In the beginning of the novel, Doctorow says of New Rochelle, "There were no Negroes. There were no immigrants" (Doctorow 3-4)
Edgar Lawrence Doctorow can certainly relate to this Born in 1931, Doctorow (aptly named after EL Poe) has lived through tumultuous changes and grew to see America converging from one of exclusive races and racism into one that styled itself the 'melting pot' where all races converged into an ideal America and, then, in turn, separated itself into distinctive races where Affirmative Action became the ruling policy of the day. No stranger to cultural changes (Baker, 11), Doctorow describes the impact of these changes in his book 'Ragtime' published in 1975
With a groan he turned to her and found her ready. Her hand pulling his face to hers did not feel his tears (Doctorow, 72-72)
This technique of Doctorow reducing externals to their commonality and showing that they are all the same is something that Doctorow used often in this book. There is a historicity here that is unreal with celebratory figures being 'undressed' to their emptiness and commonalty akin to all humans (Foley 175
Ragtime (an irreverent tale of change and racism including various famous people in absurd situations) became one of the 100 best novels in American literature. (Harter, & Thompson, 11-15
Symbolism is used where the novel shows the conflict of Father, aptly manufacturer of "accoutrements of patriotism" such as flags and fireworks, is unable to deal with the changes of America of the early 20 thcentury. His wife is more flexible to change than he -- she is the one who befriends the abandoned black child and his family and who ultimately marries the Jewish man (Tatteh), but Father suffers under the harangue of change and is unable to deal with it (Harpham, 36) The feature of change is brought to life by radicalized description of behavior
Idea 2. Juxtaposition of dramatic difference between past and future is a technique that is frequently used to convey the great changes that have occurred (Parks, 108) one such example is conveyed in the early pages of the novel where EL Doctorow cleverly conveys the sense of the changing population where he writes that: "Women were stouter then
Idea #4: Doctorow uses stylistic techniques to signify change of old with new. For instance, the names of the wealthy family remain unknown merely being mentioned as Mother, Mother's Younger Brother, and Father (Levine, 57)
This is the silhouette of change where one change easily flips into another. (Wright, 15) VI
It is estimated that more than 50,000 African-Americans from Mississippi alone headed north to Chicago between 1940 and 1944; in total, approximately 214,000 African-Americans migrated to Chicago during this time (5). Piero Scaruffi argues that blues music was "first and foremost, a state of mind" in which the "unbridled materialism of the blues was not self glorification but self-pity" (Scaruffi)
It was through the development of blues and ragtime that jazz emerged and was made accessible to the public. Blues, from which rock and roll grew out of, was an "indigenous creation of black slaves who adapted their African musical heritage to the American environment" (Szatmary 2)
Gradually this became a blended together form of all music of the blacks in the distinctive new form. These may be even be thought as the secular form of spiritual and gospel songs, or it may be said the other way, the spiritual and gospel songs are the religious form of blues (Berendt, 171)
This is the accompaniment of dance by various body-based rhythmic sounds like clapping hands, tapping of feet and slapping of various parts of the body. (Berlin, 44) The descent of this music was traced from the indigenous American Negro music styles like the plantation spirituals and work songs
This has resulted in a single text idea taking tens or even hundreds of versions. (Epstein, 22) Cecil Sharp explored the wide nature of the American folk son literature in the early parts of the twentieth century
An even weirder theory is that jazz resulted from a government experiment to protect us in case of an invasion by Canada - of course, practically nobody believes it. (Gridley, 44) But in reality, it was during the 1940s the forms of music of Ragtime, early Dixieland jazz and the blues were all formed
These were also sorrow songs and are thus directly related through the material to the later on form of blues. (Hogan, 14) Of course, there were also some quite joyous spirituals and these influenced the contents of the gospel songs
"I feel like a motherless child" is a reflection of insecurity as well as an embodiment of the emotions of down trodden people throughout the world. (James, 54) The purest forms of valuable musical lore in America of today are the spirituals and even secular Negro folk melodies, with their harmonic styles
These composers have made the arrangements that have allowed the music to be sung in concert halls and churches. (Jones, 34) The paper is an understanding into the origin of the Negro spirituals, its development and leading composers
There is a 16-bar blue called "Pallet on the Floor" by Jimmy and Mama Yancey, and a few blues are even stretched to 24 bars. Most of the recorded versions however fit into the 12-bar and AAB scheme (Talbot, Britton, McNeil, 2)