Women and Men
Perhaps the most vibrant aspect of any narrative is its characters. The same is of course true with Ragtime. When discussing said characters in class, we seemed to say they fall into two categorizations, those who are "progressive" and those who are "stuck". In other words, Ragtime as an era depicts a time of change and turmoil and we separated those which embraced or propelled the change, from those who were resistant to it. For example, Younger Brother and Father are perhaps two of the most stark examples of the contrast between the two subsections. I wanted to examine how women and men line up in the two categories, and whether or not we see some patterns emerge. I've compiled a list down below of some of the male and female characters in Ragtime with the category I think they fall into (if any) in parenthesis. Men: - Father (stuck) - Younger Brother (progressive) - Grandfather (stuck- I think?) - Tateh (progressive- at least...