The Mid-Life Crisis
Something I felt myself witnessing numerous times throughout Ragtime was how many characters seemed to be lost amongst themselves, discontent with their current situation. The inward searching seems to drive much of the book's early plot, at least from the depiction of the story shown to us by Doctorow. It appears to me that, at least in my opinion, a central theme of this book is the mid-life crisis. The book seems to begin with many characters in a situation of rest. Life is in a happy state for many people, and few seem discontent with their present manner. There are minor foreshadowings, such as the early signs of marital disagreement between Mother and Father. The world has been apparently thrown into turmoil by the killing of Stanford White though, igniting the plotlines to change everyone's lives forever. Evelyn Nesbit is now convinced that she will become richer than ever imagined, as she "had agreed to testify on [Harry K. Thaw's] behalf f...