such, they deserve to rise again in another life as kings. In the story, he then desires to sleep in the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid in order to gain insight into the “disposition (…) of his ka, or soul, and of his ba, or physical vitality.” (Doctorow 309). He finds difficulty sleeping at first but when he eventually does doze off, he dreams of a past life as a peddler in ancient times. This dream disturbs him greatly and he wakes with his body feeling like he was being crawled upon. Indeed he was, not by the fear of being a peddler but by pincered bedbugs. Surprisingly, Morgan doesn’t see either of these as trues signs. Rather, he dismisses them and waits for “the glorious sight of small red birds with human heads flying lazily in the chamber, lighting it with their own incandescence” (Doctorow 310). This, of course, is the wrong thing for him to be looking for as the sign of the ba birds are signs of past empires. He ushers in a new empire and new empires bring with them new customs and signs, some of which may take the form of peddler dreams and pincered bedbugs. As he leaves the Great Pyramid after a sleepless night, Morgan and his guide wander towards the Great Sphinx. There, he sees the New York Giants climbing on top of the Sphinx and he loses control of himself. Witnessing what he sees to be the desecration of the Sphinx, J.P. Morgan knocks over his Arab guide and flees to the safety of his boat. Using this boat, he flees back to Rome and dies there.
There are so many issues with this story if and only if the story of J.P. Morgan were presented as a history. Much of this story has been romanticized. I have found no records that illustrate with such great detail Morgan’s travels in Egypt that do not lead back to this book. The Grand World Tour of the New York Giants occurred, of course, in 1914, while J.P. Morgan himself died in 1913. Though there are smatterings of truth in the story, the events of Ragtime simply do not match up with the timeline of real-life events. But this fabrication is not entirely lost. As stated, Ragtime is not meant to be a history book recounting facts as they were. E.L. Doctorow intentionally blurs the line between fact and fiction in order to illustrate the changes occurring in the early years of the 20th century. The story of J.P. Morgan within the context of Ragtime illustrates the change from monarchs of old to the rulers of the new world order. This is not a seamless transition, as indicated by the signs that Morgan experiences in his night in the King’s Chamber, but it is an inevitable one given the immense power J.P. Morgan holds over the aristocrats of Europe, which essentially brings this whole discussion full circle when we learn in the continuing paragraphs the ensuing destruction caused by kings of old. Thus, Ragtime is not a duty book of history; it is a story of change that sometimes adheres to history when it is convenient.
http://daragtime.blogspot.com/2011/05/jp-morgans-travels-to-egypt.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/inside-story-baseballs-grand-world-tour-1914-180950228/
October 10, 2017 at 1:08 am
While reading Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow, I came across Chapter 13 which talked about Houdini studying how to fly planes and educating German officers how to do so as well. This came as a surprise to me because I was unaware that Houdini was known for something other than his magic. “He thought he was dreaming. He had to willfully restrain his emotions, commanding himself sternly to keep the wings level, to keep the throttle continuously in touch with the speed of the flight. He was flying!” This quote describes Houdini taking flight in a French plane. Through analyzing this quote, one can realize the emotions Houdini felt when flying. Clearly, the most prominent emotion was joy. After doing research on whether Houdini in fact did fly planes, I came to know that not only did he do that, but he was also the man who piloted the first airplane that flew over Australia (http://www.houdinifile.com/2016/04/houdini-takes-flight.html). After crashing on his first attempt, Houdini had made his first successful flight on November 26 in Hamburg, Germany with the help of his mechanic.
In this chapter, we are also introduced to Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He congratulates Houdini on the invention of the airplane. It is clearly known that Houdini had been falsely congratulated for this invention.
