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Chapter 20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ragtime, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The American Dream
Replication and Transformation
Freedom, Human Dignity, and Justice
The Cult of Celebrity
Women’s Roles
Social Inequities
Summary
Analysis
J. P. Morgan is hardly the only American afflicted with Egyptomania. It’s such a fad that even Mother gets in on the action, repapering the dining room with an Egyptian-themed design. It feels, Father complains, as if they now must eat in a tomb. Little Boy loves the wallpaper. He begins studying hieroglyphics.
As the world slowly changes and evolves around him, Father yearns more and more for the stability and predictability of the past. He’s growing apart from his family by his refusal to grow with the times even the small amount required to participate in a fad.
Themes
One Sunday afternoon, Little Boy is outside when an impeccably dressed Black man (subsequently identified as Coalhouse Walker Jr.) drives up in a shiny new Ford Model T and asks if this is where Sarah lives. Little Boy says yes. The man parks the car, boldly knocks on the front door, and asks Mother if he can come in to see Sarah. She leaves him to wait on the porch while she asks Sarah about the man. Sarah refuses to come down. Much to Mother’s consternation, she discovers the man in her kitchen, staring at Sarah’s baby. She asks him to leave. He does.
Inviting a Black man into one’s upper-middle-class home is another, and Mother isn’t quite ready to cross that bridge. Coalhouse Walker has clearly achieved some version of the American Dream—his Model T marks him as moderately comfortable financially as well as an early adopter, as the cars have only recently been introduced. It’s also clear that, despite being a Black man in an era of widespread segregation and prejudice, Coalhouse has no doubts about his own dignity or right to participate in any circle of society.
Themes
But Coalhouse comes back the next week. He’s a Harlem pianist who plays with a well-respected club orchestra, he’s clearly the father of Sarah’s child, and he’s dogged and patient in his courtship attempt. Mother becomes so invested in it that one week, she invites Coalhouse to stay for tea. This disturbs Father, who considers Coalhouse’s lack of deferential attitude a discredit to his character and his race. The visit culminates in Mother asking Coalhouse to play something on the family’s piano. He treats them to two rags by Scott Joplin. The music is unlike anything any of them (except Mother’s Younger Brother) have ever heard. And everyone (except Father) is immediately moved by it.
Coalhouse’s obvious charm quickly works on Mother, and her insistence on helping him despite Father’s protests shows that she hasn’t relinquished the independence and authority she was forced to assume when Father left for the North Pole. Father’s views are, quite simply, racist, although it’s clear by the language he uses that he thinks of himself as neutral and helpful rather than critical and prejudicial.
Themes
By the time Father has grown annoyed enough at what he perceives to be Coalhouse’s impertinence to consider putting a stop to the visits, Sarah has finally relented, and Mother won’t refuse the musician’s visits. They’re awkward together at first, but Sarah soon accepts Coalhouse’s proposal.
No matter how he feels about it, Father has lost control of the situation in his house by the time he decides to put his foot down. Things will never go back to the way they were. From this point on, Mother and the others will demand his recognition of their independence and dignity.
Themes
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