Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman was a very interesting character to hear about in Ragtime. I really just wanted to know some interesting things about her that werent in the story, because she was an anarchist. Emma was born in Kaunas Lithuania, and lived from 1869- 1940. She was known all over for her speeches and writings. Her nickname was Red Emma. She grew up in a jewish family and had a father who tried to marry her off at the age of 15. She refused though and did not do it. At the age of seventeen she got shipped to the U.S with her half sister, soon to find out America is not all its shaped up to be if your jewish. Goldman was widely believed by the authorities to have been involved in the planning stages of the Frick assassination attempt, but Berkman and the other conspirators refused to give evidence against her, and she was not charged in the indictment. Emma went to prison in 1893 for telling unemployed workers to tell people to give them work, and if they said no then ask them for bread. Then she told them if they said no to giving thme bread, take it anyways. She later in her life during the year of 1916 found herself right back in prison because she was distributing birth control literature. then in 1917 she went back for a final time for trying to obstruct the draft of world war one. Emma Goldman was an intersting, and very powerful lady. She has been in trouble more times than one can count , but the more she got in trouble the more stuff she rebelled against. Emma was a very intersting character in the book, and thats why I chose to figure a few things out about her. I got all of my information from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman.

Rencarnation

After reading more about Harry houdini i found it interesting to think of Harry Houdini as more than just a guy who traveled around and did amazing magic tricks. I believe that he was on a more of a mission to find somehting that he couldent do. right when he found out that he couldent escape the grave I believe was the turning point where he tried to communicate and look into life after death. i htink he realized that he could not escape death. he then became obssesed with unmasking fake spiritualism. he went around and revieled things to the public that showed that some of the magicians that say they can communicate with the other side were only tricking them , and actually didnt know anyhting about it. another reason i believe that Houdini was obsses with the after life was because he tried to talk to his mother after she was dead. He wanted to someway to communicate with the other side like no one else has before. Another guy in the book who thought he was genius for the same topic was JP Morgan. he believed that he was aferroah over two thousand years ago in his past life. Himself and Ford believed that rencarnation was easy for them to understand, and thought that it was very real. overall rencarnation was very symbolic and a big topic in this book.

The setting and atmosphere in Ragtime

Much of the novel Ragtime has to do with immigration, and poverty. Doctorow sets up the novel in new Rochelle in year 1902. the immigrant family that is talked about in the book is Mameh, Tahteh and the little girl. they live in the farthest thing from a wealthy community. They live in the lower east side of new Rochelle in the worst poverty I have ever read about. They are sectioned off from the middle class people, and the upper class. the book is also right aorund when WWI was just about to start and people were in a sort of utter worriness. the novel ends right around 1917. Toward the end though you can see that father and his family have adapted to the new povershed place they live in, and the changing of the times that have hit them. Doctorow expresses the change of the times a lot through the characters reactions. father has a very hard time adjusting when he comes bacj from his trip. he hated being away from his family for so long. on the other side of the family, mother seemed to be very happy to see the times changing and was welcoming it with open arms. She loved all of her new libertys and freedoms that were given to her. Doctorow gives this book some suspense when father travels to the north pole, and conklin damages Coal House Walkers car. Overal Im really looking forward to reading more of E.L Doctorows novels this semester.