Ragtime's Commentary on the Affluent
You are living on the streets inside of a cardboard box, your clothes are tattered, and you walk place to place in search of a meal. Then, one night, as you're aimlessly journeying through the city, you come across a building and you see wealthy people dressed like yourself. The concept of wealthy people dressing up as poor people and dancing to honor the low-class is interesting. The novel Ragtime does a good job in representing the fixation that rich people have for poor people and it can be seen through the poverty balls talked about in chapter six of Ragtime.
The idea of poverty balls is introduced in chapter six when a character named Freud was expressing his disapproval of American society. Poverty balls are events held at palaces where guests come dressed in rags and eat from tin plates and drink from tin mugs. Poverty balls are made to resemble to dirt farms. The interesting part about poverty balls is how they raise 'proceeds' for charity. On page 40, it says 'They dined and danced while hanging carcasses of bloody beef trailed around the walls on moving pulleys. Entrails spilled on the floor. The proceeds were for charity.'
Based on the novel and what we talked about in class, I think that the mentioning of poverty balls in Ragtime is a commentary on how upper and middle-class citizens view those that are impoverished. When quote previously mentioned talks about how the proceeds were for children, it reminded me of when people throw parties or banquets in the name of charity. Another thing that I noticed was when the book mentions that guest came wearing rags and distressed clothing. This is reminiscent of how people wear distressed clothing and ripped jeans. I think that the book does try to make a connection with how some parts of fashion have derived from poor people.
In closing, the novel Ragtime illustrates how the general population perceive and look at poor people. It is seen in the form of poverty balls which further demonstrate how the affluent give back to the poor and in some ways take inspiration from the less-fortunate. The messages from Ragtime are still applicable to in today's society despite that the book was published in 1975 and takes place in the early 1900s.
Great work! I also found the concept of poverty balls as kind of a mockery of poor people to be disturbing. I find your connection between these poverty balls and costume parties with the fashion industry wanting to have an almost worn, edgy and rough aesthetic to be interesting. Fashion does sometimes try to find aesthetics in things that shouldn't be.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of commentary holds up today, just as you mentioned, with the charity parties that people still hold (and get tax write-offs from). This passage also highlights how trends are often inspired by those lower on the social food chain. It reminds me of the many trends that were inspired by 1990s drag culture that became hugely popular (voguing is a big one), you could make the argument that this is a pattern throughout history.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good post! I also noticed this kind of theme in Evelyn Nesbit's relationship with the little girl: she kind of turns her into this commodity to be looked at like a zoo animal, rather than an actual person. It creates a huge divide between the rich and the poor, and as you said, is also shown in the poverty balls.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that this is an example of Doctorow's scathing wit. I think that a deep emphasis is placed on how much care and resources (money) were put into creating this scenery and how much waste occured followed by a quick "The proceeds were for charity." He uses this strategy to mock popular ideology very consistently throughout the novel and I appreciate it I think its well done.
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