The Soundtrack to Ragtime: The Pieces Doctorow Picked to Set the Scene
As we read Ragtime, with all its parallel narratives and unexpected plot points, there are items and characters we can point to as being real. Many of the places we’re visiting, the people we’re meeting, and even the ships named (as far as I can tell, don’t check me too hard on that one), really existed or still exist. New Rochelle in New York, Harry Houdini, President Howard Taft, Sigmund Freud, Madison Avenue, Carl Jung, and John D. Rockefeller for example. They are in a sense pre-made characters and settings for Doctorow to work with, and the heavy lifting of writing and character development is mostly done for him by history. The description he does add, for example the way he depicts Taft’s enormous size, is only for literary play or to tie into a larger point he’s making. Writing in this way puts his opinions and the actions of the characters at the forefront of the narrative. In addition to places and people however, the reader will ...