The War and Immigration

E.l. Doctorow has many different ways of showing how America felt about the war going on at the time the novel takes place, and what the war was doing to our country. A good example of this is when father is spots a ahip dropping immigrants off. his first reaction wasnt agood one, and I think thats how it was for mast poeple in that time. many poeple in the book were not fond of forgeiners or their countries. Father was not very fond of seeing boat loads of women with scarfs over their heads, and men you could only see their eyes. The way that father describes the immigrants coming off the boats is very dark , and I believe racist. I also see this when Frued was visting America for his first time and all he had to say was negative things about it. Even when he was looking at some of the most beautiful sites, such as Niagra Falls, and the many great architecture works. I believe that he was showing extreme patrionism for his country, and would not accept that anyhting from any other country is better than his. This all leads me back to the point about the war. Everyone in America at the time was afarid of the unknown, and would not accept foreingers, which were very different than people they were used to. E.L. Doctorow really showed this though through father, who showed much racism and dislike toward immigrants. I believe that there was also tension between the older and the newer immigrant populations. This was sparked by the New York economy. With this type of economy older immigrants act poorly, and much differently than immigrants who have traveled to America in the past. Overall America was not a good place to be if you were a immigrant of any kind and expected to be accepted by people in a whole new place.

E.L. Doctorow

The book Ragtime really shows what E.L. Doctorows beliefs are as well as the era in which he has written it. In the book Doctorow does not come out and say what his political views are. He keeps them hidden in a way and tells about how America was in the past. he tells alot about early American history, rather than in the time he had wrote the novel at the tail end of the Veitnam war. Doctorow can be recognized as a racist to some, but at the same time he is in favor of immigrants, and African Americans. The book of Daniel is the book that really got him going with his career. It was published in 1971 and was nominated for the national book award. the book was inspired by the Atom Spy Trials during the anti communist movement in the early 1950's.

Daniel

When I hear about how Daniel is abusive toward some of the only people in his life that care about him, I think of it as a big psychological problem that dates back form when he was a child. Hearing about Phylis and his small son getting abused is almost disturbing. the reason I think its horrible is because he dosent try to make an excuse or any reason up for what he is doing to his family. I htink that Daniels childhood made him this way though. I went on the internet and searches for people have have abusive problems, and what it stems from. Almost all of the articles that I read had to do with either drinking problems, or psychological problems dating back from the abuse that they recieved in past years. I think Daniel cant control himself and takes up a lot of the built up anxiety and pain from his past out on his wife and child. I find it hard to put this all inot reality, and even harder to try too telate to the narrator like I normally would in any other book. For example I think its horrible how he forced Phyllis inot carrying out all sorts of sexual acts to him and even bunt her with a cigarette lighter. I think Daniel is a very sick indivdual, even thoguh I know its fiction, it just angers me reading how horrible he treats people that love him.

Crime and Punishment

A topic that was briefly talked about in the discussion board is about crime and punishment, and how it can vary greatly based on what class you are labeled in society. Even though this idea goes against all the capitalist laws, and what our countrys, goverment is formed around, it still occurs. Daniel thinks that if a lower class person commits a crime against someone in an upper class, the person who commited the crime, whether its his fault or not will be the one who suffers the much greater consequenses. Now for example if someone from an upper class in society murdered someone in a lower class it would be looked at as self defense, or something much more minor than if a lower class perosn murdered someone in a higher up class. Another way of looking at how Daniel thinks is if a perosn from a lower class committed a crime on another person froma lower class, then whats the big deal. Another thing that relates to this is how authority dosent put the legal pressure on the upper class neighborhoods and societies, because the people in auhtority feel that the rich people have a lot more to lose in life if they commit a crime so they must not commit any at all. If a lower class person commits a crime they dont have anyhting to lose and should be punished as much as possible. The topic of class based punishments also brings up the topic of racism. I believe that this happened to black people in the U.S as well. If two black people killed one another then it wouldent be looked at as much of a big deal. If a black man killed a white person they would suffer a lot different punishment. Overall crimes and punishment have gotten a lot better over the years but were not where they should have been in Daniels eyes.