October 10, 2017 at 5:58 am
E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime mentions Sigmund Freud’s visit to New York along with his disciples Carl Jung and Sándor Ferenczi, who were both psychoanalysts. From prior knowledge acquired from psychology classes, I had known that Freud did not think very highly of America, but I did not think the reason would be largely unrelated to his professional work. In chapter 6, Freud is inconvenienced when he wants to answer nature’s call because “nobody seemed to be able to tell him where a public facility could be found” (37). Public bathrooms were few and far between, but Freud’s prostate issues may have contributed greatly to his discomfort. Beyond his bowel problems caused by an unfamiliar diet, as indicated by the belief that “the trip had ruined both his stomach and his bladder” (39), Freud had been driven to his conclusion of America by the seemingly harmless words of a tour guide who called him an “old fellow” (38). Despite most of the historical accuracies of the chapter, some fictional aspects of Freud’s visit to New York City were included as well, such as the notion that “Freud and Jung took a boat together through the Tunnel of Love” (38). After extensive research, I could not find any concrete evidence of their alleged escapade, though the slight detail may have been a euphemism used by Doctorow to mock Freud’s theories, given his topic of study.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/501206/how-freud%E2%80%99s-only-visit-america-made-him-hate-us-rest-his-life
October 10, 2017 at 9:09 am
Coalhouse Walker is a black musician and his unique characterization provides insight into racial inequality and discrimination in the book. As an African American, he is constantly treated differently from other people. During the 1900s, there are social uprisings against white supremacy. Many black males resort to violence to resolve their feelings toward the injustice in society.
In Chapter 23, Coalhouse Walker was traveling on the road when firemen abruptly stop him and demand a toll from Walker. Walker argued that he traveled many times through this path and has never encountered such incident. Unwilling to agree to such condition when Walker reverses back to drive around the barrier, ” two other [firemen] followed with other ladders, axes, hook, and other requirements, all of which was deposited in the street,” blocking the escape of Walker as if he committed a dangerous crime (page 146). When Walker complained his unfair situation to the police, they ignorantly dismiss his accusation. Father even had to bail Walker from jail where he ” wrote a cheque for…. fifty dollars” (page 149). In the book, E.L. Doctorow highlights the social issues of oppressed African American living in a white-dominated culture. Coalhouse refuses to adhere to the social norms for the black race, therefore whites often react with resentment and indignation.
Here is a link about the brief history of African Americans and process of achieving equal rights in a democracy: http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/portal/a-brief-history-of-african-americans-in-washington-dc.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-progress-how-far-weve-come-and-how-far-we-have-to-go/
October 10, 2017 at 10:15 am
In the novel Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, a Pulitzer-winning author, the plot is beautifully constructed by weaving historical facts with a handful of fiction characters. The result is the unique unfolding of a story that not only represents the history of America in the early twentieth century, but also a novel that forces the reader to pick fact from fiction while engaged in the text. One facet of the novel that interested me was how worrisome immigrant parents were of their children’s safety. As my parents can relate, I’m sure every parent is mandated to be overprotective and alarmed about their child according to the parent handbook, however I was surprised when Tateh kept Little Girl on an actual leash. The novel provides context for the unsafe physical condition during this time in Chapter 3. It mentions, “Children died of mild colds or slight rashes. Children died on beds made from two kitchen chairs pushed together. They died on floors. Many people believed that filth and starvation and disease were what the immigrant got for his moral degeneracy” as a way to contextualize the concern of immigrant parents during that time. I understand that parents always want to do what is best for their children so I decided to do some research on how conditions really were for children during this time. My results mirrored those of conditions represented in the text.
While open sewers on the streets of New York City facilitated the spread of disease that unfortunately took many lives, another major concern was the lack of bathroom facilities for the impoverished masses. Many households relied solely on outhouses or worse conditions such as trenches in backyards to relieve themselves. Since no one cleared the waste from these “bathrooms” feces often overflowed onto the streets where people walked and children played. The hygienic problems with this aren’t hard to identify, however most New Yorkers weren’t affluent enough to move out of these neighborhoods in the Lower East Side. Additionally, the website provides evidence to support Ragtime as it says, “ In 1849, a rash of cholera struck the city, killing more than five thousand people. A wave of typhoid in the mid-1860’s resulted in a similar amount of deaths”. This quote parallels the quote mentioned earlier from the novel and indicates the historical validity of this aspect of the novel. Children weren’t immune to the new diseases brought into the urban hub through trade and continuous immigration. Additionally, children had a tendency to explore their surrounding and thus, come into contact with these infectious diseases. Once children fell ill, the lack of economic means made it really difficult to obtain medical care and make them healthy again. Thus, the overprotective nature of parents during this time was highly supported by the data portrayed on USHistoryscene.com.
