Doctorow's Ambigious Approach to the Progressive Era in Ragtime

Edgar Lawrence Doctorow is commonly acknowledged as a leftist writer who locates his novels on the shadowy border between fact and fiction. Doctorow employs postmodernist techniques of narration to intermingle historical facts and imaginative fiction in ways that make them indistinguishable at times. On the outset it seems that his novels reflect a specifically leftist protestor who is extremely critical of the unjust system of governance of his country. Observing the novel as an instance of historigraphic metafiction, Doctorow's radical and subversive perspectives are considered in Ragtime; a novel set in the progressive era. The novel concentrates on the plights and struggles of America's minority stratum. Focusing on the fate of a Negro and a Jewish immigrant and their families, Doctorow studies the possibility of progress at a time when historians have generally termed as "general consensus." Although the tragic fate of Coalhouse Walker reflects the impossibility of change and Doctorow's harsh criticism of the unjustness of society, Tateh's incredible adjustment reflects an alternate perspective. It can thus be inferred that while Doctorow appears to be indicting his country's capitalist system, he is not necessarily expressing a completely subversive standpoint.