Ambiguity in Tateh

So in Ragtime, there’s obviously a lot of weird moral ambiguities – Coalhouse’s murder crusade & our very favorite stalker, Younger Brother, stand as prime examples. But weirdly enough, the character whose development I had the most trouble swallowing was actually Tateh.

Tateh’s storyline seems to be one of the tamer, more traditionally inspiring parts of the book. He fits into the American “metafictions” of the immigrant who raises himself to high society, and that of the self-made man. He’s consistently devoted to his daughter throughout the book, putting himself in danger to protect her. His drive to succeed comes from a hope that she will have a better life – “He wanted to drive from her memory every tenement stretch and filthy immigrant street. He would buy her light and sun and clean wind of the ocean for the rest of her life” – which is also a quintessential story for a new immigrant family. When he joins the movie business, we are left assuming he will succeed and that his dreams for his daughter will come true. And finally, his marriage to Mother implies that this new “20^th century family” will have a better chance for happiness then the 19^th century models we begin the novel with.

But despite all that, I still found myself with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth at the end of the novel in regards to his storyline. First and foremost, there is the character of Mameh. Tateh’s wife who only appears in a single chapter – the same chapter where Tateh is described as a drifting, never-profitable peddler. For this chapter, she is supporting the family by herself. This uneducated, vulnerable woman allows herself to be sexually assaulted and raped because she doesn’t know another way to protect her family. And in return, Tateh – another man in her life with absolute power over her – throws her out to die. Mameh simply disappears – Tateh is said to mourn her like the dead, and honestly, he does just seem to be waiting for her die. That’s kind of horrifying.

There’s a similar moment in Tateh’s relationship with Evelyn – when Emma Goldman reveals her as the center of the Thaw/White scandal, Tateh is disgusted to be associating with another sexually impure woman. He says his life is desecrated by whores, and storms out. He hurts Evelyn, by taking away the only part of her life that mattered, and he hurts his daughter, again, ripping away another mother figure. Tateh’s traditionalist views about woman and purity are hurtful to Evelyn and utterly horrifying when in practice against Mameh, and it left me a little uncomfortable leaving Tateh as Mother’s husband. It’s a part of his character we never see him address or change (remember, he is still referring to Mameh as dead even in Atlantic City), and so his happily-ever-after marriage feels a little hollow.

A second part of Tateh’s character I had trouble swallowing is actually his joining the movie business. Even though it’s clear that he will profit and his daughter will have a better life, the message that this ending sends is weird. Is it an uplifting message, that anyone can build themselves the future they want? Is it a pro-American message, that even the poor immigrant can succeed in the land of opportunity because yay capitalism? Or is it a deeply uncomfortable message, where the socialist and the social reform advocator becomes disillusioned with labor strikes and the will of the people, choosing instead to “sell out” in Hollywood, turning his art into a capitalist enterprise? Tateh certainly has no interest left for the plight of the average worker – he’s sauntering around Atlantic City without a care in the world. This is a far cry from the Emma-Goldman-following socialist we see in the early chapters with Evelyn.

Whose side is Doctorow taking here? Are we supposed to like Tateh? Are we supposed to like how he treated Mameh? How he treated Evelyn? How he loses his will to fight for the common man and literally reinvents himself as part of the nobility? Are we supposed to believe in Tateh and Mother’s happily-ever-after, or are we meant to be left in uncertainty?