Ragtime Study Questions & Topics for Discussion

Ragtime Key Questions

In Ragtime, Doctorow covers a broad canvas, blending historical and imagined characters and events into an challenging and entertaining novel.

1. Study the music of Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Eubie Blake, or another famous ragtime musician. Describe the characteristics of the music, and explain how it applies to the story or to the structure of the novel.

2. Explore the debate represented by the "isolationist" theories of W. E. B. Du Bois and the "assimilationist" theories of Booker T. Washington. Explain which of these men would be supported by famous black leaders in today's world, and why you think so.

3. Discuss the use of real-life characters in the novel. Why was each personality selected? How would the novel be altered if a fictional character had been substituted for a historical one?

4. Discuss why it is that although civil rights...
(read more)