As 1950s America engulfed itself in a widespread fear of Communism, government officials became extra vigilant in finding and punishing possible spies and traitors. Suspects were arrested for saying the wrong thing, being seen in the wrong place...

Daniel Issacson, the narrator of Doctorow's The Book of Daniel, is perhaps not as beloved and well-known as Holden Caulfield, the voice behind Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. It could be that we can empathize more easily with a misguided...

In the early 1900s, the time period in which the novel Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow takes place, expectations were that women should be submissive, obedient, and dependent upon their husbands. Women were considered weak, fragile, and in need of...

In the late 1960’s and 1970’s, the social construction of gender became a heated topic of debate amongst feminist theorists. The argument that the patriarchal values embedded in American culture (rather than purely biological factors), were...

From “the Other” towards “the Subject”

---A Study of Evelyn Nesbit in Ragtime

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. I will analyze Evelyn Nesbit’s personalities presented in Ragtime as a recreated character that is not lifted straight...

The core of the American Dream, for many, entails liberty, a value historically represented through New York’s famed amusement park Coney Island. Millions of spectators visited the park as a place of leisure to escape social prescriptions as well...

In E.L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime, Tateh and Father avidly pursue the American Dream while possessing contrasting beliefs about their individual visions for freedom, wealth/opportunity, and social mobility. While Father’s nostalgia, archaic ideas...

An issue that has continued to prevail throughout the centuries, and will continue to do so until justice is found, is the role of women in society. For centuries women have been suppressed by the power of men. However, over the past century women...