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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ragtime, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The American Dream
Replication and Transformation
Freedom, Human Dignity, and Justice
The Cult of Celebrity
Women’s Roles
Social Inequities
Summary
Analysis
In 1902, Father builds a large, comfortable house in New Rochelle, New York. His business is the sale of patriotic accessories like flags, buntings, and fireworks. In the early 20th century, there is a lot of money to be made in patriotism. Little Boy grows up in a time quite different from our own. Everyone wears white in the summer. No one talks about sex, at least not openly. In 1906, the alleged “Crime of the Century” occurs in New York, when Pittsburgh railroad magnate Harry K. Thaw murders famed architect Stanford White at the premier of a play. Thaw’s wife, Evelyn Nesbit, had once been White’s mistress.
By naming the members of the family by their relationships—Mother, Father, Little Boy—the book suggests the ways in which members of the family feel that they and their experiences are ordinary. But it’s immediately clear that they’re not like most of their fellow Americans by dint of their wealth and status. This introduction also establishes the shifting social and cultural ground of the 20th century. No one talks about sex, but salacious sex scandals are increasingly in the public eye.
Themes
Mother’s Younger Brother, an isolated and driftless young man, is hopelessly in love with Evelyn Nesbit. On this sweltering summer afternoon, he goes to the ocean where he finds a rare and beautiful shell in the sand. In a poetic gesture, he drinks the tiny drop of seawater it holds in its hollow.
With this romantic act, Mother’s Younger Brother immediately sets himself apart from the rest of the family. It doesn’t quite make sense and it's not entirely clear what he intends for his gesture to symbolize, but it does show that he yearns to be a part of something more meaningful than just working in Father’s factory and living a privileged life.
Themes
Little Boy restlessly paces the porch. Mother and Father are upstairs. Grandfather naps in the parlor. Little Boy is old enough to pay attention to the world around him, although his parents don’t realize it yet. On this day, he mulls over his wish to see Harry Houdini perform. Houdini, Little Boy knows, can escape almost anything. Suddenly, a car rounds the corner and crashes into a nearby telephone pole. To Little Boy’s surprise, none other than Harry Houdini himself emerges, rattled but unharmed.
Younger Brother and Little Boy share a common desire to escape or transcend their limited and habitual lives, unlike Mother, Father, and Grandfather. This helps explain why the boy idolizes Houdini, who doesn’t just escape from milk cans, water traps, and shackles, but who has escaped his past, too. Over the course of his career, Houdini has transformed himself from an impoverished immigrant to a famous and successful household name.
Themes
Father, drawn by the noise of the crash, bustles down the street and invites Mr. Houdini inside to recollect himself. Houdini accepts. He finds the overstuffed furniture and ornate accessories decorating the parlor more stifling than his inappropriately warm suit, but he’s charmed by Mother and impressed when he learns that Father is about to set sail on Peary’s expedition to locate the North Pole. After some small talk and a few magic tricks for Little Boy’s entertainment, Houdini bids the family farewell and resumes his tour of the neighborhood—he’s looking to buy some upstate property.
Houdini’s uncomfortable suit sounds like a costume, as if he’s trying to dress the part of respectable New Rochelle resident even though he isn’t one. The overstuffed and overwhelming décor harks back to the Victorian Era with its stifled morals and narrow-minded views. The fact that Houdini—a self-made man of the new century—dislikes it suggests that both the style and the mentality it represents are about to become outdated. The novel’s present, this scene makes clear, is an era of exploration and change.
Themes
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