Imprisonment
In Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, we see a theme of imprisonment in many of the main characters. Both directly and indirectly, most characters in the novel feel as if they are caught somewhere. Through their experiences before the beginning of Ragtime and even through some of the actions in the book, they find themselves in difficult situations which end up being very hard to get out of. Tateh exhibits a sense of being imprisoned. He is stuck in a cycle of poverty, which he attempts to escape by selling his paper silhouettes. Because of his immigrant status and devotion to protecting his daughter, he can't escape this cycle of poverty, rendering him imprisoned. Even when Tateh and his daughter leave the slums in New York and move to Massachusetts, they are still stuck in poverty. Working at the factory, "Tateh stood in front of a loom for fifty-six hours a week. His pay was just under six dollars" (Doctorow 120). Though he makes a radical move, completely leaving li...