On Ragtime - Essay Version
Over the course of the novel Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow, two characters have minor interactions that speak volumes about social expectations of gender and race in 1900’s America. The characters in question are the young African-American woman known as Sarah, and the youngish African-American man known as Coalhouse Walker Jr. As the story progresses, so does their character, and so does the audience’s perspective on the social expectations of the time.
At the time, it was expected for a black man or a black woman to be humble and subservient to the lighter-toned races. Certainly, a black man wouldn’t own a car, drink tea, or speak in a “civilized” manner. I put civilized in quotes because, at the time, black people were considered by the masses to be “uncivilized”. Certainly, a black woman wouldn’t think for herself, act out on the behalf of others, and absolutely would not [spoiler] run up to the Vice President of the United States, arm outstretched, screaming “President! President!” on the behalf of a lover [end spoiler].
Of course, over the course of Ragtime, exactly that occurs. Wait! Let me explain it in context!
Sarah first appears in Ragtime when her newborn son is discovered buried in the main characters’ (henceforth referred to as “Main Family” with individual names in quotes for simplicities’ sake) garden in New Rochelle, New York. When “Mother” discovers the baby, he is buried in her garden, but is crying gently. “Younger Brother” “saw, as they brushed the dirt away, that it was an infant....had been bound tight in a cotton blanket. Mother freed its arms.” “Mother” brought the child into their house and proceeded to wash up. After a while, a doctor and several policemen arrived to investigate.
“Within an hour a black woman was found in the cellar of a home on the next block....when the woman took the baby in her arms she began to cry. Mother was shocked by her youth....so the young black woman and her child were installed in a room on the top floor.” And with that, Sarah was introduced to Main Family. She sat alone at the apex of the house, largely forgotten, for a sizable chunk of the book afterwards.
It is not known at this point in the story why she attempted to bury her child, although interactions with others slowly allows her backstory to unfold, and paves the way for the character development that is inevitable in a historical fiction novel such as this. Several chapters later, Sarah’s importance in the story rears its head once again as the most interpreted character of the novel is introduced. I’ll condense the character introduction to one largish quote.
“One afternoon, a Sunday, a new Model T Ford slowly came up the hill and went past the house...the driver was looking right and left as if trying to find a particular address; he turned the car around at the corner and came back...he was a Negro. His car shone. The brightwork gleamed. There was a glass windshield and a custom pantasote top. I’m looking for a young woman of color whose name is Sarah, he said. She is said to reside in one of these houses....the colored man was respectful, but there was something disturbingly resolute and self-important in the way he asked her if he could please speak with Sarah...he was dressed in the affectation of wealth to which colored people lent themselves...she climbed to the third floor. She found the girl Sarah not sitting at the window as she usually did but standing rigidly, hands folded in front of her, and facing the door....You don’t want to see him? No, ma’am, the girl finally said softly while she looked at the floor. Send him away, please....
“Such was the coming of the colored man in the car to Broadview Avenue.” That, longish piece was Coalhouse Walker Jr.’s introduction. Now, without going off into a tangent about Michael Kolhaas, upon which much of Coalhouse’s story is based/blatantly copied from/paraphrased, there were many aspects of the man which were striking at the time. For starters, he owned his own car. In 1900’s America, it was almost unheard of for a black man to own a car. “Father noticed that he suffered no embarrassment by being in the parlor with a cup and saucer in his hand. On the contrary, he acted as if it was the most natural thing in the world. His surroundings did not awe him nor was his manner deferential. He was courteous and correct.” All of these were considered to be white territory. Now, Main Father suggests later on that Coalhouse, with his car, his actions, and his speech, didn’t know that he was a black man. I personally believe that Coalhouse was completely aware of his status as a black man, and was passively resisting the social expectations of negroes with every step. Fighting all the way, carrying forward the American Dream of carving out your own place in the world.
No, I have not forgotten that this paper is about Coalhouse and Sarah and how they interact. Throughout these visits, Sarah maintained her lack of presence in the parlor, absolutely refusing to see him. “But Mother saw signs of progress. Sarah had taken on the duties of the departed housekeeper and now cleaned rooms so energetically and with such proprietary competence that Mother laughed with the momentary illusion that it was Sarah’s own house she was cleaning. She also began to claim her child at other than feeding time, first taking over his daily bath, then carrying him upstairs to her room at night....in the late winter Sarah said she would see Coalhouse Walker in the parlor.” And so Ragtime equivalent of the Ice Queen began to melt, and (sarcasm mode) thus begun the fantastic romantic comedy known as the second half of Ragtime (end sarcasm mode).
