Oppression in E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime

This study will examine the theme of oppression in E.L. Doctorow's satirical novel Ragtime, and the suggestion that art is one way to transcend such oppression. The book is, in fact, a compendium of the economic, racial, sexual, social, political, artistic and spiritual oppression of Americans and immigrants to America in the early years of the twentieth century. Most of the characters, historical, invented, or a combination of both, are not aware of the oppression which shapes and misshapes their lives. Whether victims or victimizers, most of Doctorow's characters move through their lives oblivious as sleepers to the dismal reality in which they dwell. The American culture as pictured by Doctorow is a thoroughly oppressive realm where only artists seem to have any idea what is going on, what is wrong, and what can be done to escape that wrong if not to make it right. Still, this hardly means that the artists--the Little Boy, Houdini, Tateh and Coalhouse Walker--entirely rise above the oppression. To the contrary, they are often the most sensitive to the oppression and therefore the ones who suffer the most, whether they find success and acceptance with their artistry or not. The most crucial feature of these artists is their ability to think for themselves, a quality of mind and character which is decidedly absent from those who blindly wallow in the oppression, either as victims or victimizers. In other words, whatever suffering oppression breeds in terms of economic, poli

Related Essays

Historical Novels In the hands of a skillful novelist, the hist .... For example, in EL Doctorow's Ragtime, he concerns himself with isolating the .... Americans and proletariate workers began to actively resist oppression in all of .... (2063 8 )

The Historical Narrative In the hands of a skillful novelist, the .... For example, in EL Doctorow's Ragtime, he concerns himself with isolating the .... Americans and proletariate workers began to actively resist oppression in all of .... (2063 8 )

enough, the radical activist Emma Goldman is introduced and we learn that, after all, "Apparently there were Negroes. There were immigrants" (4-5). All are oppressed by injustice, corruption, greed and fear, whether they are blacks suffering in a racist culture, or women exploited sexually, politically and economically, or those who are in power and mistreat others because of race or gender. Those who, because of hatred and fear, want blacks and immigrants to disappear are oppressed by their own hatred and fear. They are hardly free, but neither are the victims of their hatred and of the socioeconomic injustices free. Doctorow certainly portrays those in power as lost souls, but he spends more time and care showing the evil, inhumane effects which the actions of those in power have on the weak, as in this description of the arrivals at Ellis Island: . . . The immigrants . . . were tagged, given showers and arranged on benches in waiting pens. They were immediately sensitive to the enormous power of immigration officials. these officials changed names they couldn't pronounce and tore people from their families, consigning to a return voyage old folks, people with bad eyes, riffraff and also those who looked insolent (17).

Category: Literature - O