As I was reading Ragtime, I noticed that there's been a
running theme of obsession. A lot of the main characters in Ragtime become fixated on one idea, thing,
or person, and they feel aimless without it. They seem like they're trying to
compensate for some emptiness in their lives. When Emma Goldman is talking to
Mother's Younger Brother, she asks him a question: "Why can't you accept
your own freedom? Why do you have to cling to someone in order to live?" This
quote sums up the mindsets of many of the characters very well.
The most obvious example is
Mother's Younger Brother, who obsesses over Evelyn, and once he loses her,
becomes involved in Coalhouse's radical activities. Younger Brother always
needs to find something to take over his life, and without anything to fixate
on he becomes restless and depressed. In chapter 24, after Younger Brother
talks to Emma Goldman, we see what he's like when he has nothing to consume
him. He feels like he is suffocating, and needs to be constantly active in
order to keep depression at bay. It doesn't work. Once he starts making bombs
for Coalhouse, his radical political ideas give him something to be a part of
and his depression fades.
Coalhouse becomes obsessed too over
the course of the novel, although his reasons are different and more obvious
than Younger Brother's. When he first appears, he seems like a moderate, polite
man leading a relatively balanced life. After Sarah dies, he becomes obsessed
with getting his version of justice from the firefighters, taking it so far
that his actions could be considered terrorism. Even before Sarah's death, he
is focused on getting his car (and respect) from the firefighters, but it's
only after he loses her that he really crosses the line. Coalhouse is different
from many of the other characters in that he has a specific loss triggering his
obsession rather than a general malaise. In class, we discussed whether
Coalhouse is "crazed" or whether he pursues his justice in a
clearheaded manner. I would argue that even though he acts in a very methodical
way, Coalhouse is still driven by obsession.
When we first meet J.P. Morgan, he is restless and feels
like he has nothing worthwhile left to do because he's made it so much farther
than anyone else. Out of all the characters, Morgan's empty feeling is perhaps
the most explicitly stated. He feels isolated from everyone, in a way that reminds me a little of characters from many of the novels we read last semester in 20th-Century Novel (now I want to write more about this...it's not relevant to this post, though, so I'll hold off). He has nothing to ground him in his life/relations with other people because he feels like he's above everything, and so he looks for something else to feel connected with. As a result, he takes his interest in Egypt to ridiculous levels and creeps Ford out a little by seeing what he wants to see, even if it isn't really there (Ford's apparent resemblance to the sarcophagus = he is the pharaoh reincarnated). Similar to J.P. Morgan, Evelyn has no one in her life who really sees past her celebrity status, and so she also feels empty (although without the conviction that she's better than everyone else). That's why she latches on to the little girl so strongly and obsesses over her.
I'm interested to see if/how the different characters become disillusioned with their obsessions as the book goes on, and what they do after that.It's already happened with Evelyn and to some extent Younger Brother.
I'm interested to see if/how the different characters become disillusioned with their obsessions as the book goes on, and what they do after that.It's already happened with Evelyn and to some extent Younger Brother.