“Nothing was speeded by this. After the visit Sarah looked irritated and even angry. She was slow to forgive, and in some peculiar way her stubbornness seemed the only appropriate response to his persistence...but one Sunday in March...Coalhouse arrived in his shining Ford and left the motor idling. Neighbors in their yards came out to watch the strange intense black man...and the beautifully awkward Sarah...as they walked under the Norwegian maples and down the concrete steps to the street. She carried her baby. He helped her into the car and got up behind the wheel...this was the day he asked her to marry and she accepted. The appearance of these magnificent lovers in the family’s life had been startling; the conflict of their wills had exercised an almost hypnotic effect.”
Author’s Note: I’m going to be a bit genre savvy at this point. This book is a required reading book and this is post-seventh grade, therefore this part of the plot does not end very well. There are precisely three non-tragic required readings that occur in 8th-12th grades when you go through the Nashua School District.
Before we get into the really meaty part of the story that makes up the tragedies that I tend to end up reading, (thankfully nowhere nearly as disturbing as Childhood’s End, though), I have some interpretation to go through here. As we can see, while Coalhouse is resisting social expectations of a black man, this is in stark contrast to Sarah’s actions in the book. Sarah is a black woman, and her tactic of dealing with the social problems of race and gender is to go with the flow, fly under the radar, and hope you don’t get stepped upon. While Coalhouse acts like a middle class white male, Sarah plays the role of a poor black woman remarkably well....until Coalhouse commences his visitations. And so begins Sarah’s Social Clorox Exposure Adventures!
It wasn’t nearly as awesome as that sounded. As the novel goes on, the non-romantic part of the plot arrives in the form of a racist fire brigade. No quote this time, as it would take up an additional three pages. Coalhouse was driving along, and the fire brigade in the area decided to harass him. He asked them to please move, and they demanded payment. He then got out of his car, walked out of his way to find a traffic cop, and asked for help. He received no such help, and returned to find his car “spattered with mud. There was a six-inch tear in the custom pantasote top. And deposited in the back seat was a mound of fresh human excrement.”
Coalhouse attempts to get help from the policemen, and thus begins an exchange that can only be described as classic 1900’s American racism. As Coalhouse attempted to bring justice about the “proper” way, he discovered that the “proper” way was stacked against him due to his being black. And thus begins the tragedy.
“Sarah decided on a course of action of her own...a candidate on the national Republican ticket, Mr. Taft’s Vice-President, James Sherman, was to be in New Rochelle that evening to speak...Sarah conceived the idea of petitioning the United States on his behalf. It was the second of the frightened and desperate acts provoked from her innocence...when the Vice-President’s car rolled up to the curb...Sarah broke through the line and ran toward him calling, in her confusion, President! President! Her arm was extended and her black hand reached toward him. He shrank from the contact...a militiaman stepped forward and, with the deadly officiousness of armed men who protect the famous, brought the butt of his Springfield against Sarah’s chest as hard as he could. She fell...Sarah...was coughing blood and in the early-morning hours it occurred to the sergeant in charge that perhaps she ought to be looked at by a doctor...Coalhouse was located and a few hours later he was sitting by Sarah’s bedside...they hear the sepulchral sounds of a grown man’s grief...toward the end of the week Sarah died.”
In honor of Sarah, I will quote the first third of the details of her funeral. Deploying sad violin music in 3.....2.....1.....deploying.
“The funeral was made in Harlem. It was lavish. Sarah’s coffin was bronze. The hearse was a custom Pierce Arrow Opera Coach with an elongated passenger compartment and a driver’s cab open to the weather. The top was railed with brass and banked with masses of flowers. Black ribbon flew from the four corners of the roof. The car was so highly polished the boy could see in its rear doors a reflection of the entire street. Everything was black including the sky.”
After Sarah’s death, Coalhouse underwent severe psychological deterioration which led to his rampage in New York City, culminating with his spectacular decision to attempt to get rid of a library.
