E.L. Doctorow's Genius Methods

 Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow has a very unique style, one that I haven't seen used in any other book. I would characterize this book as historical fiction, but unlike other books in this genre, it intertwines real characters with fictional characters, and also makes real characters interact with other real characters, although those interactions never actually happened (as far as we know). He also uses his fictional characters to link to another story about a real-life event. These are really important aspects of the book, but there is a reason for this unique style. It allows Doctorow to make political commentary or poke fun at certain things in American history.

A good example of this is Peary's expedition. The Peary expedition was a very real event, in which Peary and his group of men set out to find the north pole. Doctorow ties this in with Father being included in this expedition, although he wasn't actually in that group, as far as history tells us. Father is sent home early which is Doctorow's explanation as to why he isn't in the famous picture of Peary's expedition. However, Father does give Peary the flag that is depicted in the picture, which is a bit of cleverness from Doctorow. Doctorow critiques Peary and his expedition with clever irony and sarcasm. He depicts Peary going by himself to try to find the exact point of the north pole to claim all the glory for himself, and although he fails to do so, he does end up getting almost all the credit. The group takes pictures to commemorate the event, but the figures are indistinguishable in the light. This pokes fun at the fact that nobody remembers these people bar Peary, and that the expedition is praised as an impressive thing, but there was nothing actually accomplished by doing this.

Another example is when Harry K. Thaw runs into Harry Houdini in jail. Thaw had just committed the murder of Stanford White, while Houdini is performing one of his famous prison breaks. This is an entirely made-up scenario between the two (as far as we know), but both are very real people from history. Doctorow uses this interaction to explore the problems with class disparities. Thaw is a very rich man who was born into a very wealthy family, while Houdini was born into a poor Jewish immigrant family. Thaw is practically treated like a king while in prison with nice food and such. Doctorow uses this as a metaphor to show how the poor man has to work extra hard to get out of prison and lead a good life, while the person who was born rich doesn't have to work at all, and is still living a luxurious life, one that is arguably better than that poor person.