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Chapter 32
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
Mother finds the summer in Atlantic City delightful, especially at first. Soon enough, however, she notices small annoyances, like how Father’s wet bathing costume exposes the shape of his private parts. She resents his insistence on daily sex, too. The changes in Father after his arctic expedition—as well as her discovery, during that time, that his business affairs are boring rather than grand or mysterious—have lowered her estimation of him. She realizes that their lives now are as good as they will ever get. But it’s still nice to have escaped the pain and tragedy they left behind in New York. At least until the day she and father hear a Black band playing ragtime on the boardwalk and it all comes flooding back.
Mother thinks she’s changed scenes dramatically, but really, she’s has just replicated the old patterns in a slightly new setting—one that still exists in her bubble of privilege. If she wants more out of life, she’ll have to make bigger changes. And changing her life doesn’t change the broader injustices and limitations of her society. There has not been any justice for Sarah or Coalhouse. Notably, Mother’s dissatisfaction centers around Father and dawning awareness of the ways her society limits women and lionizes men just by virtue of their gender.
Themes
Eventually, Mother and Father begin to make friends among the other guests. Mother prefers the Europeans to the boring American guests, although not all the Europeans are equally pleasant. The French couple that collects butterflies are odd but charming; the German Army Captain named von Papen is an odd and off-putting man. Then, one day, Mother notices a small, flashily dressed man observing her through small metal frame. He sees her watching and apologizes in a thick European accent. Introducing himself as Baron Ashkenazy he explains that he’s a motion-picture producer. Mother is fascinated and soon invites the Baron and his daughter (Little Girl) to have dinner with the family. The Baron explains how he got started in the lucrative motion picture business while Mother stares at Little Boy and Little Girl, imagining them as a bride and groom.
It's appropriate to question why Mother prefers the foreigners to her own countrypeople, which suggest her growing fatigue or distrust of the American national character. However, most of the foreigners at this fancy hotel are white, northern Europeans and thus are quite similar to the groups in American society that hold the most political, social, and economic power. But she’s also attracted to Baron Ashkenazy, a man who presents himself as Eastern European nobility even though his name clearly points to his Jewish identity. “Ashkenazi” is the distinction used to indicated Jewish communities in northern European countries (as opposed to Spain, Portugal, North Africa, and the Middle East).
Themes
