![]() ![]() Her conversations with them are refreshing, and she continually visits them to have Tateh render silhouettes of her and allow her to feel alive again. Finding the daughter on the street by herself, this is one of the few moments when Evelyn is not tracked by reporters this allows her to be herself and open up to the girl and her father Tateh. ![]() His is the unrequited love that Evelyn has to deal with on a regular basis, which is why later honest friendships in the book are so enlightening to her.Įvelyn’s biggest interaction or correspondence with another character in the book is through her interest in Tateh and his daughter. He begins to follow her regularly and stoke the fires of his passion for her, representing the ardent fans who lust after her as a cultural sex symbol. This adoration becomes indicative of the sexualized and culturally important nature of Evelyn Nesbit, as she is a focal point for him (and presumably many others), particularly during her highly publicized presence in the trial of her husband. The obsession that Mother’s Younger Brother has with Evelyn follows him throughout the book when he is watching the beautiful fireworks shooting over New York City, “he turned his intense eyes on the black night and thought of Evelyn” (Chapter 4). There were immigrants" (Doctorow, Chapter 1). She happened once to meet Emma Goldman, the revolutionary. She had been a well-known artist's model at the age of fifteen. Nesbit’s presence and the shift in public opinion about her reflected this change: "Evelyn fainted. The fact that she is an immigrant also ties her inextricably with the anti-immigrant sentiment that was rising at the time America during the Industrial Revolution was experiencing a huge influx of people from European countries such as Poland and Ireland, and there was tremendous animosity towards these people. Mother’s Younger Brother, for instance, is convinced that she needs a man now more than ever in this trying time, and becomes infatuated with her. Her status as a cultural icon is a unifying force throughout the book, as everyone has an opinion on her relationship to Harry Thaw and the impact of the murder on her psyche. Evelyn Nesbit is no exception her dealings and interactions with many other characters in the novel encapsulates Ragtime’s central idea of unity and connection.Įvelyn Nesbit is based on the real-life figure who was made famous in the early 1900s as a sex symbol and model her presence in the novel follows along with many other famous figures in the book, as they interact with the regular characters and act as benevolent or intervening forces in the novel. This sentence sums up the spirit of the book – everyone is connected, and everyone corresponds with each other in very significant ways. One of the more fascinating and closely-connected characters in the novel is Evelyn Nesbit, who is told by Emma Goldman early in the novel, “But there are correspondences, you see, our lives correspond, our spirits touch each other like notes in harmony, and in the total human fate we are sisters” (60-61). ![]() Doctorow’s Ragtime, the American Melting Pot is represented by a variety of characters, all of whom experience and communicate with each other in numerous important ways. (Jason Mann), a successful black musician who angers the white people who resent his prosperity, brilliance and self-confidence Sarah (Dorothy Ferguson, Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird), who loves Coalhouse and has his baby but faces out-of-control bigotry when she is in the wrong place at the wrong time.In E.L. Then there's a Jewish immigrant, Tateh (Brian Beach, Valjean in Les Miserables, Curly in Oklahoma!), who brings his young daughter, Little Girl (Briana Rifino, Hollywood Blonde in Gypsy), to America in hopes of fame and fortune.Īnd there's Coalhouse Walker Jr. There's the white, upper-class, Protestant, generically named Family: Father (Brady Lay, Bernstein in The Little Shop of Horrors), who joins Admiral Peary's expedition to the North Pole and expects everything at home to stay exactly as he leaves it Mother (Sharyn Beach, Velma von Tussle in Hairspray), whose compassion emerges once she is on her own Little Boy (Michael Yarin), their impressionable son Mother's Younger Brother (Keith Surplus, Seymour in Little Shop), who longs for love and a purpose in life, and Grandfather (Ernie Rowland, Norman in On Golden Pond), Mother's aging, complaining WASP father, the personification of late 19th century thinking. It's the stories of three families and the famous people they encounter and their mixing and mingling with one another.
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