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Chapter 26
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ragtime, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The American Dream
Replication and Transformation
Freedom, Human Dignity, and Justice
The Cult of Celebrity
Women’s Roles
Social Inequities
Summary
Analysis
The spring during which Sarah dies is magnificently beautiful. The blossoming of the flowers is so exquisite that it inspires Grandfather to dance a jig, which causes him to fall and crack his pelvis—an injury from which he will never fully recover. Upstate, Harry K. Thaw escapes from Matteawan. He makes it to safety in Canada, but the authorities catch him when he tries to cross back over the border. He refuses to name his accomplices, calling himself a new Houdini.
The contrast between the beautiful spring and the horrific treatment Coalhouse and Sarah have endured adds poignance to their suffering. But spring also suggests upheaval and change, the potential to reimagine and recreate the world in a new and better way. Similarly, Houdini’s inspiring escapes suggest the promise that anyone can escape their bonds—even Harry Thaw. And maybe even Coalhouse Walker.
Themes
One particularly motivated newspaper reporter decides to ask Houdini’s opinion about this, but Houdini is in no state to speak. His mother fell ill and died while he was in Europe, and he’s consumed with grief. He cancels his bookings and spends his days visiting her grave, plays her favorite records over and over, rereads every letter she ever wrote to him. He misses her so desperately that he begins to consult occultists and mediums, hoping against hope to find one who can do what they claim rather than engaging in the cheap parlor tricks Houdini can so easily recognize. Eventually, this quest reignites his interest in life, and he returns to the stage.
Houdini is in no position to set an example of freedom now. He himself has become trapped by grief for his lost mother. His grief turns into a kind of obsessive mania. But in that mania, he eventually finds salvation. His example comments on Younger Brother’s ongoing transformation, which is equally obsessive in nature, but which has brought Younger Brother a renewed (or perhaps completely novel) sense of greater purpose.
Themes
Houdini’s work in his period is fantastic—the best performances of his life. He defies death in ever bolder ways because the loss of his mother has destroyed his fear of death. Sometimes he goes too far and terrifies the audience. One night, while performing in New Rochelle, a spectator confronts him about this. He doesn’t quite know what to say and while he thinks about a response, the sound of a terrific explosion rocks the theater.
But not all transformations are simple, clean, or salutary. This newest version of Houdini is fearless but also terrifying in his dedication. Nothing—not even his own life itself—matters as much to him as his performances. There is power in this kind of single-minded devotion. But there’s danger there, too. Younger Brother and Coalhouse are throwing themselves into a quest for justice that might cost them their lives or their humanity, just as Houdini finds himself gambling his life.
Themes
