Car Symbolism in Ragtime
I found the passage describing the automation process a particularly interesting part of Ragtime . The chapter starts off by describing the entrepreneurial spirit of America and the genius of Ford's inventions, his genius that has stripped down the necessities of production to what he perceives men to be capable of. "He'd conceived the idea of breaking down the work operations in the assembly of an automobile to their simplest steps so that any fool could perform them. Instead of having one man learn the hundreds of tasks in the building of one motorcar, walking him hither and yon to pick out the parts from a general inventory, why not stand him in his place, have him do just one task over and over, and let the parts come past him on moving belts. Thus the worker's mental capacity would not be taxed" We enter on the scene of the test of his glory, and the first car has been produced. However, the first car is not his concern. He brushed the grass with the tip of ...