Father As Mr. Status Quo In Ragtime

Ryan Breen

A Format

3/1/23

Father as “Mr. Status Quo” in Ragtime Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow is a novel that focuses on the lives of many different Americans during the early twentieth century. Each character in the novel represents a specific idea, trend, or even social movement that occurred or was present during that time. Ragtime centers on a family living in a town in New York called New Rochelle. Father, the father figure of the family, plays an important role in this novel, representing the traditions and norms of American society during this time as a “Mr. Status Quo.” Father's role in Ragtime as “Mr. Status Quo” can best be understood by analyzing and following his arc throughout the novel. Early in Ragtime, Father is established as

Status Quo,” continues to manifest itself in his apparent aging later in the novel. When Father first returns to New Rochelle after the expedition to the North Pole, the narrator describes that “He wandered through the house finding signs of his own exclusion… What was strangest of all was the mirror in his bath: it gave back the gaunt, bearded face of a derelict man, a man who lacked a home.” (109) Father returns home from the North Pole, and feels as if life has passed him by. Everything around him has changed: his family has begun to demonstrate their “exclusion” of him and he begins viewing himself as a “derelict man.” Changes such as a shift from the necessity of a father figure in the home disturb Father, the physical embodiment of the American traditions and norms, or “Mr. Status Quo,” as these changes represent a departure from tradition and what is considered normal. When Father later checks in on his business that Mother had been running for him, the narrator states, “Everything that she had done stood up under his examination. He was astounded.” (112) Revolutionary changes, such as shifts in gender roles, cause Father to become uncomfortable and “astounded.” This supports the idea that he is the embodiment of the American traditions and norms of this time, as he dislikes when these traditions and norms are not upheld in situations such as