My First Impression of Ragtime

Here are two quotes that I really liked, that kind of stood out to me in the reading. I'll throw in a little explanation after each of them to let you know what I got out of them.

"A while later the Roosevelt passed an incoming transatlantic vessel packed to the railings with immigrants. Father watched the prow of the scaly broad-beamed vessel splash in the sea. Her decks were packed with people. Thousands of male heads in derbies. Thousands of female heads covered in shawls. It was a rag ship with a million dark eyes staring at him... Yet aboard her were only more customers, for the immigrant population set great store by the American flag."

I guess that while I was reading about "Father" and the rest of the family, I got this picture of wealth and of what it was like to be established, only to be directly contrasted with these immigrants coming into the picture. I read this part and felt like "Father" was looking down on these people, and in fact he was... Just seemed very ironic to me that he would be so condescending when America is defined by its immigrants, including his own ancestors who were immigrants, and also that he can expect the very same people to put a little money in his pocket because they're so excited about the opportunity of being in the United States that they're patriotic over it. I mean, not that they have much to be patriotic for... Tateh eventually takes his daughter and leaves NYC because he so's tired of "machines," which is all he can do to provide for his family. Not much opportunity in that. But, I guess the author has a reason for it. Just not entirely sure what that reason is yet. Thought it was interesting also how the Pinkertons are mentioned later during the strike... I may have read a little further than I should have, but I didn't realize it until it was too late. I don't know... Just interesting.

"He held up the flash pan and put his head under the hood, and a picture exploded. After he left, the family, not daring to move, remained in the position in which they had been photographed. They waited for life to change."

I guess that this particularly affected me because America is supposed to be the "Land of Opportunity," and some of those people probably never got to experience the opportunity that they expected. They expected it but just "waited for life to change," hoping it would, but who's to say it did for them? Who's to say that they didn't just remain in the lower working classes of America until the day they died? It's a sad thought, and it's still a problem today. It just seems like the book, even though describing past events, still corresponds with how things are today. Not sure what else to say about this... Just affected me pretty profoundly, and hopefully someone else felt the same way.

I'd really like to know why the author chose the title Ragtime rather than something else. Just seems an interesting title. I listened to the Scott Joplin mp3 on the wiki, and I've heard it before... It has its own style that I really can't describe very well... But, I wonder... Joplin was black, and the book follows an immigrant family as one of its main storylines, so maybe there's some kind of connection between that? Not sure what I'm getting at, but Joplin became a very popular musician in a timeperiod that did not favor people of color yet, which also includes those very immigrants I keep mentioning. The type of music that rag is seems a little too happy for the tone of this book, but maybe it's to incorporate some sense of irony... Again, not sure what I'm getting at but maybe there's something there.