In Ragtime, Coalhouse’s defiance to the volunteer fireman is seen as a good action that is worthy of praise. In general, the firemen can be viewed as “bad” in terms of their harassment of Coalhouse who hasn’t done anything wrong by driving on the road. Coalhouse is easy to sympathise with because of his fairly innocuous character as well as the obvious racism that he
has to deal with. However, there is another side to the issue. Coalhouse’s defiance can be seen as idealistic and naive in a way. Instead of resisting the the harassment of the firemen, Coalhouse could have simply put his head down, paid the fine and went on his way. In the text, we are told that this option didn’t cross Coalhouse’s mind, but would the situation be better if he did just succumb to the racism.
The answer to the question comes down to whether Coalhouse is okay with taking discrimination or if he wants to fight for his rights. The African-American experience in terms of discrimination is often filled with this dilemma. The beginning of Ellison’s Invisible Man contains a scene where a black narrator who is currently a high schooler is made to fight in a boxing ring with other high schoolers before he can give a speech and accept a reward for his abilities as a student before he goes on to college. In Invisible Man, the narrator pretty much just hangs his head and goes with the flow of racism at the current time. He does this to get the best chance at making a better life for himself, but even when he does follow the directives he thinks he is supposed to, he doesn’t really get the life he originally wants. In Native Son, Bigger doesn’t really attempt to fight against the racism he faces. One of the main themes of the book is that all of his actions were caused by the situation in which his family lives as well as the effect institutionalized racism has on people’s actions.
By giving Coalhouse the ability to retaliate against the racism he faces, Doctorow is moving away from earlier depictions of the African-American experience. Coalhouse does not need to retaliate against the firemen, but him doing so might represent a shift in the culture that Doctorow is trying to represent. Coalhouse can still be seen as naive for not just hanging his head, but by choosing the course of action to not pay the fine we can see the beginnings of people fighting against racism and not just going with the flow.
An aspect of Coalhouse’s retaliation that may also be attributed to his idealism is his course of action after deciding to retaliate. Coalhouse deciding that bombing the firehouse and killing multiple men to send a message may have been too much. He may have thought that making such a big deal out of his revenge would spark some interest in his cause, but it really just scared away a lot of other African-Americans.
Coalhouse’s decision to retaliate may have been naive on his part but also could show a shift in terms of sparking more retaliation against institutionalized racism. He also may have gone a little bit too far in enacting his revenge.
