Ragtime Character Analysis

Coalhouse Walker Jr.

Coalhouse Walker Jr. is the Black pianist who is the father of Sarah’s baby. He grew up in St. Louis and put his earnings as a manual laborer at the city’s docks into… read analysis of Coalhouse Walker Jr.

Father

Father is the patriarch of a well-to-do family in New York around the turn of the century. Father initially has a privileged upbringing, but his family loses its fortune when he is a young man… read analysis of Father

Mother’s Younger Brother

Mother’s Younger Brother grew up in Ohio with his older sister (Mother), and his father, Grandfather. A shy, sensitive, and driftless youth, he hasn’t accomplished much or found his path in life… read analysis of Mother’s Younger Brother

Tateh (Baron Ashkenazy)

Tateh is a European Jewish immigrant to the United States who arrives with his wife Mameh and his daughter Little Girl. His story is emblematic of the immigrant experience at the turn of the… read analysis of Tateh (Baron Ashkenazy)

Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini is a historical character whose life intersects very briefly with Mother’s, Father’s, and Little Boy’s when his chauffeur-driven car crashes into a utility pole near their house. He also encounters… read analysis of Harry Houdini

Harry K. Thaw

Harry K. Thaw is a historical playboy and criminal whose shocking crime—the public and cold-blooded murder of famed architect Stanford White—is the historical backdrop for the early chapters of the book. Born into a… read analysis of Harry K. Thaw

Evelyn Nesbit

Evelyn Nesbit is a historical character whose life intersects with Mother’s Younger Brother, Tateh, Little Girl, and fellow historical figure Emma Goldman (although there is no evidence to suggest that she and… read analysis of Evelyn Nesbit

Mother

Mother is the matriarch of a well-to-do family around the turn of the 20th century. Born and raised in Ohio, where Grandfather taught at a seminary, she and Mother’s Younger Brother had an idyllic childhood… read analysis of Mother

Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman is a historical character who interacts with Tateh, Evelyn Nesbit, and Mother’s Younger Brother. Goldman was an immigrant to the United States, a trained nurse, and a dedicated reformer with… read analysis of Emma Goldman

Little Boy

Little Boy is the only child of Mother and Father. He’s still quite young when Father goes on his arctic expedition, and he spends most of his time at home, playing by himself or… read analysis of Little Boy

Sarah

Sarah is the girlfriend of Coalhouse Walker Jr. The couple has a baby together. A poor Black girl whose personal history never comes to light, she attempts to abandon her baby after he is… read analysis of Sarah

John Pierpont Morgan

J. P. Morgan is historical figure, an American financier and investor whose personal library becomes the site of Coalhouse Walker Jr.’s final stand. Morgan is one of the wealthiest and most powerful men not… read analysis of John Pierpont Morgan

Little Girl

Little Girl is the daughter and only child of Mameh and Tateh. She immigrates with her family to America, where she helps to support the family by sewing pants as piecework. Little Girl is… read analysis of Little Girl

Henry Ford

Henry Ford is a historical character, who appears in the book as a compatriot of J. P. Morgan. An American industrialist and entrepreneur, Ford’s pioneering development of the assembly line helped to make automobiles… read analysis of Henry Ford

Willie Conklin

Willie Conklin is the chief of the Emerald Isle volunteer fire company in New Rochelle, New York. An Irish American man, Conklin takes offense when Coalhouse Walker Jr. begins frequenting the neighborhood on his visits… read analysis of Willie Conklin

Charles S. Whitman

Charles S. Whitman is a historical figure who’s called to the scene after Coalhouse Walker Jr. seizes control of J. P. Morgan’s library. As the New York County District Attorney, he’s the most senior… read analysis of Charles S. Whitman

Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington is a historical figure who appears briefly when Coalhouse Walker Jr. occupies J. P. Morgan’s private library. Washington is Black American who was born and enslaved in the southern United States… read analysis of Booker T. Washington

Grandfather

Grandfather is Mother and Mother’s Younger Brother’s father. Trained in Greek and Latin, he spends his career teaching the classics at an Episcopal seminary in Ohio before moving to New York after Mother’s marriage… read analysis of Grandfather

