Mother's Younger Brother's Identity Transformation in Ragtime
In E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, Mother’s Younger Brother begins the novel as a lost and lonely character, unsure about where he fits in the world. He’s very disconnected from his family and uninterested, except when it comes to his passion for fireworks. His obsession with Evelyn Nesbit and his eventual heartbreak after she rejected him left him feeling emotionally astray. Mother’s Younger Brother even describes wanting to “pack his heart with gunpowder and blow it up"(Doctorow 114), a line that foreshadows his later transformation into someone willing to use violence to get a message across.
Younger Brother’s identity begins to shift when he meets the political activist Emma Goldman and, more importantly, when he witnesses the insane injustice faced by Coalhouse Walker Jr. Coalhouse’s struggle against racism and police brutality brews something in Younger Brother’s heart. For the first time, Younger Brother experiences a powerful sense of rage and purpose. He approaches Coalhouse and declares (most likely in the spur of the moment), “I can make bombs. I know how to blow things up" (Doctorow 243). He even goes as far as to completely change his physical appearance: shaving his head and mustache, doing blackface, and dressing in same uniform as the other Coalhouse followers. This transformation marks Younger Brother’s total commitment to the cause.
Arriving at this moment in the book, Mother’s Younger Brother has completely reinvented himself and found a purpose for himself. He became an active member of the Coalhouse group finding a sense of unity and meaning that he has never had before. The group calls themselves “Coalhouse”, as if they are collectively one. Younger Brother shed his old identity to finally be apart of something, and joined the collective fight. After Coalhouse’s death, Younger Brother is unable to move on and instead continues as an outlaw, fully committed to this drastic change. His transformation shows the journey of finding purpose in social injustice, even without experiencing it directly.
There is much to be said or argued about how all of the fights Mother's Younger Brother involves himself in are ones that do not effect him. First of course with Coalhouse and his car. He semi-acknowledges it when he knows that his rage of Coalhouse's car is only 1/100th of what he must have felt. He also gets himself into the Mexican revolution. Something in a different country and 100s of miles away from where he once lived. It almost seems as though the second he sees coalhouses car, he becomes a different character.
ReplyDeleteYou offer a more affirmative take on MYB and his sudden rise in radical consciousness than many readers in class have been willing to endorse, and I think it's important to note that this guy is NOT a total joke in this novel, and that despite all the pervasive irony, there IS in fact a sense in which he does meaningfully find a sense of purpose and mission in life through radical politics. On the one hand, as Tucker points out, he makes a practice of engaging in fights that are not "his own." But as a privileged white boy living with his sister and her successful husband, what WOULD "his cause" even be? What fight "should" he be engaged in? Are we at least PARTLY inclined to view favorably the white person who, upon realizing the true nature of racial injustice and the extent to which his own life has been shaped and enabled by privilege, chooses to sacrifice all of that privilege and throw in fully with the social-justice cause? Isn't it possible to see the "it's not his fight" idea as a GOOD thing, a mark of the total degree of sacrifice and commitment this cause requires? We might keep thinking this guy is a joke, but he comes off pretty strong when he's denouncing Father at the end, and whatever we might think of it, he DOES live out his commitment to the fullest--"blowing things up" in the name of justice and equality. He might seem at time like a quintessential poseur or wannabe--but he never does drop the "pose." So then does the pose become the reality? A postmodernist would say "yes."
ReplyDeleteHi Alyssa! I really enjoyed how Doctorow depicted this whole arc. I feel like he used irony throughout which sort of called to attention how odd MYB's character arc was. It was a bit tone-deaf (And arguably a white savior type of situation) though, in his mind, he was the epitome of an activist. Great post!!
ReplyDeleteHi Alyssa. I've found it interesting to read everyone's takes on Mother's Younger Brother, and I found yours quite interesting. Many argued that his journey was a point highlighting his involvement in situations that don't concern him, without giving him a sense that his fight was for the good. You stated that his transformation shows the journey of finding purpose in social injustice, even without experiencing it directly. I liked the unique spin you had on his situation and how you found a deeper reason within his actions.
ReplyDeleteHi Alyssa! I found MYB's transformation one of the most interesting in Ragtime, and I'm really glad you decided to focus on him for your blog post. This was a really interesting blog post and I really enjoyed reading your analysis of MYB's character.
ReplyDeleteHi Alyssa,
ReplyDeleteYou are bringing up great points about MYB's transformation, but I think that he is not actually shedding any identity to adopt a new one. At the end of the day, he is a white suburban man who does not have any personal attachment to a group, even if we can argue his involvement is, in the end, good. Great post!
This was really interesting to think about. I think there's two major ways to characterize MYB's growth. I think your take on him getting introduced to activism, and steadily becoming more engulfed is really compelling. On my first read through the book, I saw MYB as more of a poser because of how much he switched up, and because of how little significance the causes he fought for seemed to have on his life. It's interesting to wonder whether he was actually a devoted activist, or just easily impressionable.
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