Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
Up until the late 1900?s, the American populace on the whole had assumed a very optimistic view of American history. Glossing over disgraceful events, emphasizing the brighter points in our history, our culture has attempted to ignore the obvious fact that we have had, and still have, our fair share of problems. In Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow unabashedly exposes some of the worst aspects of American life in our more recent history. Doctorow doesn?t hold back anything, providing detailed examples of human cruelty and sacrifice, and the evolution of American society. While critiquing American society was not the sole purpose of his novel, Doctorow does expose and examine many issues that people tended to ignore like
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Father?s departure for the North Pole marks the beginning of what the family would have viewed as a decline in their quality of their lives. In truth however, they are merely opening their eyes to a world that is not as perfect as they had perceived. As Father?s ship left the harbor, a passing immigrant ship caught his gaze and he could not remove his eyes from them. He saw ';Thousands of male heads in derbies. Thousands of female heads covered with shawls. It was a rag ship with a million dark eyes staring at him. Father, a normally resolute person, suddenly foundered in his soul. A weird despair seized him.'; (12) At the first sight of hardship in his sheltered life, Father finds himself not knowing what to do, or to feel. He has never seen such poverty at such a close distance, and its very existence causes him to feel afraid almost. In the following chapter, Doctorow proceeds to speak of the immigrants: ?They were filthy and illiterate. They stank of fish and garlic. They had running sores. They had no honor and worked for next to nothing. They stole. They drank. They raped their own daughters. They killed each other casually.'; (13) Father?s unnerving brush with poverty leaves him stricken with hopelessness and a feeling of despair. Yet even then, the family had not witnessed the full truth of the lives of the impoverished immigrants. Doctorow then proceeds to describe in harsh, uncensored terms the
He begins by telling of peasant life in the native European land, how it began to crumble because of poverty after having obtained rock hard stability for centuries, then he follows their long, dangerous trek to America which very few could endure because ships were overcrowded and unsanitary. Handlin then gives the account of the few that lived to see land on the other side of the Atlantic, detailing their struggles with the transformation from home life of the village system, which included the hierarchy social structure, an economy relying on the land, and family-based homes contrasting to American industrial economy, multiple religions, communication, immense knowledge, democratic government, and freedom. The stress and pressure to completely change their lifestyle, traditions, morals, and standards all at once causes immigrants to feel helpless and
E.L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime is a story involving certain characters, each trying to find his or her place in America. Doctorow focus’s on many themes throughout the novel, however, one theme that he gives to the reader from the very beginning of the novel is the American dream. Many characters throughout the novel individually take diverse journeys in order to fulfill what they might describe as “The American Dream.” Throughout Ragtime several characters venture upon momentous journeys whether they be sensible or unwise, in order to try and achieve their personal pursuit of the American dream.
Before we pass on from this world it would be nice if we had left our mark, given our contribution, made our claim in the history of human civilization. Wouldn't it be wonderful to achieve such a goal? Wouldn't it be horrible to have attained that level of recognition and yet be recognized for things you deemed inferior? In the poem "The Poet", Paul Laurence Dunbar expresses his remorse at having written superior Standard English literature and yet only be known and praised for his Dialect works.
In the late nineteenth and twentieth century many immigrants were migrating to the United States for an economic advantage and some by contract labors from various agents, much different from their predecessors. Thomas Bell’s novel “Out of this Furnace” is a generational novel of the characters Kracha, Mike, Mary, and Dobie, coming to America expecting to receive the American Dream and have a better life to soon return back home with riches. However, immigrants and many working class individuals undergo long hours and strenuous work, with minimal amount of pay. Not to mention, the living conditions were horrendous for the average person and particularly worse for arriving immigrants. There was a division between the classes which ultimately
Traditionally immigrants are faced numerous challenges on a daily basis. America is known as the place where there is a chances to succeed, a place where you can be free. Numerous Immigrants came to America with the goal that they could have a more noteworthy plausibility at prevailing in life. Settlers went out on a limb a when coming to America, for some it worked out well however for others they had a troublesome time here. Regardless of the battles that the outsiders experienced, for example, emerging from others, being isolated from their families, and breaking their way of life, the settlers are as yet thankful to be in America since they were in preferable conditions over they were in their country.
America’s individuality is constructed with a various number of circumstances. The most important circumstance is the injustice of the people. Throughout history America has had many forms of injustice like slavery, kidnapping, public shame, rights and many more. We see some of these situations in Equiano, On Being Brought from Africa to America and The Scarlet Letter. Injustice comes in many distinct forms, in Equiano it talks about the injustice of African slaves and the way they were treated. In Of Plymouth Plantation it talks the injustice that the Pilgrims had on the Indians. And last but not least in The Scarlet Letter it talks about the injustice of women's rights and also public opinion and how is the unjust to judge a person before you get to know the situation.
In the 1920s, Americans were trying to figure out what was everyone’s role in society. During this time women started to take on bigger jobs then housekeeping and African Americans are finally standing up for their race. Once 1929 hit, Herbert Hoover, America’s newest president, was viewed as an ‘American Superhero’ at that time because of everything he promised society; however, America gets hit by the Great Depression leaving society in a hole. While banking systems were unstable and overproduction were leaving people bankrupt, Herbert Hoover was blaming Europe and was failing to keep society financially stable. As his presidency went on, filmmakers made film cycles and gangster pictures like Little Caesar that portrayed America’s corrupt society during the Great Depression. By the end of his campaign, Hoover was known as the worst American ever which led to the rising of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt saw the struggling society as an opportunity to help his campaign in which he created the New Deal. America was given an opportunity that allowed them to look forward to the future. During Herbert Hoover’s presidency, America did not support the federal government, but after Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president and promised a New Deal, they began to look more favorably on the government.
