E.L. Doctorow represents historical figures more thoroughly than he does fictional characters, often leaving his fictional characters without much detail, while making up extremely specific details about real historical characters. Perhaps turning fiction on its head like this is to demonstrate how little we know about historical figures. We are given all this "secret" information about people like Morgan, and we are given no choice but to think that things like this could never have happened. As outrageous as it is to think that J.P. Morgan had a secret room full of smuggled treasures, where he holds a meeting with Henry Ford that no one ever found out about, we realize that there are millions of intimate details in his life that we don't know about, but that did actually happen. Just as this hidden room being slotted into the hard facts of J.P. Morgan's life led to a trip to Egypt and a night in a pyramid, all the other details in Morgan's life that even Doctorow never found out about led to several other events that were important to him and the people around him. The same goes for all of the historical figures mentioned in Ragtime.
In highlighting fine details in the lives of historical characters, Doctorow is emphasizing the fact that famous historical figures were real people with real lives. What we know about them is only what historians choose to tell us. In showing us this, Doctorow is undermining the idea that there is some overarching metanarrative to history. Every tiny detail of someone's life has some importance and consequence, and which ones are important can be up to anyone to decide.
I like this perspective, as it reminds us that we all have meaning in life, and through the butterfly effect we create massive ripples in the world from the small things that we do.
ReplyDeleteNice post. We have a historical image of people like Houdini, Morgan, Ford, etc. We have records of what they have done, perhaps even about what they were like, but what Doctorow does, whether true or not, ultimately gives these historically known people a real character. With Doctorow we get to delve into the minds of Houdini and know about his dislike of the upperclass and his venture for escape or with Morgan and know about his loneliness and imperialism. What I think is most interesting is how we can't actually prove whether or not what we read in Ragtime was true.
ReplyDeleteNice post! I really agree with your point. Sometimes, we forget that famous people have lives too. We often put them on these pedestals so high that it almost seems like they aren't human. For example, we think of people like Bill Gates and Elon Musk as geniuses so unobtainable that we could never even hope to ever become like them. In reality, they are just ordinary people who made big discoveries.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a big part of Doctorow putting these hidden details in the lives of his historical characters has to do pointing out the obscure parts of famous people's lives. I also think this has to do with the fact that we know who these historical figures are to some extent. Since we already have some idea what to think of them Doctorow wants to guide our ideas of them with these details, while he wants us to relate to the characters which he created (like Tateh), and so he doesn't provide us with those details for those characters.
ReplyDeleteI think that if Doctorow never put in these, what at the time just seem like minor details, the lifted historical figures would lose what influence over the story they have. As you say, every action has a consequence, no matter how small. The little details of the lives of these characters make them more than flat representations and more like the people they were or could have been in the past.
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