Previous
Chapter 35
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
The New York governor quickly offers to send in the militia, but this alarms Morgan’s aides, who protest that the library houses priceless cultural treasures. A city engineer suggests tunneling in through the basement. Whitman asks the police officers for advice, and one suggests that he try to get Coalhouse talking. So, Whitman does. Soon, he and Coalhouse are on the phone. Coalhouse calmly reiterates his demands. Whitman offers instead to investigate the case and see which charges—if any—Coalhouse can bring against Conklin. Coalhouse gives the authorities 24 hours to meet his demands, or he will blow up the library.
Despite what seems like an evident disregard for their individual lives, Whiteman does need the expertise of the working-class police officers on the scene, whose ideas are notably more sensible than those offered by the more elite and well-connected men. In many ways, however, it doesn’t matter what plan Whitman pursues. But turning to violence and destruction, Coalhouse has effectively seized command of the narrative. There’s no way for Whitman or anyone else to dislodge, dissuade, or discourage him—as the authorities previously did with his legal attempts to seek justice.
Themes
Whitman doesn’t know what to do, so he has Emma Goldman arrested. She’s so used to being blamed and arrested for violent crimes, strikes, and riots that she looks forward to these brief stints in jail as a break. At the station, she gives a statement applauding pointing out the systemic oppressions of racism and classism and applauding Coalhouse’s anarchic creativity.
The arrest of Goldman signifies the police’s weakness rather than their strength because it clearly telegraphs that they don’t know what to do. In her statement, Goldman criticizes those who would see the fights for different types of justice—racial, economic, political—as separate. They’re all part of the same struggle, she says. And she gives direct voice to the idea that sometimes, when all other avenues have failed, this struggle must entail direct violence.
Themes
As fate has it, Booker T. Washington, the most famous Black man of the era, hears about and vociferously condemns Goldman’s comments during a speech he’s giving in the city. When Whitman learns about this, he invites Washington to come talk Coalhouse down. Washington agrees.
There’s a marked difference between the respect Whitman shows for Washington—a Black man who aligns himself with mainstream culture rather than violently opposing it—and Coalhouse. And because the book has thus far leaned in the direction of supporting direct—even violent—action when normal means fail, readers should expect that it won’t side with Washington.
Themes
