Identity in the first few chapters

Everyone wants to be successful and everyone grapples with the question of who they truly are but Ragtime seems to consider these two issue side by side, evaluating how they relate. Does success shape one's identity or must the identity be manipulated in order to gain success? Either way, what does it matter? Is it really an issue if only a certain type of person is able to succeed and at what point does it become ridiculous to sacrifice personal values for success? The issue of success and how it is obtained is a recurring issue in the beginning of Ragtime. Everyone is forced to claim an identity but how one chooses their identity and values and how that contributes to their success is brought up in characters such as Tateh, Houdini, and Morgan.

Let's start with Tateh. Tateh struggles with creating a living for he and his daughter because he insists on adhering to his personal values that make him opposed to capitalist inequalities and his pride prevents him from taking the charity offered by Evelyn. His first attempt at business (his business of doing portraits) doesn't produce much profit because his identity of the proud, socialist, foreign man doesn't coincide with the characteristics that create a good business man like Morgan or Ford. When he gives up on his original business plan and up grades to the less personal, more modern practice of mass production of his goods, he becomes more successful.

Next, Harry Houdini. Like Tateh, Houdini was a Jewish immigrant from a similar background to Tateh's, that is drawn to America to find work and wealth, but somehow Houdini found success. The first difference between their two paths in America was that Tateh pursued a career in the cutthroat field of business whereas Houdini pursued a career on the much more accepting atmosphere of performance on the stage. But how do their identities play into this? Well, to start Houdini abandoned his given name of Ehrich Weisz for the more aesthetically pleasing stage name "Harry Houdini". By changing his name, he basically rid himself of his foreign past to start a new identity in the USA. Houdini also recognized how one played the game to achieve success and subsequently realized that before he was well-known he would have to take less than desirable jobs. Through this suppression of pride and deference to those in post higher than himself, Houdini changed his identity to start his career. Once famous and sought after, he again regained his pride, re-instituted high standards for work, and recreated an identity for himself that would get him recognition in the public eye and keep him on top. His desire to become successful demanded a willingness to play the game society poses that Tateh did not posses. Ehrich Weisz's transformation into Harry Houdini made him famous even today.

J.P. Morgan however comes from a completely different world. He is from a white, well-established, wealthy family and is thus perfectly set up to succeed in the business world. In his case, identity in the media or image seems more important than his substantive beliefs. He wears expensive clothes, owns expensive books and art, and he controls a great number of companies. In the media his identity stops there but don't fret because through Doctorow's lovely book we, the readers, are given a behind the scenes pass to Morgan's life. In his secret room (which symbolizes his hidden, more personal identity), we learn that he is interested in Egyptology because he identifies with the pharaohs and gods. He, according to Doctorow, thinks he is an actual god and, if not for his bulbous nose, he would have no concept of mortality. So for the public he is defined by his material possessions and his ruthless business transactions but to himself he is defined by his seemingly infinite power making him god-like and diseased nose. He too, even with his immense success, has multiple identities.

These observations seem to suggest that Doctorow is commenting on what is takes to be successful in the business climate he is writing about. Doctorow shows that the best way to gain success is to start out with it but if that's not an option, to make it big you must be willing to play into the system and allow it to manipulate your identity until you fit the mold for success or, like Houdini, create a completely new identity for yourself. A rather cynical take on success really...