Ragtime is kind of a weird book. At the beginning of the book, it seemed like there was a million different plot lines, but now they all seem to be combining into one story. My favorite characters so far are probably Tateh and the little girl. My least favorite character is Evelyn Nesbitt because I just feel like her storyline is boring. My favorite aspect of the book is how the author is able to smoothly bring all the characters together while keeping true to their own stories.
My favorite characters/storyline is Tateh and his daughter. I like them because I love how far Tateh will go to keep his daughter safe and happy. Although, I definitely don’t agree with the fact that he kicked his wife out of the house. When Tateh has the opportunity to give his daughter a (temporary) safer life, he takes the chance. He plans to send his daughter away to make her happier, even though he would miss and worry about her. I feel like Tateh’s main goal is to give his daughter the best life he can afford. Even though he doesn’t have a lot of money, he always makes sure his daughter has all she needs, which is why they’re my favorite characters.
Evelyn Nesbitt is my least favorite character because I find her weird and boring, For one, she started a relationship with a man that was watching her while hidden in a closet, and who followed her around everywhere. That seems like a poor choice and bad judgement to me. Also, I think it’s weird that she tries to help her murderous husband get out of jail. even though she is 100 percent sure that he did murder Stanford White. Sure, they got divorced immediately after the trial, but why would you want to set a murderer free, especially one that murdered the man you truly love?
Overall, I really enjoy the novel Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow. I think it’s cool that there are so many different characters, all different types of people, are all involved in the same plot line. I also like that Harry Houdini is involved in this book, even though I don’t really see him as an important character. I also like how Doctorow takes aspects of current events in the 1970s and adds them to the 1920s. Overall, I hope all books we read this semester are as good as Ragtime.
Tateh and his daughter are probably my favorite characters as well, though, like you, I struggle to reconcile the devoted father and the entrepreneurial artist with the man who throws his victimized wife out of the house and leaves her to die on the streets. Mameh never appears again, seen as an irredeemable “fallen woman” and referred to as dead, even though all she ever did was try to protect her family and keep them housed and fed. That seems really harsh.
ReplyDeleteBut at the same time, Tateh is such an innately likeable character. Not only through his absolute determination to protect his daughter, jumping onto trains and fighting police without even a thought, but also through his creativity, his inventiveness, and his sheer gall. He starts out a poor immigrant, and then saunters back into the novel calling himself “the Baron Ashkenazy.” You just know he’s having the time of his life, and you can’t help but enjoy his journey. I feel bad for liking him so much, and loving his devoted single-father dynamic with his daughter, even as I remember everything that happened to Mameh to get them to that point.
After reading the latest chapters, I was shocked that Tateh refers to Mameh as dead, when we all know what he did to her. It is really exciting to see him using his talents to succeed in new ways and provide countless things to his daughter. Learning that he got into the movie business and is making good money makes him even more my favorite character.
DeleteI really like Tateh too. It is horrible what he did to his wife, but at least he's a really good father to his daughter I guess. I think it's really cool that Tateh was able to bring himself out of poverty and is happy making movies. He gets to do what makes him happy and is able to provide his daughter a great life.
ReplyDeleteTateh is such an amazing father that sometimes I look over how he treated his wife. I feel like this is something we should’ve discussed in class more, like how do we still enjoy this character knowing he did something like that. I think Tateh really represents the “American dream” by pulling himself out of poverty and creating a really cool career in movies
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