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 his shoe. Exactly six minutes after the car had rolled down the ramp an identical car appeared at the top of the ramp, stood for a moment pointed at the cold early morning sun, then rolled down and crashed into the rear of the first one. Henry Ford had once been an ordinary automobile manufacturer

There is then a rapid movement. He allots "sixty seconds on his pocket watch for a display of sentiment" and we see the calculated and unfeeling nature. We now know this will not be used to enrich common lives.

 Then he sent everyone back to work. He knew there were refinements to be made and he was right. By controlling the speed of the moving belts he could control the workers' rate of production. He did not want a worker to stoop over or to take more than one step from his work site. The worker must have every second necessary for his job but not a single unnecessary second. From these principles Ford established the final proposition of the theory of industrial manufacture--not only that the parts of the finished product be interchangeable, but that the men who build the products be themselves interchangeable parts. 

The crash of the second car is, of course, materially indicative of this new form of production, but also a transition in the movement of society in total. The promise of new technology and how it could further the lives of the many is immediately dashed as we see these ideas executed. The true nature is revealed by the movement of the car in a very intentional way.

Cars are a very common motif in Ragtime. In one of the earliest scenes, Houdini's arrival at Mother and Father's house happens right before Father embarks on his trip that not only alters both Father and Mothers characters significantly—she becomes more rebellious and he more subdued—but also sets a course of events that lead to a lot of change: she never would have been able to house Sarah and the baby if he had been there which in turn shapes the rest of the book. Evelyn finds Tateh and the Little Girl (and thus Emma Goldman) through the window of a car which forever alters her character and actions. And, of course, Coalhouse Walker Jr.'s car is not only personally important as property but something symbolic of his dignity and rights. When he was not allowed to pass without a large fine due to an imaginary toll, he did not take it sitting down, but when his car is desecrated, he begin on a quest for justice that eventually comes to revenge that will forever change his story. The very brief passage about Sarah's funerals contains six sentences about the hearse and three about the traffic on the bridge, and the whirlwind paragraph of the events that led to her death begins with discussion of the Vice President's car and closes with the police wagon.

In Ragtime, the appearance of a car almost always signifies or brings about a transitory period or a plot point of instrumental change. Metaphorically, a car is both a literal method of transportation and a relatively new technological marvel, a sign of a new era and something in vogue and huge demand (as well as the fact that the assembly line was designed for the express purpose of manufacturing cars). This book grapples a lot with cultural clashes and reactions to change, modernity being one of them and explicitly written with Piedmont and Father. The usage of a material object as a symbol is a pretty common literary device but is extremely pervasive in this book and something that I think is interesting to look for and unpack.