Ragtime & the Godfather

J.P. Morgan As The Godfather/God Like Figure In the novel Ragtime, E. L. Doctorow presents a type of “Godfather” character which posses many of the same attributes and characteristics of the Don Corleone character in Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather. This Godfather like character is the character J.P Morgan. One can always go a step further and say that Morgan is a representation not only of the Godfather, but that of …

…one believes that anyone of these three have, is not nearly as much as they actually do. Doctorow tries to run a parallel between the success and actions of J. P. Morgan and a god. Morgan is the symbol of capitalism at the turn of the century, and how excess can “go to ones head”. Personally, I see many similarities between J.P. Morgan in Ragtime, and Don Corleone in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather.