Houdini

Okay, so upon finishing ragtime, a lot of questions entered my head. One of them being what is the point of Houdini. I mean throughout the book I was always wondering how Houdini would tie into the main story dealing with the family. However the only part in the book where the story intertwines is in the beginning when Houdini crashes his car and is invited in by the family. The only reason I believe Doctorow created this scene is to show just how he can manipulate these characters in anyway he wants.

My views on Houdini recently changed though when I heard the presentation from Milee, Sarah, and Christina on an article they were presenting. Their main point on Houdini was that Doctorow used Houdini as a symbol for the Jews. Because Jews were commonly used blackface in minstrel shows, this relates to Houdini who under went ridicule while performing his magic shows. Another main point that I took from their presentation is that Houdini is used to relate the struggle of the Jews and the Blacks with symbols of Houdini hanging upside down from a rope which could represent lynching.

While my sudden reaction to these points was wow I would have never thought of that! I believe that his the points given strongly help provide further meaning behind the book, and provide Houdini with some use in the book. Despite this, I still feel somewhat doubtful of the importance of Houdini. The points given seemed like somewhat of a stretch. I feel that Doctorow did not mean for Houdini to relate the struggle of the blacks and Jews. I feel that Doctorow simply just wants to show the struggle of Houdini with the death of his mother and how he overcomes it. I feel that the other points were somewhat try hard.

In the end, I still come to the conclusion that Houdini is still not that important in the story. He provides some interesting back story, but even without him I feel the story would just carry on.

RIght or Wrong?

Okay, so the story in Ragtime has finally emerged, and in the center of it is this man named Coalhouse Walker.

So who is this Coalhouse Walker? In short he is a well-known black pianist gone Rambo. The cause of Walker’s trouble begins at the fire station where he is stopped to pay the “toll”. At this point I believe Walker is just annoyed at the ignorance and racist nature of these men. However I believe Walker has already gotten used to these types of people in his pursuit as a musician. The early 1900’s was a time filled with hardships for African Americans, and this is just another one of those examples.

So what makes this encounter different? Well first Walker’s car is trashed by these people, but I do not believe the issue is of his car. I believe the main problem behind all this is his pride. Walker seems to be a man who carries this sort of aura of confidence and even a bit of arrogance that is not normally seen in an African American. This is shown by Walker entering the family’s house uninvited and him driving a brand new Ford car like he is some big shot. You can always buy a new car, but you can’t buy pride.

This issue soon escalates when Walker burns down the Emerald Isle Firehouse. Whether or not this is justified is up for debate. On one hand he killed innocent bystanders, on the other hand he is trying to get his point across that you can not treat African Americans like this. The side I have to take is not in favor of Walker. At first I was rooting for Walker who was polite and cultured in his attempt to win back Sarah. However Walker seems like a brand new person. I believe there are other ways that Walker could have gotten his point across, like non-violent protest. Walker’s rebellion does no one any good. It even said that African Americans did not want anything to do with Walker. I believe Walker’s hatred has gotten the better of him, and now he can not think of anything besides revenge. There might be reason for his anger, but revenge is never the answer.

First impressions

 (I wrote this blog last week except apparently blogger did not save my draft, and I did not see until now...)

Upon picking up the book Ragtime, I was not sure what to expect. I mean the author of the book is E.L. Doctorow, is he supposed to be the doctor? On the cover of the book, it also cited E.L. Doctorow to be the author of City of God, which seemed to me to be a very crazy and even a bit arrogant of a title. But as they say you can not judge a book by its cover.

As I began reading, I was confused. Who is the narrator? The story is told in third person causing some confusion to how this person is telling this story. The narrator seems so far detached from the story, however he seems to know about everything going on in the book. In some sense it seems like the narrator is some sort of godly figure looking down at his people. I can’t say I do not like this sort of narrative, but lets just say it leaves me with a sense of confusion.    

Something I do like so far is how Doctorow seems to know how to get his point across. One way I noticed he does this is by randomly having historical people show up randomly and have them interact with other people randomly. An example of this is the when Doctorow brings Freud into the story. He makes up a story about Freud which may or may not be real, however Doctorow comes out with a meaningful conclusion behind the story which can be summarized by: “America is a mistake, a gigantic mistake”. One thing you can not miss while reading Ragtime is the irony in Doctorow’s writing. After telling of the horrible times the poor had to endure, Doctorow switched things up completely telling how the rich were throwing lavish dinner parties to sympathize to the poor and “The proceeds were for charity”.

One thing that I can not just get used to yet is the plot. There seems to be no real storyline or no real main character. Everything in the book seems to be so spread out and confusing. Even though Doctorow brings to life all these historical figures, he uses them so randomly in the telling of his story.

Even though I am almost already half-way through the book, I am not even sure yet as how I think of this book.