Ragtime novel7/1/2023 Their marriage is happy as long as they continue to have a good physical relationship. Doctorow writes, “On Sunday afternoon, after dinner, Father and Mother went upstairs and closed the bedroom door”(p 4). The first reference to this is at the very beginning of the novel. After their relationship has been analyzed, one can see that the relationship between Mother and Father is one that seems to be held together purely by sexual desire. While these scenes definitely imply sexual activity, they are definitely not as intense as the erotic scenes between other characters. The sexual activity that is most relevant to the story line occurs in the relationship between Father and Mother. The sexual activity between Father and Mother is used to define their relationship, sexual activity by Younger Brother is used as a replacement for violence, and the one scene between Houdini and Thaw is used to elucidate the difference between the classes. Some are more obvious and explicit than others, but they all have great purpose. There are three main groups within which the sexual activity takes place: Father and Mother, Younger Brother and Evelyn Nesbit, and Harry Houdini and Harry K. While an obvious reason for these is the titillating effects of them, there are deeper, more relevant reasons for them. Throughout the novel, there are instances of both violent and more refined sexual references.
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