Ragtime blog post: MYB
Ragtime is a book that follows multiple different storylines. Throughout the book, we get a first-hand glance at how the characters change over time and evolve into their final forms. One specific thing that caught my eye is the transformation of the mother's younger brother throughout the novel. In the beginning, MYB (mother's younger brother) starts off as a timid young man who doesn't really have a purpose. He is mostly reserved and keeps to himself. His first step in his transformation is his discovery of Evelyn Nesbit. She is a model and female celebrity who is mostly famous for her beauty and her rich, crazy ex-husband.
As MYB learns more about her, he becomes more and more obsessed with her. He puts her picture on his wall and convinces himself that he is what she needs in her time of desperate need, when her husband is incarcerated for killing her ex-lover. His infatuation leads him to follow her around, which points to his need for meaning and purpose in his life. However, he is unable to find true fulfillment, since she pays him no mind during the day.
After he is somehow able to achieve his goal of being with her, he begins to find more purpose in life. But his life mostly revolves around Evelyn. And eventually, she ends up leaving him, leaving him in need of a new purpose. This does not return him to stability, but instead, his yearning for purpose leads him to form a new relationship with Coalhouse Walker Jr. and his campaign for justice. Coalhouse, being treated unfairly for reasons of race, awakens something in MYB. He begins dedicating all his time and effort to the pursuit of justice for a cause that doesn't even relate to him. His need for a sense of belonging and purpose leads him to join a band of terrorists and commit blackface as a form of disguise.
At the end of the novel, MYB has left his traditional life behind and has gone off to fight in the Mexican revolution. He is able to find a new purpose to fight against oppression. His identity becomes whatever it needs to be, almost as if his personality were clay and could be molded into anything he wanted to.
In short, MYB becomes a dedicated freedom fighter, always looking to help fight for a bigger cause. But, if it wasn't for his transformation throughout the novel, including all the events he went through, he wouldn't have reached this final form
Hi Aldo, I really enjoyed reading your blog on the transformation of Mother's Younger Brother. I think its interesting that there exists a trend in which he hyper-fixates on certain things - first Evelyn Nesbit, then Coalhouse's cause, then a freedom fighter in the Mexican Revolution. We see that his focus shifts from a woman to grander causes. To that end, I think Emma Goldman had a pivotal role in turning his attention in that direction. When she meets him, she tries to convince him to fight for what she thinks is the "right" of the world. And, in the subsequent portrayals, we see Mother's Younger Brother using a lot of tactics Goldman embraces , such as violence and arson. Ultimately, I think Goldman was a very important character in Mother's Younger Brother's transformation.
ReplyDeleteHey Aldo, this is a strong reflection on MYB. The way you connected his obsession with Evelyn Nesbit to his larger search for meaning was fascinating. This also sets the stage for the later involvement between Coalhouse. I also believe that the encounters with Goldman and Coalhouse led him to be the revolutionary that we find in later chapters as well.
ReplyDeleteI think his evolution throughout the story was really a cry for help that the family didn't notice. However, the storyline regarding Coalhouse had moments that made him seem like a compelling character, especially when he called out Father. I am almost glad that he died for a social cause rather than from his own manic obsession because it kind of tied up his story with a bow instead of leaving him to whatever a reader might assume he would become after the story ended.
ReplyDeleteLike so much else in this novel, remember that Emma Goldman plays a key role in this transference of MYB's obsession from Evelyn to Coalhouse--she "redirects" his obsessive attention away from Evelyn and toward radical politics when she educates him about the Mexican Revolution (which has an obvious long-lasting impact on him, as he follows his Coalhouse experience by driving to Mexico and making the same offer to Zapata ["I can blow things up"]). MYB seems to "discover" the Coalhouse cause on his own--it literally enters his home, and he is "totally engaged" from the start. But later, when Goldman gives her approval to Coalhouse's "appropriation" of the Morgan valuables, we can see that the Coalhouse cause is fully in line with her redirection of his restless energies toward politics.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff Aldo. After reading other posts about MYB, I thought that another one would bore me. However, the way you characterize MYB as someone in a constant search for purpose, opens the reader of the book for this blog to do their own due diligence on MYB and develop what they think the inner motivations of MYB are, and if there is really growth in his character or if its just the ideas getting more and more radical.
ReplyDeleteMYB's character arc seems something straight out of a Hero's Journey template. He starts in an upper-middle class lifestyle feeling lost, goes through a period of obsession over Evelyn analogous to an "underworld," receives guidance from Emma as a mentor figure, and goes on to find a purpose in life. There are a lot of connections that can be made through his life that connect to steps in the Hero's Journey.
ReplyDeleteHi Aldo. I love your positive characterization of MYB, his search for a grander purpose. He feels like one of the most misunderstood characters in the story, representing one of the most misrepresented groups of his time. I like that you take the time to see the brightness in MYB despite all of his complicated inner and outer conflicts. Emma Goldman is undoubtedbly one of the secret driving forces behind this book.
ReplyDeleteHi Aldo, nice try at a blog post. Seems like you wrote this in 20 minutes. You basically summarized in class conversations, and briefly encapsulating the journey of MYB to somewhat fill in a reader. This post lacks real analysis. Please re do this post, and try harder. I only want what's best for you, and hopefully you can mold this blog post like the clay you compare MYB to, and make it something that displays your true intellectual depth. All the best,
ReplyDeleteMuhammad