Chapter 40
of E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime wraps up
every bit of the plot and concludes with the end of World War I. What sort of
world is left after “the era of Ragtime [has] run out” (Doctorow 319)? On the
whole, not one that gives much hope for the change that characters like
Coalhouse, Emma Goldman, and Younger Brother were seeking.
The most
obvious problem is that Coalhouse and Younger Brother both die. They are both
lost to history, as evidenced by the fact that no historian has found evidence
for either of them. Although Goldman has fallen into obscurity, she was
somewhat well-known when Doctorow wrote Ragtime
because the feminist movement celebrated her.
All of them
fail to effect lasting change because of the government. Coalhouse gets gunned
down by police having only gotten his car back. Younger Brother is killed by
troops from the Mexican government while his revolution is destroyed by
American Marines. Goldman gets deported, probably for being an anarchist.
Only a few
characters end up being happy. Mother and Tateh get married and live a happy
life. Mother loves Tateh even though he is a Jewish socialist, which could
indicate that future generations could be more tolerant. But the success of
anti-Semites like Henry Ford puts a damper on that. The only other happy ending
is Harry K. Thaw, who gets himself released from the insane asylum and who
marches in the Armistice Day parades. If one were to list the characters based
on how much they deserved to be happy, Harry K. Thaw would be at the bottom.
But the system that lets him be in the upper crust of society clearly is still
going strong.
