Dreams of the Future
America is, and always has been, a complicated mosaic of people with different cultures, values, and backgrounds. There are so many categories and subcategories of people that Americans can’t possibly be defined within one national culture, as in most countries do. However, America is not just a blend of people who meaninglessly land in the US. The mass of people who risked everything to come to America all came because of one hope; the hope of a better life for themselves and their children. E.L. Doctorow, the author of the historical novel Ragtime, knows this better than most. In Ragtime, Doctorow introduces three children; Young Coalhouse, the son of Coalhouse Walker, a black revolutionary, and Sarah, a washerwoman who’s later adopted by Mother and Father, the …show more content…
The three children are so fully, innocently immersed in their social groups’ ideals and viewpoints that they are more representations of them than anything else, but all of their caretakers consistently try to find a good life for them, and so they live with a common hope. By being immersed in different views of America and the American Dream, the children in Ragtime become the hopeful voices of the next generation of America as seen by their given social groups.
Young Coalhouse’s birth and growth is practically impossible due to the racial tensions in America and his background, but he thrives, radically bringing the beginning of hope for a racially accepting America. When
America is, and always has been, a complicated mosaic of people with different cultures, values, and backgrounds. There are so many categories and subcategories of people that Americans can’t possibly be defined within one national culture, as in most countries do. However, America is not just a blend of people who meaninglessly land in the US. The mass of people who risked everything to come to America all came because of one hope; the hope of a better life for themselves and their children. E.L. Doctorow, the author of the historical novel Ragtime, knows this better than most. In Ragtime, Doctorow introduces three children; Young Coalhouse, the son of Coalhouse Walker, a black revolutionary, and Sarah, a washerwoman who’s later adopted by Mother and Father, the …show more content…
The three children are so fully, innocently immersed in their social groups’ ideals and viewpoints that they are more representations of them than anything else, but all of their caretakers consistently try to find a good life for them, and so they live with a common hope. By being immersed in different views of America and the American Dream, the children in Ragtime become the hopeful voices of the next generation of America as seen by their given social groups.
Young Coalhouse’s birth and growth is practically impossible due to the racial tensions in America and his background, but he thrives, radically bringing the beginning of hope for a racially accepting America. When