Stanford White

Stanford White is a historical character whose salacious murder occupies the public attention at the beginning of the book. He was a famed and wealthy New York architect who designed many private residences and important… read analysis of Stanford White

Charles Victor Faust

Charles Victor Faust is a historical New York Giants player who crosses paths with Father and Little Boy when they attend a baseball game. Father finds Faust—whom he describes as disproportionately built and lacking intelligence—disgusting… read analysis of Charles Victor Faust

Ben Reitman

Ben Reitman is a historical character who crosses paths with Younger Brother in the offices of Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth publication. Reitman is an anarchist and one of Emma Goldman’s lovers. He underwent a… read analysis of Ben Reitman

Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis is a historical character who crosses paths with Mameh, Tateh, and Little Girl. He also arranges an interview with Stanford White prior to White’s murder. Riis, an American immigrant from… read analysis of Jacob Riis

Robert Peary

Robert Peary is a historical character and arctic explorer famous for discovering the location of the geographic north pole in April of 1909. Father and Matthew Henson accompany him on this expedition, which Peary accomplishes… read analysis of Robert Peary

Matthew Henson

Matthew Henson is a historical character, a Black American and an arctic explorer who crosses paths with Father when they both accompany Robert Peary on his third expedition to locate the geographic north pole. Peary… read analysis of Matthew Henson

Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish

Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish (full name: Marion Graves Anthon Fish) is a historical figure. An American socialite and a member of the New York City elite around the turn of the 20th century, she is known… read analysis of Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish

Mameh

Mameh is an American immigrant from Eastern Europe, the wife of Tateh, and the mother of Little Girl. In America, she makes money doing piecework. Eventually, begins to accept money from her employer… read analysis of Mameh

Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser is a historical figure who appears briefly in the book, although he doesn’t interact with any of the other characters. He was an American journalist and writer who lived and worked around the… read analysis of Theodore Dreiser

Franz von Papen

Franz von Papen is a historical figure and German military officer who happens to be vacationing in Atlantic City at the same time as Mother, Father, Little Boy, and the baby… read analysis of Franz von Papen

Minor Characters

Lavinia Warren Thumb

Lavinia Warren Thumb is a historical character. In the novel, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish invites Thumb to perform at a party alongside Harry Houdini. Born with dwarfism, Lavinia Warren Thumb had a successful career as a circus performer with P. T. Barnum in the 19th century.

Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman is a historical character. Emma Goldman tells Evelyn Nesbit about her romantic and political history with Berkman—who was imprisoned for 14 years following an attempt to assassinate Henry Clay Frick—in an effort to create sympathy between herself and the younger woman.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Archduke Franz Ferdinand is a historical character who crosses paths with Harry Houdini during one of Houdini’s European tours. The Archduke is heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne whose assassination instigates World War I.

Henry Clay Frick

Henry Clay Frick is a historical figure who appears in stories Emma Goldman tells Evelyn Nesbit about Alexander Berkman. When Frick violently intervened against a steelworkers’ strike in the early 1890s, Berkman attempted to assassinate him.

Emiliano Zapata

Emiliano Zapata is a historical figure and Mexican revolutionary respected by Emma Goldman. Younger Brother travels to Mexico and joins Zapata’s insurgent army following Coalhouse Walker Jr.’s death. Zapata was assassinated at the behest of the Mexican government in 1909.

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud is a historical figure who crosses paths with Mameh, Tateh, and Little Girl in New York while he’s in American on a lecture tour. Freud is an Austrian physician whose psychological theories had a strong influence on psychology in the 20th century.

Baby (Coalhouse Walker III)

Coalhouse Walker III is the baby of Coalhouse Walker Jr. and Sarah. Mother finds the baby in her garden after Sarah, due to unspecified personal hardships, attempts to abandon him after giving birth in New Rochelle. Following her discovery, Mother shelters Sarah and the baby in her home.

Ragtime

E. L. Doctorow

Ragtime Characters