Fueling the Fire
As we have been making our way through Doctorow's Ragtime I noticed his peculiar pattern of naming characters. it seemed that every fictional character had no distinct name, and every historical character (present in real life) had a full name. Take Evelyn Nesbitt, a real person in comparison to Mother. However, with the introduction of Coalhouse Walker, it seemed this pattern had no purpose. As I pondered this thought I did some research. Nobody by the name of Coalhouse Walker existed in New Rochelle NY in 1902. Furthermore, there weren't any significant bombings of firehouses in that time period either. It boggled my mind that I couldn't seem to find a reason as to why Doctorow named this seemingly fictional character. Was it to represent the population of Black musicians at the time, in reference to his occupation? Was it to present a representative of the Black population that didn't act like the stereotype present in Father's head? There didn't seem to ...