Ragtime

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade October 2001

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Ragtime It is the turn of the century and many new things are coming about in America. Music has a new form that is looked upon with a grime face from the upper class households yet it is the tune that keeps some people living. In Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow, America is developing itself and so are the people in it because the times are changing there are many historical events that take place in America, and it is represented in Ragtime. Ragtime doesn't evolve around one event in history it takes in the perspective Ragtime begins in New Rochelle, New York where some families are booming with money, yet not to far away in another area of New York there are families that are scraping around for food and clothing hoping and praying that their children and wives will not be kidnapped and taken away to work in the factories.

It is the beginning of the assembly lines and the dawn of the automotive industries, and Harry Houdini is the best escape artist in the world. Harry K. Thaw murdered the famous architect Stanford White, whose mistress happened to be Thaw's wife, Evelyn Nesbit. Yet in New Rochelle Father is getting ready for a trip to the North pole, and in the Southern part of the country the famous singer CoalHouse Porter is singing his ragtime tunes and talking about the love of his life. Around these real life characters an intricate array of events happen, and some of them are true and some not.

All of the characters mentioned before are mostly true, and they will be examined here in this portion of the essay. Harry Houdini was mentioned in the book quite a number of times. He showed the world how entertainment could changed there lives,