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Tateh’s “Transformation”?

The Tateh we see by the end of Ragtime appears to be a very different man from how he was when Evelyn Nesbit visited him and his daughter in the Lower East Side. As readers, we are supposed to think that Tateh has overcome all his misfortunes, and that he is one of the few cases of a character having a “good ending” in Ragtime . In fact, it seems almost silly to question whether he has truly changed, for his personality seems to have taken a complete 180 and his appearance is completely unrecognizable. Consider page 254, where we are introduced to Tateh, now known as the “Baron Ashkenazy,” who is described as a “small, limber man who wore jodhpurs and a white silk shirt open at the neck” with “shining black hair”. Compared to when we first saw him as a “frail” and “white-haired” man, he has fundamentally altered himself, at least physically (48). However, these actions that he had taken to transform himself are by definition surface level, and essentially act as a coverup for what he t...
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In Defense of Ackley

When we are first introduced to Ackley, Holden frames him as a complete slob who he despises, faulting him for the most minor details. This comes during a time in the book where we have not met anyone who Holden directly claims to like, so we are expected to consider Ackley as just another inferior person Holden has to deal with, but instead Ackley is made out to seem even worse than the rest of the people Holden knows: he is constantly ridiculed for his lousy hygiene, described as having a “terrible personality,” and is generally described as annoying and intrusive. Holden, as a result of this all, claims to not be “too crazy about [Ackley],” and seems to be genuine in saying so (19). We end up not helping but to dislike Ackley too, as Holden is constantly making us laugh at or despise him, such as how Ackley was “ exactly the kind of guy that wouldn’t get out of your light when you asked him to,” which is ironic as we see Holden do the same exact thing with Stradlater just a few mome...
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Reed’s Lampoons

As discussed in class, chapter 26 of Mumbo Jumbo has Reed go on a tangent of sorts, spending about a page discussing the objects on Abdul’s desk. While its inclusion in the story may seem random and not bearing any significance to the story, I found that it provides the reader with the tools to make a simple connection: while the white colonists are the subject of the African’s lampoons, the Wallflower Order, and really anyone of the white race in Mumbo Jumbo , act as Reed’s lampoons. This connection makes even more sense when you consider the book itself as a work of art, satirizing in the same manner as the Africans. In fact, Reed himself points out how the African race “had quite a sense of humor,” which was lacking in modern African-American works (Reed 96). It makes sense that Reed wants to use his book as a way to bring back the original African style of art, using irony and satire to make profound points, so he does so in Mumbo Jumbo by targeting the Wallflower Order, and to an...
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