Ragtime

Yesterday in class we discussed Tateh and how he not only acquired great wealth but how he altered his whole persona to embrace this new kind of identity and status that his monetary gains had brought him.  As we were talking I began to think about how his outlook seemed to drastically differ from Houdini’s perspective of things.  Both were immigrants who lived in immense poverty.  Both developed a talent and become extremely wealthy.  However, Tateh openly accepts his new status.  Houdini has a kind of internal conflict that Tateh doesn’t appear to exhibit.  For some reason Houdini feels a fool around the higher ranks of society.  It’s as though Houdini believes that money and wealth is not the key to social mobility as the capitalist system suggests.  It is almost as if he thinks of society in the sense that while you may change your socio-economic level, your class is determined at birth and is not so easily altered as the American dream implies.