Let's face the cold, hard facts: when you set a book beginning in 1902, the characters are going to be pretty prone to bucket-kicking. Besides the obvious fact that 1902 was a looong time ago, turn of the century medicine and life expectancy weren't exactly tops.
But some of the cast of Ragtime tries to live on forever, either through reincarnation, talking to the dead or that old favorite: death-defying fame. But what Ragtime is really interested in is showing us a world where death is the ultimate equalizer, whether you're rich like J.P. Morgan or a poor sandhog dying beneath the East River digging a tunnel. Even in a world as divided by class as Gilded Age/Progressive Era America, death comes for us all.
Questions About Mortality
- Why do you think J.P. Morgan's health fails so soon after his last trip to Egypt?
- In your opinion, why does Harry Houdini first start trying to contact the dead?
- Do people seem to accept death more readily during the time of the novel than they do today?
- Why do you think Doctorow has Father die on board the Lusitania after it's torpedoed by the Germans?
Chew on This
In Ragtime, death is arbitrary and final, and the idea that there is reincarnation or an afterlife is simply a sign of man's foolishness.
Ragtime shows us that fame is the only way man is ever immortal.