Does Ragtime Make History Seem Like An Illusion
Ragtime is a novel that takes an unconventional path of storytelling. Whenever I read the novel, I find myself always not completely sound in the story, mainly because of how well Doctorow blurs the line between history and fiction, sometimes causing me to lose track of the parts that are real, and what are just Doctorow's imagination. In the story, he uses historical figures of the time, but modifies their character, mannerisms, and behavior to fit his story, when he is able, mainly since he didn't know how they would respond in certain scenes. In a way, the book is a "meta-history". At first, I thought I would learn some history while reading the book, but now I am not sure if I really learned about history, or how to use history to tell a story. Doctorow might have even referenced this in Chapter 15, where the little boy looks at his reflection in the mirror, thinking"neither of which could claim to be the real one" (Doctorow 148). This could be a metapho...