Ragtime

Name: Instructor: Course: Date of submission: Mother's "character arc," in the novel Ragtime by Edgar Lawrence Doctorow The ragtime is a novel written by one E.L. Doctorow and it is about some three families that lived during the early 19th century. The novel is very creatively developed as it uses a number of themes weaved together with several plotlines, although the novel was actually produced before America was founded, it gives the best reading experience of the time. The interactions of the three families are a clear example of the experiences that were there at the time when states were being natured, to what we know today. All the characters in the novel have unique personalities that make the novel more interesting especially on the level of interaction. Whereas most of the interactions are fictional, some parts are a reflection of the society during the first years of the 19th century. For each of the characters, their personality directly affects and shapes the other in the story and they form a mesh of interactions with one another, with emotions running high from time to time. One of the main characters is the mother and plays a central role in the development of the themes in the novel. The environment around her seems to be changing at every chance it gets and she is determined not to be left behind by the changes. Unlike her husband who is not very adaptive to the changes in the environment. As she reacts to the changes, she gives the reader full insights of her personal intelligence, emotions and psychological overhaul (Doctorow 65). Due to the fact her husband does not want to change with the times, their relationship tends to lose the taste that it once had. With time, she does not feel the love that she once felt for her husband and lover and all that is left is the love that exists between relatives or the kind that is between two friends who like each other. This transformation of the mother starts after the husband returns home, after spending some time in the arctic. When he comes back home, there is so much progress around him as witnessed in reality, at the beginning of the era. As such he feels as if he is in isolation and this makes him develop a resentful attitude towards all the changes he could see around him. To his wife the mother in the novel, this is unacceptable as she feels in tune with the entire progressive aura in the society. Genuine love fo...