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What does Hinckle Von Vampton represent?

Hinckle Von Vampton is by far the most cartoonish and satirical character in this novel, mocked by Reed’s postmodernist irony throughout the book. He is meant to mimic a historical figure named Carl Van Vechten, a white man who promoted and represented black culture during the Harlem Renaissance and also some black stereotypes, which I think is where a lot of satirical imagery comes from here. Von Vampton is depicted as a controlling man who is an indeterminable number of centuries old, having worked with the Wallflower Order for many years to take down forms of Jes Grew and keep Antonists in control (Reed 56). They discover that Jes Grew has emerged in America, particularly in New Orleans, and attempt to destroy it over the course of the book. They create a faulty master plan to begin a newspaper called the Benign Monster to disrupt and eventually overpower Jes Grew.  Most of all, I feel this plotline really plays up the cartoon character aspect of Von Vampton’s story; he might a...
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Themes of Imprisonment in Ragtime

In E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, he describes several characters as being trapped or imprisoned within society in various ways. He uses that harsh language with a couple of characters, deeply layered with irony. For example, Houdini’s main issue is his inability to achieve true freedom. While ironic because he is a famous escape artist known for being able to get out of anything, he struggles to impress an elite like Harry K. Thaw. In the scene where he escapes into Thaw’s prison, Thaw makes fun of him by undressing while he dresses, deeply disturbing Houdini. He mentions that people who don’t respect his art form always “broke through the pretense of his life and made him feel foolish (chapter 5).” It made it hard for him to recreate the wonder of the tricks he performed to these people, who saw him as kind of a party trick. He also struggled immensely with the death of his mother, becoming somewhat preoccupied with the afterlife, necromancy, and often performing intensely dangerous s...
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