“Ragtime,” by E.L. Doctorow, is a novel that sought to analyze the beginning of the 20th-century era. During this time, a vast majority of changes were undergoing in the Western world. America went through rapid change as it became increasingly industrialized and populated. Many significant historical figures made great contributions to the changes of the American society, making America the leading industrialized nation in the world at the time. Surely, one of the most important discussions regarding “Ragtime” may be on the basis of mystification; and exactly what it entails when analyzing different novels. In “Ragtime,” this basis can be reiterated through E.L. Doctorow’s portrayal of J.P. Morgan by exploring Doctorow’s disinterest in fully illustrating this prominent character.
In John Breger’s “Ways of Seeing,” it is defined that, “Mystification is the process of explaining away what might otherwise be evident.” E.L. Doctorow was very fond of mystifying J.P. Morgan’s character through contrasting him to another significant character of the novel, Henry Ford. In the novel, we can see that Morgan’s stature was supposedly considered greater than that of Ford’s. For example, Doctorow indicated in his novel that, “Pierpont Morgan was that classic American hero, a man born to extreme wealth who… multiplie[d] the family fortune till it [was] out of sight.” Doctorow constantly brought up this point in the text. He used such metaphors as comparing Morgan to monarchs to show the height of the power Morgan held in American society. However, in reality, the novel didn’t accurately portray Morgan as having a higher stature than Ford because it did not give examples of what J.P. Morgan had done throughout his career to help him obtain such importance. “Ragtime” mainly explained the works of Henry Ford that assisted him in his rise to much recognition while omitting whatever works J.P. Morgan accomplished. By doing this, Doctorow mystified Morgan’s achievements by excluding them while magnifying those of Ford.
If E.L. Doctorow mystified J.P. Morgan by neglecting to include his accomplishment, it leads us to ponder on exactly what made Morgan such a favored man. Maury Klein in “The Change Makers” portrayed Morgan as being a ruthless businessman who did not care about the way he treated his opponents. Basically, Morgan multiplied his family fortune through buying off other companies. However, he was considered America’s financier and helped speed up industrial process by changing the finance and culture of America. So, although he helped develop a system for American banking, the means in which he used to accomplish his work was merciless.
Looking at J.P. Morgan’s life, we can see that although he had reached the apex of his career, his life outside of the office was basically lifeless. Different aspects of “Ragtime” illustrated Morgan’s detachment from the rest of society. Although he had reached unlimited success, he personally did not have anything meaningful to show to the world that did not consist of money. Thus he hid from his peers the internal solitude he felt. He tried demonstrating that he lived normally by emulating a typical nuclear family when, realistically, he was detached from his loved ones. Also, his nose could be noted as a metaphor of the lie he was living. As “Ragtime” stated, J.P. Morgan had a chronic disease of his nose. The fact that it was on his nose can be tied into the story of Pinocchio, a little boy who had a nose that grew whenever he lied. In relation to Morgan, the deeper he sunk in his life of misery, the worse the state of his nose became. All this leads to the comparison of mystification of higher classes between Doctorow’s “Ragtime” and Breger’s “Ways of Seeing”. In Berger’s novel, Frans Hals, a painter of the seventeenth century, implemented mystification in his work. Berger quotes an art historian saying, “…the penetrating characterizations almost seduce us into believing that we know the personality traits and even the habits of the men and women portrayed.” Hals portrayed the Regents and Regentesses in a negative manner yet hid this fact from being depicted in their eyes. At the same time, J.P. Morgan was hiding the fact that he felt lonely by putting on a feigned mask of comfort for the rest of the world.
Overall, it can be concluded that Doctorow may have decided to mystify J.P. Morgan’s character because of the negative message Morgan gave of American power. Carnegie stated in Klein’s “The Change Makers” that, ” ‘Mr. [J.P.] Morgan buys his partners,’…’I grow my own.’ ” This biting quote reinstates the brutal scheme Morgan used to become successful. However, E.L. Doctorow did not take these negative aspects of Morgan’s life into concern and did not include them in his novel. Although it would have been another negative pictorial of the higher social class of Americans of that time, it still would have been relevant to this historically fictional novel because these are important true facts of history that could have clarified the novel. Doctorow could have reduced the mystification of J.P. Morgan’s character by implementing the process of Morgan’s rise to high power like he did in relation to Henry Ford. Thus, more of the audience could have reconsidered the validity of “Ragtime” if it included more historical facts of different characters such as J.P. Morgan.
