Blog 8 – 2 quotes

1.”He’d (Father) always thought of himself as progressive. He believed in the perfectibility of the republic. He thought, for instance, there was no reason the Negro could not with proper guidance carry every burden of human achievement. He did not believe in aristocracy except of the individual effort and vision…But the air in this ball park open under the sky smelled like the back room of a saloon. Cigar smoke filled the stadium and, lit by the oblique rays of the afternoon sun, indicated the voluminous cavern of air in which he sat pressed upon as if by a foul universe, with the breathless wind of a ten-thousand-throated chorus in his ears shouting its praise and abuse.” (Page 231)

This long paragraph is a little confusing to me. Personally, I feel it is a comparison between the dream and reality of the American society at that time. Father thought there was no class difference as long as they had the effort and intelligence, which is called “American Dream”. But as he and his son was in the stadium watching baseball. The air, which “shouting its praise and abuse”, is breathless not fresh. People, in reality, don’t have much freedom to achieve their dreams, especially for those who had low social status and race difference.

2.”But now the authorities were embarrassed. The Ford stood as tangible proof of the black man’s grievance… Feeling that they had compromised themselves the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen issued a new series of condemnations of the colored madman and said that to negotiate with him in any way at all, to face him with less than an implacable demand that he surrender himself, would be to invite every renegade and radical and black man in the country to flout the law and spit upon the American flag.” (Page 237)

This paragraph describes the corruption of the government at that time. Even Coalhouse had such a strong proof of this car that had been damaged by the white, the government was still for Conklin. They think Coalhouse flouted the law and if they don’t make him surrendered, more radical and black men will go on strike or other things to threaten their governance. The nature of the government made them do what they thought was right and justice. This is also the reason why Coalhouse turned out to be “mad”. No matter how hard he tried, like before suing or finding a lawyer, the government was already on the opposite side of him. They refused to help him out. That’s the roof of the tragedy.

Blog 7 – Questions for Ragtime

I  have  a question about why Doctorow wrote many characters but some of those don’t even have a very strong connection to each other, which makes me feel the story of the novel a little choppy.

Specifically, the chapters for Ford and Morgan are relatively short. What’s the purpose that Doctorow made them also appear in the novel, which seems there is little significant contribution to the story development.

As far as I see, Ford and Morgan were the most important real figures during 1910s, which they had changed the business situations and living style of Americans. Since Ragtime is a historical fiction, the description of Ford and Morgan gives a background of the social environment in the US at that time. Then Doctorow talked about Ford’s assembly line, this efficient production methods really had a huge impact on the late business practice. In addition, Model T, the Ford’s car, is the start of the shocking and tragic story about Coalhouse.

The difference between Ford and Morgan also shows two different types of poeple. Morgan represents a traditional businessman who came from a wealthy family. Ford represents another group who had “American Dreams” and achieved them through their effort and intelligence.

Overall, I think one reason that Ragtime is worth reading or even studying is not only for its good story development, but more importantly, the deep thinking and historic connections make it more meaningful.

Blog 6 — Narrative Elements

Instead of using straightforward argument, Doctorow used more descriptions either through characters or the environment surrounded them to present his ideas.

For example, in chapter 19, the historic figure in the US – Pierpont Morgan appears. To show how prestigious he was throughout the nation, Doctorow describe a lot of people’s reactions when seeing Morgan. ” When he stepped out of his limousine the car robe fell around his feet. One of the several bank officers who had rushed out to meet him disentangled the robe and hung it over the robe rail on the inside of the door.” The descriptions of those people’s craziness or insane indicates how eager they want to have a chance to meet Morgan, and thus Morgan is in a very high and important status.

The most interesting part is the description of Morgan’s nose. Besides the sense of humor,the sentences “To Morgan, the disfigurement of his monstrous nose was the touch of God upon him, the assurance of mortality. It was the steadiest assurance he had” has an implication that Morgan didn’t feel secured at such a high status and lonely. “Somehow he had catapulted himself beyond the world’s value system.”

Overall, I am very impressed by the descriptions in the book, which makes the characters more vivid to readers.

Robert E. Peary

Rober E. Peary(1856-1920), known as one of the great explorer in the world, was born in Cresson Pennsylvania. When he was still little, he was fascinated the Arctic very much. Even after several failures of reaching the Arctic, Peary was still persistent to his goal and the passion for it never failed.

on July 6, 1908, Peary made his final attempt in the ship called Theodore Roosevelt. that Dr. Cook had embarked on a similar attempt four months earlier.The competition to be the first to get there started. on April 6, 1909, Peary claimed that he reached the Pole but Dr. Cook also claimed that he was the first. During decades, Peary’s assertion has been disputed over the years, but Peary is generally recognized as the man who led the first expedition to the North Pole.However, he learned

This historic trip was also the last trip for Peary. He died in 1920 in Washing D.C.

 

Blog 5 – Ragtime (Ch1-8)

The first time I read the book I found it is so hard and profound to understand. Personally, the title Ragtime made me think rag and times together. rag, which has poor quality, seems to implies the features of America at that time, like a sentence in the book- the commingling of great wealth and great poverty.

I think the author’s primary subject is about the people’s life both in upper or middle class and the poor. Probably by making comparison, to show more concerns about the poor.

I was most impressed by the vivid description about th0se immigrant who led a very miserable life. Those immigrant had no warm and clean place to live in, no food to eat and be treated as animals not as human. Through the descriptive words in the book, I can feel the author is trying to tell us at that time the immigrants had a really hard time to survive. When it comes to the meeting of Goldman and Elvelyn, it seems talking about the women’s social status at that time. Women had no equal rights as men and the only thing they could do is to obey. This is a bondage for women.

As for personal connections, the big gap between the wealth and the poor is probably the first thing that came to my mind.Every country, even today, still can’t make every people a cozy life, but the lifestyle of different level of poeple remains a serious problem. Like China with a huge population, the wealth people can be very rich but the poor people can be very poor. I am not sure whether this gap will be smaller or bigger in the future.