Change and Technology

In Doctorow's "Ragtime" the advance of technology plays a major role in the development of the characters, and of society as a whole. The two characters most affected by the advancing technology are Tateh and Mother's Younger Brother. Tateh goes from being a poor immigrant to being a rich successful movie producer. He is able to do this because of the newness of the technology, and the flexibility which any new technology brings to the market. On a side note I think that Doctorow was also trying to explore the effects that technology has on economics here. When a new technology emerges there is an immediate surge in market forces as people strive to figure out how this new technology will eventually fit into society as a whole. Some people's ideas on how the technology fail and their businesses crumble, while others' ideas succeed and allow them to make fortunes. Tateh is one of the latter. He sees what the new technology of filming can do and he exploits that to make movies people want to watch. If the technology to make movies had not existed he would probably have remained a poor immigrant worker for the rest of his life, or possibly he would have been able to succeed by making more flip books and establishing that as his profession. But that would in itself be a new technology. According to the book Tateh essentially invents the idea of flip books along with a projector that would be able to show small movies using a variant of the flip books. So either way without new advances in technology Tateh would have been stuck in the same situation as the other immigrant workers, but with it he was able to advance himself and essentially live the American dream. On the other hand Mother's Younger Brother was not as fortunate in the changes that technology made in him. In his case the technology that most affected him was the advance being made in explosives. Because of his knowledge of explosives and how to make them he eventually ended up dead in Mexico. Admittedly the major changes were caused by his emotional problems in his relationships, but without technology he would not have had the opportunities that he did. Without his specialized knowledge in the art of demolitions he would have been of little use to Coalhouse Walker Jr. and as such would probably not have become as involved to the extent that he was. And without the incentive to leave the city that being a fugitive provided he probably would not have left the city and joined the revolutionaries in Mexico.

Technology also had a major impact on society at this time. Henry Ford’s assembly lines revolutionized manufacturing, and turned what was once a status symbol of the rich into something that was affordable by the middle class. At the same time that the movie industry was providing Tateh the means to become successful, it was also giving the major media businesses the tools they needed to turn people into celebrities who would capture the public’s attention. While the media did this in order to cause people to spend money on their products the impact on society was more profound. It caused the public to treat what were essentially ordinary people, who had had the good fortune to be chosen by the media to be built into stars, in the same way that their ancestors had treated royalty and the nobility.

So there is no question that technology is a source of change. The question then is whether that change is bad or good. I think that in this novel Doctorow was presenting cases which would support both arguments. So if technology can cause both good and bad changes, what then is the factor that decides between the two? Is it the speed at which technology advances or the intent with which it used? I think both of those aspects play a role in how technology changes society. In “A Connecticut Yankee” technology is introduced at an accelerated pace, and as a result the people aren’t ready for it. This eventually leads to the destruction of the new technology and the society which had been built around it. On the other hand in “Ragtime” while the technology was still advancing it wasn’t as rapid as it was in “A Connecticut Yankee” so the changes weren’t as dramatic. Instead the focus of the change seems to be focused on the underlying character of the person who uses technology. Tateh believed in the American dream and that anyone who managed to find a niche could become successful. And so the technology was for him a good thing. While Mother’s Younger Brother believed in the revolutionary movement and so technology enabled him to be a revolutionary. So I think that technology is an enabler. The effect that technology has whether good or bad will be a reflection of the person who uses it. The actual magnitude of the fact however is based on the speed in which technology is introduced. The more quickly that technology advances, the more likely that the changes it causes will be major society shaping influences.