How Does Doctorow Mesh Real & Fake?
While reading Ragtime , it was quite interesting to see how E. L. Doctorow approached depicting the characters in the novel. I initially planned to write solely about how Doctorow links both real and fictional characters, but I noticed a small commentary he wove into the book while writing the rest of the blog. Doctorow tended to take quite odd liberties with characters who were actually part of history. Houdini, for instance, is someone so iconic that he’s well known even today, but Doctorow arguably wrote the boldest fake details for him. Just 30 pages into the novel, he wrote about a prisoner undressing and shaking his naked body at him. He then followed it by saying that “Houdini was to tell no one of this strange confrontation” (Doctorow 30). Doctorow filling in gaps that don’t necessarily need to be filled, especially with such an outlandish story, helps reinforc...