Back To Before From Ragtime Analysis

The third, and final song that will be analyzed is Back to Before from Ragtime. This show begins with the introduction of three families, all of different ethnicities, all living in New York City. The first family is an upper class protestant family. The members include Mother, Father, Younger Brother, Grandfather, and Edgar. The second family is an African-American family in Harlem, which includes a beautiful young woman named Sarah. The final family is a Jewish family living in the lower east side. This family includes an artist, and his young daughter. As the century dawns the worlds begin to intertwine because of celebrities and political figures. Mother and her family wish Father the best as he is off on an expedition and he asks Mother

Tateh, the artist, wonders why anyone would leave a country so amazing as america, but returns the hail back. Younger Brother, an awkward young man, is in search of something fulfilling in life, and his latest obsession is Evelyn Nesbitt. He takes his regular seat in the balcony of the vaudeville theatre where Evelyn performs her act, which risquély parodies her husband's murder trial. After the show ends, Younger Brother confesses his love to Evelyn. She kisses him, but only for the benefit of a press photographer, cheerfully rejecting him once he has served his purpose. Back at home Mother has found a black baby in the garden, and the police find that Sarah is the mother and bring her to the child. Mother immediately takes care for Sarah and the child, and knows that Father would never had approved of this decision if he were there. Mother and Edgar eagerly await the train which is bringing Tateh and his daughter to Boston. To set a good example for her son, who is staring rudely, she engages in polite conversation with them. Coalhouse is still on his quest to win back sarah, and is stunned to find that she and her child are both living with the

Sarah decides to forgive Coalhouse and they rejoin in their love. Later Sarah hears of a campaign rally and goes in search of help. She is mistaken for a would-be assassin and is beaten to death. Act II opens and Coalhouse is a shell of the man he once was. He is causing term-oil out of his grief and the Family is stuck in the middle of it all. Father blames Mother for all of their problems because she still has custody of Coalhouse and Sarah’s baby. Mother is becoming increasingly irritated by Father’s actions and Young Brother yells at him for his blindness. Father decides to move the Family to Atlantic City, where they run into Tateh who is now directing “moving pictures”. Edgar becomes friends with Tateh’s young daughter, which causes Mother and Tateh to become friends. Back in Harlem Young Brother seeks out Coalhouse, who eventually takes him in as one of his own men. Coalhouse sees a young couple, and is reminded of the first time he saw Sarah Coalhouse and his men threaten to blow up the library. Father tells mother that he is being sent to New York to help reason with Coalhouse. He assures her that everything will soon be the way it was