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Chapter 36
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
At this moment in history, Booker T. Washington—educator, public speaker, and founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama—is the most famous Black person in America. When he arrives on the scene, he calmly and boldly approaches the library. The revolutionaries let him in. The band has wired the entire opulent building and all its treasures with dynamite. Younger Brother sits hunched over the detonator. When he turns, Washington realizes that he is a white man in blackface. This, for him, is the final straw.
Washington’s inspirational story suggests that there is room in American society for Black people to flourish. This in turn offers a pointed reminder that nothing about Coalhouse’s violent career has been predetermined. If, at any point, society had lived up to its values of justice, freedom and human dignity, this entire mess could have been avoided.
Themes
Booker T. Washington finds Coalhouse in the East Room, dressed in a sharp suit and with a pistol in his belt. Washington launches into a criticism of Coalhouse’s actions for setting back the cause of Black equality—a cause Washington has dedicated his life to—by years. It’s even worse that Coalhouse is an educated man and an artist, someone who should have advanced the cause of his race with virtue rather than violence. Coalhouse quietly answers that he, too, considers himself a “servant of [his] color” who only wants his humanity recognized, even if he’s going about it in a different way than Washington.
Washington and Coalhouse represent two differing ideas for how to achieve freedom and equality for Black Americans. Notably, the book neither fully endorses nor condemns either. The limitations of Washington’s approach are obvious: no matter how excellent he and other Black people make themselves, racism and prejudice persist. And while the book allows that circumstances forced Coalhouse to turn to violence after he’d exhausted other means, terrorism and murder are obviously problematic means by which to assert one’s own humanity. Both approaches, the book suggests, are appropriate in different times and circumstances.
Themes
This suggestion bothers Washington, who insists that Coalhouse should disarm the bombs and turn himself in. Tearfully, Coalhouse says he will—if Chief Conklin repairs and returns his Model T. Washington, failing to realize that this represents the first concession Coalhouse has offered since the violence began, takes exception to what he takes as the man’s stubbornness. He storms out of the library.
Although Washington doesn’t see it, his interview with Coalhouse did in fact have an impact. His offense links him, too, to the book’s consideration of the cult of celebrity. Washington obviously thinks well of himself and his opinions but must contend with the harsh truth that this doesn’t always translate into achieving what he wants to achieve.
Themes