http://ushistoryscene.com/article/immigrants-cities-disease/
October 10, 2017 at 11:08 am
In Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, there was an incident of Houdini flying. Doctorow wrote in chapter 13, “The machine lifted off the ground. He thought he was dreaming. He had to willfully restrain his emotions, commanding himself sternly to keep the wings level, to keep the throttle continuously in touch with the speed of the flight. He was flying ”(130)! At first, I was speculative. I knew Houdini as a famous magician of his time-not as an aeronautical enthusiast. Thus, I had found online, that he indeed was very passionate about flying, he did own his own plane, and he was the very person to fly a plane in Australia only a few years after the very first flight of the wright brothers. http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2014/09/fact-checking-historys-houdini-night-one.html
October 10, 2017 at 12:15 pm
In the novel “Ragtime” by E. L. Doctorow, the author utilizes many real life historical figures to play a part in the plot of his story and inspire the themes of his novel. One of his many real life references was to the existence as well as differences of famous early 20th century New York City influencers, Jacob Riis and Stanford White. Doctorow uses these two men early on his novel to highlight the juxtaposition of rich and poor during this time period, and the contrasting perspectives of those who had the privilege to help the less fortunate. Jacob Riis, a renowned muckraker and photojournalist of early 20th century New York, used his writing to to expose the inhuman living conditions of the early tenements buildings in lower Manhattan. His manifestation on the corrupt practices of New York society, “How the other Half Lives” had a prominent effect on American culture and remains as one of the most iconic representations of historical New York life to this day. In the novel Ragtime, Riis is depicted by author E. L. Doctorow as a journalist who is upset with the living conditions of immigrants in New York, and goes out of his way to ask famous architect, Stanford White, if he would ever consider making housing for the poor. This is can be found in the text on page 17 when the Doctorow Writes,
“one day Riis decide to interview eminent architect. He wanted to ask white if he’d ever designed housing for the poor. He wanted his ideas on public housing, on air shafts, on light. (17). It is true that Jacob was an advocate for change in living conditions, and his career as a pioneer of social commentary through photojournalism can be read about here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/jacob-riis-muckraking-in-alleys-at-the-turn-of-the-century/2016/08/19/116e4a44-6086-11e6-84c1-6d27287896b5_story.html?utm_term=.33fb2d475ae8
Stanford White was also a real life public figure in early 20th century New York, and was one of the city’s most iconic architects. His work as an architectural visionary contributed to some of New York’s most iconic structural feats, including the original Madison Square Garden and the Washington Square Park arch. I the novel ragtime, he is approached by Jacob Riis while unloading marble from a docked ship. The extent of Stanford’s wealth is depicted from this quote in the reading, in which Doctorow illustrates the extent to his expensive shipments from Europe, “Riis marveled at what was coming out of the holds of the ships: whole facades of Florentine places and Athenian atria, stone by marked stone; paintings, statuary, tapestries, carved and painted ceilings in crates, tiled patios, marble fountains, marble stairs and balustrades”(18) . Stanford’s career as a successful New York architect can be read about here.
The relationship between Riis and White as depicted in Ragtime illustrates the socio-economical divide across the New York society during this time period and the influencers that contributed to that divide. One man works to usher in change of this divided state, while the other contributes to the elevation of the upper class. While the gap between social classes persists and continues to widen, each man possessed a different perspective on the subject, and can be analyzed in history for their different contributions.