Respectability

Coalhouse Walker and Harry K. Thaw have a lot of things in common. Both characters had their spouses “taken” from them, albeit in different manners; Sarah being killed, and Nesbit’s infidelity. They both sought their own personal justice through violence, but they were both treated differently through the law. Thaw shot Stanford White out of rage. He was upset and took action into his own hands. Coalhouse, when his car was destroyed, first sought legal recourse but there was no one willing to take on his case. They just told him to deal with it. Thaw acted irrationally immediately, Coalhouse only used violence after being told he would not get justice through the judicial system, and after Sarah died. After Thaw shot Stanford White, he was found guilty of temporary insanity. He was put in a comfortable and luxurious jail cell with plenty of amenities not given to regular prisoners. Coalhouse was described by father as “a peaceful man driven mad by circumstances not of his own doing.” Walker was seen as insane despite unsuccessfully going through legal recourse first and being far more respectable than Thaw. Father even described Coalhouse as “A peaceful man driven mad by circumstances not of his own doing.” While Thaw was deemed “temporarily insane” because of his money and race. These two characters represent the differences in perceived respectability based on race. Coalhouse is seen as respectable by the public because he is black, despite his actions, overall, were more respectable than Thaw’s.

Tateh’s Transition

Of all the characters in Ragtime, Tateh changes the most. He started as a poor immigrant barely getting by selling his paintings, and ended up becoming a successful movie producer. Tateh’s journey is representative of the American dream, but Doctorow’s representation of this is not entirely positive.
Tateh works a machine in a large factory, doing the same skill-less labor for days along with other workers who are doing similar mundane jobs. Before this, Tateh was an optimistic artist, who thought he could make a living with his art. His dreams were crushed when he realized he needed a more steady income to support his daughter.
During the strike, Tateh made his own artistic pro-worker posters, but he was told that they didn't “stir the anger.” So he switched to word art. During all of this, after work, Tateh is making art for his daughter. This is the art that he enjoys making, the silhouettes, and the flip-books. He made these to make his daughter happy, because he could not make what was happening in the art happen in real life. “What if the truth was that he could do nothing more for her than make pictures? What if they just went on this way in varying degrees of unrealized  hope?”
But, in a somewhat ironic twist, theses flip-books are what eventually lead him to his fortune. He abandons the strikers and focuses on his animation which eventually makes him very rich. He creates a fake baronship for himself to hide that he used to be a poor Jewish immigrant. He completely abandons his past life, and all the people and causes he believed in. Doctorow’s representation of the American Dream seems to be both positive and negative. Tateh did become rich and successful, but through luck and betrayal of his identity. There were many more immigrants in the book who stayed poor and true to their identity. Doctorow seems to be saying that in order to achieve the American dream, one must not only be lucky, but also betray their identity as an immigrant. There’s a contradiction between individual identity. In terms of the American dream, Identity is based on which groups you choose to associate yourself with. Tateh switched from associating with immigrants, to the rich. Even when he was working with the strikers, he changed his art to more align himself with that group.