![]() ![]() Doctorow does this in his novel by showing that Tateh can transform completely without American society noticing. ![]() From the beginning of the novel, Doctorow exposes the hardships and inequality immigrants faced in America, and in an interview with Michael Wutz, a scholar who spoke with Doctorow, Doctorow discusses the fact that he wants to expose and break down the “historical myths that everyone carries around in their mind” (Doctorow, interview). Tateh works on the street, and Mameh and Little girl sew clothes to sell. Tateh and his family, which consists of his wife and daughter: Mameh, and little girl, live in one room, and they all work. Tateh lives on the lower east side in New York City, and as a Jewish immigrant, and he has it worse than others because Jews are so despised. Immigrants were “absorbed” (Doctorow, 14) in to the city and forced to assimilate to society the best they could. Doctorow describes the negative stereotypes American’s had about immigrants people believed that they raped, murdered, stole and drank. They were filthy and illiterate” (Doctorow, 14). The immigrants were not good enough for society from the start, for “they were despised by New Yorkers. He compares their treatment upon their arrival in America to the treatment of animals, for when they arrive they go to a “curiously ornate human warehouse…tagged, given showers, and arranged on benches in waiting pens” (Doctorow, 14). To start the novel, Doctorow describes the journey of immigrants to the United States in the early 1900s. Doctorow’s intent is to show not only the class struggles immigrants faced at the turn of twentieth century America, but also he is showing that they could not stay true to their roots because in order to succeed they had to submerge themselves in the American melting pot. It is not enough for immigrants to work hard to achieve the American Dream: Tateh has to completely change by immersing himself in to the American melting pot in order to live a happy life, because his true identity is not good enough for American society. He achieves what many people define as the American Dream, which is gaining both social and economic wellbeing, for he marries the character Mother, and he becomes a successful filmmaker. By the end of the novel, Tateh changes his name, moves to Lawrence Massachusetts and starts a new life. ![]() He is a quiet man, but he attends radical socialist gatherings in the city. He lives on the lower east side of New York City working as a peddler and silhouette artist. The character that is facing the most amount of change is Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia. Doctorow, a second-generation Jewish immigrant, situates his novel in this time period because at the turn of the century everything was changing such as technology, values, and lifestyles. Doctorow explores different characters facing changes at the turn of the twentieth century in America. In his novel Ragtime published in 1974, E.L. Here Coalhouse Walker is an example of the oppressed who is oppressed by his white counterparts.The American Dream: Immersion in the Melting Pot ‘The tradition of the oppressed’ is another key concept of the cultural Materialism which depicts examples of oppression done to the oppressed. Coalhouse character offers perception into race relations in the community of America. He is like a fish out of water in the society and wishes to do away with the injustice and violence done to him and his fellow people. Other is treated badly by the white society of the time. The gaze of Other signifies how psychologically the white society looked at him and how the white society considered him. The other in this novel stands for Coalhouse walker. The gaze of the other a key concept of cultural materialism is applicable to the novel Ragtime. This article is going to study Ragtime by E.L Doctorow through the lens of cultural materialism. ![]() To read it so requires resisting or hystericising the dominant discourse and worldview and shifting sympathy. Thus, this article uses cultural materialism in order to read Ragtime against the grain. Cultural materialism borrows the ideas of many critics in order to study canonical works against the grain. To read it so, the writer’s discourse therefore, becomes that of the hysterical discourse which goes against the dominant discourse of the work. This article reads Doctorow’s novel Ragtime through the discourse of cultural materialism. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |