Ragtime Characters

Ooh, here's a piece of trivia to impress your fellow Ragtime readers: Doctorow named his main character Coalhouse Walker after a character named Michael Kohlhaas (yep, sounds pretty much like Coalh...

Yep, her name is simply "Mother." That's got to have resulted in a lot of playground taunting.It's also a clue (with a flashing neon arrow sign that says "This is a clue!" pointing at it) that Moth...

In the character of Father we have a highly representational figure, much like his wife Mother. Seriously, we want to hear those wedding vows: "Father, do you take Mother to be your lawfully wedded...

Unlike Mother and Father, Younger Brother's name doesn't immediately scream "symbol alert!" Unless "Younger Brother" has somehow become synonymous with "antisocial compulsive bizarre-o behavior" an...

At this point you might start to wonder if Doctorow is just messing with us; the word "tateh" in Yiddish translates to something like "daddy" or "papa." Hey, Doctorow, did you forget? You already h...

Hey, quick: what do you think a character with the uber-symbolically significant name of "Little Boy" is going to be like? If you answered: "full of childlike wonder" "open-minded" or "sweet" then...

This Houdini is the Houdini: the first escape artist, the guy who could wriggle out of chains and submerged coffins without breaking a sweat. He's brilliant, insane, talented and (at least in Docto...

Hey, check it out: it's a character without much symbolic resonance. Sarah's a mysterious character, and her motives and character are never fully explained. We know for instance that she's a washe...

Evelyn Nesbit is another character (like Harry Houdini) that is lifted straight from the pages of the history books.Evelyn Nesbit was sort of the first supermodel. Her face was everywhere, on produ...

Welcome back to SymbolicCharacterNamesVille. Population: Most of the cast of Ragtime.Like Little Boy, Little Girl represents the future (and the hope for the future). There's a magnetism to Little...

We're lumping these two Richie Richs together because in Ragtime they go together like salt and pepper… or maybe something fancier, like beluga caviar and truffle oil? Gucci and Dom Perignon? Mon...

We hate this guy. Chief Conklin and the other volunteer firemen who vandalize Coalhouse's car are examples of the rampant racism and discrimination that existed during the early 20th century.He's a...