Historical Figures in Ragtime
One of the biggest discussion points we've had in class so far (which isn't a surprise, because the name of the class is History as Fiction) has been the role that historical figures play in the novel. Authors have been fictionalizing (if that's even a word) actual historical people since the beginning of time, but there is a key difference in the way that E. L. Doctorow does it. Not only does he incorporate actual people, but he often completely changes their personalities. He makes up events. He even sometimes completely disregards logic in order to bring two characters together who would not have been in the same social circles whatsoever. For example, as we discussed in class, the whole scene with Harry Houdini and Harry K. Thaw in the prison made absolutely no sense because Houdini wasn't even doing his escape in that prison in the first place, but Doctorow decided to ignore historical facts and change the course of the lives of two people who really did exist. I...