Over the course of the novel Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow, two characters have minor interactions that speak volumes about social expectations of gender and race in 1900’s America. The characters in question are the young African-American woman known as Sarah, and the youngish African-American man known as Coalhouse Walker Jr. As the story progresses, so does their character, and so does the audience’s perspective on the social expectations of the time.
At the time, it was expected for a black man or a black woman to be humble and subservient to the lighter-toned races. Certainly, a black man wouldn’t own a car, drink tea, or speak in a “civilized” manner. I put civilized in quotes because, at the time, black people were considered by the masses to be “uncivilized”. Certainly, a black woman wouldn’t think for herself, act out on the behalf of others, and absolutely would not [spoiler] run up to the Vice President of the United States, arm outstretched, screaming “President! President!” on the behalf of a lover [end spoiler].
Of course, over the course of Ragtime, exactly that occurs. Wait! Let me explain it in context!
Sarah first appears in Ragtime when her newborn son is discovered buried in the main characters’ (henceforth referred to as “Main Family” with individual names in quotes for simplicities’ sake) garden in New Rochelle, New York. When “Mother” discovers the baby, he is buried in her garden, but is crying gently. “Younger Brother” “saw, as they brushed the dirt away, that it was an infant....had been bound tight in a cotton blanket. Mother freed its arms.” “Mother” brought the child into their house and proceeded to wash up. After a while, a doctor and several policemen arrived to investigate.
“Within an hour a black woman was found in the cellar of a home on the next block....when the woman took the baby in her arms she began to cry. Mother was shocked by her youth....so the young black woman and her child were installed in a room on the top floor.” And with that, Sarah was introduced to Main Family. She sat alone at the apex of the house, largely forgotten, for a sizable chunk of the book afterwards.
It is not known at this point in the story why she attempted to bury her child, although interactions with others slowly allows her backstory to unfold, and paves the way for the character development that is inevitable in a historical fiction novel such as this. Several chapters later, Sarah’s importance in the story rears its head once again as the most interpreted character of the novel is introduced. I’ll condense the character introduction to one largish quote.
“One afternoon, a Sunday, a new Model T Ford slowly came up the hill and went past the house...the driver was looking right and left as if trying to find a particular address; he turned the car around at the corner and came back...he was a Negro. His car shone. The brightwork gleamed. There was a glass windshield and a custom pantasote top. I’m looking for a young woman of color whose name is Sarah, he said. She is said to reside in one of these houses....the colored man was respectful, but there was something disturbingly resolute and self-important in the way he asked her if he could please speak with Sarah...he was dressed in the affectation of wealth to which colored people lent themselves...she climbed to the third floor. She found the girl Sarah not sitting at the window as she usually did but standing rigidly, hands folded in front of her, and facing the door....You don’t want to see him? No, ma’am, the girl finally said softly while she looked at the floor. Send him away, please....
“Such was the coming of the colored man in the car to Broadview Avenue.” That, longish piece was Coalhouse Walker Jr.’s introduction. Now, without going off into a tangent about Michael Kolhaas, upon which much of Coalhouse’s story is based/blatantly copied from/paraphrased, there were many aspects of the man which were striking at the time. For starters, he owned his own car. In 1900’s America, it was almost unheard of for a black man to own a car. “Father noticed that he suffered no embarrassment by being in the parlor with a cup and saucer in his hand. On the contrary, he acted as if it was the most natural thing in the world. His surroundings did not awe him nor was his manner deferential. He was courteous and correct.” All of these were considered to be white territory. Now, Main Father suggests later on that Coalhouse, with his car, his actions, and his speech, didn’t know that he was a black man. I personally believe that Coalhouse was completely aware of his status as a black man, and was passively resisting the social expectations of negroes with every step. Fighting all the way, carrying forward the American Dream of carving out your own place in the world.
No, I have not forgotten that this paper is about Coalhouse and Sarah and how they interact. Throughout these visits, Sarah maintained her lack of presence in the parlor, absolutely refusing to see him. “But Mother saw signs of progress. Sarah had taken on the duties of the departed housekeeper and now cleaned rooms so energetically and with such proprietary competence that Mother laughed with the momentary illusion that it was Sarah’s own house she was cleaning. She also began to claim her child at other than feeding time, first taking over his daily bath, then carrying him upstairs to her room at night....in the late winter Sarah said she would see Coalhouse Walker in the parlor.” And so Ragtime equivalent of the Ice Queen began to melt, and (sarcasm mode) thus begun the fantastic romantic comedy known as the second half of Ragtime (end sarcasm mode).
