The Creation of One’s Identity in E.l. Doctorow’s Ragtime

Defining the argument of Doctorow’s Ragtime is not an easy task. What at first sight look like separate stories about completely different characters that happen to exist at the same place during the same time, is in reality a complex structure in which all characters seem to intertwine in some way or another. Nonetheless, the title of the novel is an important hint on figuring out the argument of the novel. The musical genre Ragtime is characterised by its irregularities and its melodies that seem to avoid metrical beats by accenting weaker ones (which are normally not accented). The accentuation of the beats results in a melody that invites the listener to move to it, therefore, avoiding steadiness. When trying to relate this metaphor to the text, the reader can detect multiple examples of characters who present a conflict between their “strong” and “weak” beats, either it is because of their race, their gender or any other reason. It is this conflict (trying to find a midpoint between who they are and who they should be) that makes the characters constantly evolve throughout the novel. This essay, therefore, will prove, by analysing the characters of Houdini and Mother’s Younger Brother, how Ragtime is a novel that portrays the creation of identity, race being the most concerning aspect that make the characters reflect about who they are and how it defines them.

Mother’s Younger Brother is one of the characters about whom readers are less told but, nonetheless, it is possible to infer his thoughts by reading closely at the little information that the narrator offers. As a white young man living in the epicentre of capitalism during the beginnings of the 20th century, he is expected by his family to be making a living for himself, either starting his own business or, on the other hand, contributing on Father’s business. However, from the very beginning of the novel, he does not show any intention of accomplishing any of those, but he does not show any other type of intentions, either. Mother’s Younger Brother is a very mysterious character, for he does not manifest a clear identity, probably because he does not have one. He is always either hiding or disguising as other people, always protecting himself from all those expectations and stereotypes that he is expected to embrace; it is not possible to know what his identity is, but it is possible to know what his identity is not.

To me, Mother’s Younger Brother is the perfect example of a person in the making. When he feels some type of threat of being discovered, his first instinct is to hide, as it happens in Chapter 8, when he hides in the closet to not be discovered by Goldman and Evelyn. In addition to his hiding, Mother’s Younger Brother also adopts disguises. Because he lacks an identity, disguising as another person allows him to adopt an identity, even if it’s not his. This happens repeatedly throughout the novel, being the adoption of Coalhouse’s cause in chapter XXX the most remarkable one. At the ending of the novel, he dies fighting for a cause that is not really his, but, therefore, in some way, it could be considered that it is not really him who dies; it is his body that dies, but not him as a person, as an identity, because he never really existed.

Furthermore, Houdini is also a perfect example of a character who struggles with his identity because of his race. Being a Jewish immigrant, he is lost in a “limbo” in a society divided into black and white people, for he is not either of them. Therefore, he adopts an Italian surname in hopes of creating a new identity for himself, fully embracing the identity that Mother’s Younger Brother is trying to escape: a young white man. However, there is a turning point on Houdini’s construction of identity and that is his mother’s death. Losing his mother makes him confused about what his identity is, for he is expected to be a young white man, but he does not want to lose his Jewish roots, the only thing that linked him to his mother. Bealer puts forward a very interesting idea about how Houdini’s profession is a metaphor of his life: he is constantly trying to escape from places, which each time become more and more oppressive, just as American Capitalist society was. I would go further on this idea by saying that Houdini is a confused character that does not know where he is supposed to belong and what his identity should be based on. He is escaping from something, but he does not know exactly from what. Following Roberts statement, Houdini is not able to re-construct his identity once again until the ending of the novel, in which he identifies himself with the black community and the oppression they suffer. It is on the last scene that he appears that he finally finds himself once again, when he is suspended from the Times Tower, an image that resembles that of when black people were lynched because of the crimes they were accused of. It is only then when he realises how he “had been feeling better about himself” after finding his “new pursuit” (Doctorow, 265).

In conclusion, Ragtime is a novel that deals with different ways of constructing an identity in American society at the beginning of the 20th century. Although there are several aspects that shape the characters’ identities, such as gender, political opinions, or even lived experiences, race is one of the aspects that is more determinative on constructing identities. It has been proved how identities are dynamic over time, always changing, always in constant movement, just as Ragtime music. However, just as there are different ways of interpreting music, there are different ways of understanding life and how we should be in order to fit in it; Houdini and Mother’s Younger Brother are the perfect example of it. On the one hand, Mother’s Younger Brother’s identity is constructed according to who he is with and who he is fighting for, disguising as them and becoming appropriated of their identity, stereotypes and all. On the other hand, Houdini’s construction of identity shows more respect and sympathy (Roberts, 257). He already has an identity of his own, but he needs to belong somewhere and stop living on an in-between.

Works cited

• Doctorow, E. L. Ragtime. London: Penguin, 2011.
• Bealer, Tracy L. “Emma’s Touch: Capitalism, the Body and the Interruption of America’s ‘Golden Moment’ in Doctorow’s Ragtime.” Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory, vol. 73, no. 1, 2017, pp. 113–133.
• Lasky, Jack. “Ragtime (music)”. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018. Consulted on https://crai.ub.edu
• Roberts, Brian. “Blackface Minstrelsy and Jewish Identity: Fleshing Out Ragtime as the Central Metaphor in E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime”. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, Vol. 45, Issue 3, 2004. Pp. 247-260.