The details on how my family arrived in America have been passed down by various members of my family. The accuracy and detail of these memories have diminished with every retelling. Some of my family arrived in America so long ago that all that remains of their experiences are rumors and stretched truths. As a story gets retold over and over it loses much of its accuracy. While much of my family history relies on this kind of storytelling, there are some in my family who were alive and experienced the challenges faced by immigrants. Though born in the United States, my maternal grandfather, Sebastian Passantino, was very familiar with the hardships of being an immigrant.
Immigrants coming to America in the late 1800’s had an idea of what it might be like in the land of opportunity, but the harsh reality of the living conditions during this time only became apparent when they reached the shore. In Thomas Bell’s novel, Out of This Furnace, he describes the hardships Slovak immigrants faced throughout generations living in the industrial towns. Through Bell’s novel he clearly depicts the mindsets of each generation and how they changed their attitudes and thinking to better succeed and escape poverty.
Family is the first thing anybody grows to know. You become familiarized with the traditions and the people of the unit. In the case of an ethnic family living and growing up in the United States, the unit should be a more joint and stronger community within, and set apart from the rest with its own uniqueness. There should also be a security and comfort entering the home. Yet through the book you begin to see a fissure opening more and more thus separating Richard from his family as he begin to venture out into the “gringo” community. Suddenly the comfort felt in the home diminishes and it becomes awkward. The unity you could sense seems to be no longer present and silence falls over. The community built in order to keep the gringos out is no longer there. In the case of Richard this begins with the start of the path of his education.
The blues have deep roots embedded within American history—particularly that of African American history. The history of the blues originated on Southern plantations in the 19th century and was created by slaves, ex-slaves, and descendants of slaves. They were created by individuals who endured great hardship while performing endless hours of arduous labor and blues served as a form of escapism. To these individuals, songs provided them with the strength to persevere through their struggles. Blues songs depicted individuals who persevered in the face of adversity. They were symbols of hope to those squandering in the depths of oppression. In relations to the blues, every song has a story behind it and within every story, there is something to be said. Blues artists, through their struggles, detail how they overcame hardship and laughed at the face of oppression. They defied the rules and in doing so, showed African Americans that they too are beacons of hope for the hopeless. The best blues is instinctive, cathartic, and intensely emotional. From irrepressible bliss to deep sadness, no form of music communicates more genuine emotion than that of the blues. Like many bluesmen of his day, Robert Johnson applied his craft as a lonely traveling musician on street corners and in juke joints. He was a lonely man whose songs romanticized that existence. With Johnson’s unique vocal style, haunting lyrics, and creative guitar techniques, Johnson’s innovation embodied the essence of
Fanny Trollope, an English novelist and writer, travelled to America in the early 19th century for a glimpse of life outside of England. In her work, “The Domestic Manners of the Americans”, Trollope captured her experience in countless opinionated, highly critical observations that judged Americans based on their behaviors and practices. Many aspects of American life captured Trollope’s attention, but these aspects were not seen in a positive light. It was obvious through her story that Trollope did not care for the American life; however, there seemed to be much more to Trollope’s opinions besides petty distastes. Trollope found the American lifestyle repulsive because it seemed to revolve around pride in their impolite and offensive behavior, creating an environment of arrogance and superiority over outsiders like herself.
American literature 1865-1914 is an American literary time period that began in 1865 and ended in 1914. This time period was flourished by three distinct features and the first of these features is: The Aftermath of the Civil War. It is estimated that a total of 620,000 Americans were killed in the Civil War, and for what? At the time, we were an America that was divided by one huge issue that ran supreme and it was slavery and the unequal treatment of African Americans. At this time the nation needed to figure a way to unite the North who were against slavery and the South who were for slavery. As Abraham Lincoln says in our Bedford Anthology of American Literature: “No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man, we simply must begin with, and mould from, disorganized and discordant elements,” (4). He is saying that we must not start a new, but rather we need to start from what we had and mould and shape our country into one. Prior to the Civil War, America was not a whole, it was ruled by states’ rights and was divided on countless issues, and when referring to America, people said the United States are… It wasn’t until under President Lincoln, and concluding the Civil War that the United States began to be referred to as the United States is.. Honest Abe, brought our nation together as one, but the racial tension that remained was something one man can never fix. The literature around this time period was dominated by ideas and feelings circled
For thousands of years, waves of immigrants continue joining the developed countries in the world, bringing with them the unique cultures, languages, and ideas. Over time, those unique values might be faded away with each generation because of the new culture exposition. The second-generation immigrants experience a cultural conflict between that of their parents and that of host society. Most of them are unable to preserve and empower their origin cultures. Many differences between the first-generation and the second-generation immigrants arise. Through the analysis of the mother in “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” and the Das family in “Interpreter of Maladies”, I would like to demonstrate the differences between the first-generation immigrants, who travel from other countries, and the second-generation immigrants, who were born and raised on the immigrated land. These differences include the purpose of being in the foreign land, the connections to their homelands, society’s view, and the culture differences.
Over the course of nearly 260 years of social and political happenings and Fourth of July celebrations, the easily malleable ditty has spawned a vast multitude of improvised verses, which both feed and are testimony to its lasting appeal as a veritable ‘song of the people’. However, this does create some problems. Yankee Doodle’s celebrated melody is one of the very few things about the song that have remained constant throughout its history. With a long history of continual adaptation and evolution, its lyrical origins are more difficult to pinpoint. It is unsurprising that there is little iron-clad evidence for each aspect of a traditional song whose composition was born of on-the-go, impromptu improvisation. Even the most commonly accepted