Previous
Chapter 15
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
By this time, Tateh and Little Girl are living in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Tateh works in the textile mills, but—desperate to protect her—he doesn’t allow Little Girl to work or attend school. They live in an unheated, one-room apartment. Racial tensions run high among the various groups of millworkers, but one day when the American Woolen Company shorts everyone’s pay, they all unite in a strike. The strike garners national attention—Industrial Workers of the World founder Big Bill Haywood even shows up.
Tateh and Little Girl left New York behind but failed to escape their lives of poverty and backbreaking, dangerous labor. If anything, conditions seem somewhat worse in Lawrence, where racial tensions divide the millworkers and prevent them from improving their common lot. At least at first. Eventually, the owners—who, the reader should remember, consider themselves the champions of civilization but who have built their wealth on the exploitation of others—go too far, and their abuse overcomes the racial resentments they’ve relied on to keep their workers compliant.
Themes
Tateh makes posters for the strikers and with the extra materials—India ink, scraps of paper—he begins to make small pieces for Little Girl. One night, he starts making flipbooks—one of a passing streetcar, one of a pirouetting, ice-skating Little Girl. They delight her.
The strike changes Tateh by reminding him of the value and power of art. A socialist, he already knew about the power of uniting and fighting against the social and economic elites.
Themes
The strike intensifies, but some workers—especially those with children to feed—begin to lose heart. Strike organizers hatch a plan to send the children to foster homes in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. When the first crowd of Lawrence children arrives at Grand Central Station, they become front page news. The mill owners worry that a children’s crusade will turn public sentiment against them—the bastions of American civilization and progress—so they resolve to put a stop to it.
Tateh agonizes for days about giving permission for Little Girl to go. He wants her to be warm, well-fed, and well cared for, but he fears what might happen if she’s out of his sight for a minute. Eventually, however, he signs the permission slip. On the appointed day, he takes Little Girl to the train station so she can go to Philadelphia with the others. There’s a special car reserved just for them. But before they can board, a line of militiamen descends on the station to enforce the city marshal’s order prohibiting all children from leaving Lawrence. They begin violently separating children from their parents and viciously beating the parents, including Tateh. Within minutes, the militia concludes its bloody sweep, leaving bruised adults and terrified children crying all along the platform.
Themes
Get the entire Ragtime LitChart as a printable PDF.
Dazed, Tateh leans against a pillar and tries to make sense of what has happened. He hears Little Girl calling his name and he looks around desperately for her. Then, he realizes that she somehow made it onto the train, which is now pulling out of the station. He runs after it, flinging himself at the guardrails of the rear observation platform at the last second.
Themes