“Nothing was speeded by this. After the visit Sarah looked irritated and even angry. She was slow to forgive, and in some peculiar way her stubbornness seemed the only appropriate response to his persistence...but one Sunday in March...Coalhouse arrived in his shining Ford and left the motor idling. Neighbors in their yards came out to watch the strange intense black man...and the beautifully awkward Sarah...as they walked under the Norwegian maples and down the concrete steps to the street. She carried her baby. He helped her into the car and got up behind the wheel...this was the day he asked her to marry and she accepted. The appearance of these magnificent lovers in the family’s life had been startling; the conflict of their wills had exercised an almost hypnotic effect.”
Author’s Note: I’m going to be a bit genre savvy at this point. This book is a required reading book and this is post-seventh grade, therefore this part of the plot does not end very well. There are precisely three non-tragic required readings that occur in 8th-12th grades when you go through the Nashua School District.
Before we get into the really meaty part of the story that makes up the tragedies that I tend to end up reading, (thankfully nowhere nearly as disturbing as Childhood’s End, though), I have some interpretation to go through here. As we can see, while Coalhouse is resisting social expectations of a black man, this is in stark contrast to Sarah’s actions in the book. Sarah is a black woman, and her tactic of dealing with the social problems of race and gender is to go with the flow, fly under the radar, and hope you don’t get stepped upon. While Coalhouse acts like a middle class white male, Sarah plays the role of a poor black woman remarkably well....until Coalhouse commences his visitations. And so begins Sarah’s Social Clorox Exposure Adventures!
It wasn’t nearly as awesome as that sounded. As the novel goes on, the non-romantic part of the plot arrives in the form of a racist fire brigade. No quote this time, as it would take up an additional three pages. Coalhouse was driving along, and the fire brigade in the area decided to harass him. He asked them to please move, and they demanded payment. He then got out of his car, walked out of his way to find a traffic cop, and asked for help. He received no such help, and returned to find his car “spattered with mud. There was a six-inch tear in the custom pantasote top. And deposited in the back seat was a mound of fresh human excrement.”
Coalhouse attempts to get help from the policemen, and thus begins an exchange that can only be described as classic 1900’s American racism. As Coalhouse attempted to bring justice about the “proper” way, he discovered that the “proper” way was stacked against him due to his being black. And thus begins the tragedy.
“Sarah decided on a course of action of her own...a candidate on the national Republican ticket, Mr. Taft’s Vice-President, James Sherman, was to be in New Rochelle that evening to speak...Sarah conceived the idea of petitioning the United States on his behalf. It was the second of the frightened and desperate acts provoked from her innocence...when the Vice-President’s car rolled up to the curb...Sarah broke through the line and ran toward him calling, in her confusion, President! President! Her arm was extended and her black hand reached toward him. He shrank from the contact...a militiaman stepped forward and, with the deadly officiousness of armed men who protect the famous, brought the butt of his Springfield against Sarah’s chest as hard as he could. She fell...Sarah...was coughing blood and in the early-morning hours it occurred to the sergeant in charge that perhaps she ought to be looked at by a doctor...Coalhouse was located and a few hours later he was sitting by Sarah’s bedside...they hear the sepulchral sounds of a grown man’s grief...toward the end of the week Sarah died.”
In honor of Sarah, I will quote the first third of the details of her funeral. Deploying sad violin music in 3.....2.....1.....deploying.
“The funeral was made in Harlem. It was lavish. Sarah’s coffin was bronze. The hearse was a custom Pierce Arrow Opera Coach with an elongated passenger compartment and a driver’s cab open to the weather. The top was railed with brass and banked with masses of flowers. Black ribbon flew from the four corners of the roof. The car was so highly polished the boy could see in its rear doors a reflection of the entire street. Everything was black including the sky.”
After Sarah’s death, Coalhouse underwent severe psychological deterioration which led to his rampage in New York City, culminating with his spectacular decision to attempt to get rid of a library.
Looking forward to the next version. LDL
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