In EL Doctorow's novel Ragtime, Tateh and Dad avidly pursue the American Dream despite possessing conflicting beliefs about their individual visions of freedom, wealth/opportunity, and social mobility. While his father's nostalgia, archaic ideas for family structure, and lavish international explorations dictate his quest for mental fulfillment, Tateh remains true to his socialist values ​​by seeking to uplift the working class, criticizing employers for their low wages. and cruel working conditions. and reorganize the capitalist system which, according to him, constitutes a barrier between him and the realization of the American dream. Although already a wealthy, honorable, and respected member of New York society, the father strives in his intellectual pursuits to discover meaning and purpose in his life, which only results in further restrictive behavior and antipathy toward social freedoms . In contrast, Tateh, fueled by the anarchist movement led by Emma Goldman, anxiously advances into the tumultuous 20th century, hungry for equality, monetary fortune, and change. As Upton Sinclair once wrote: “You need not be content with America as you find it. You can change it. Although both individuals, Padre and Tateh, are constantly, in different ways, searching for true happiness in the United States, they doubly share a sensational vision of a country that is possible through the American dream. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay My father's innermost desires for the ultimate realization of the American dream are expressed in a disgusting, cynical, and bitter way. His mortal being disliked Coalhouse Walker “not on the basis of the man's color but of his being engaged in an act of courtship” (Doctorow 182); he discovered that “[m]others' bodies did not arouse his lust, only his silent appreciation. He admired its shape and softness but was no longer inflamed (Doctorow 182). Furthermore, his inferiority to himself (severely warned by philosopher Dr. William James) causes his father to live strictly within his own limitations and habitually fail to use his human powers. His stubbornness and nostalgia, combined with his extreme disgust for modern society, push his father to develop a vision of the American dream that is lonely, pessimistic, and certainly partial to 19th-century America. The father's hopes and prospects, unlike those of newly arrived immigrants from Europe like Tateh and his daughter, are buried in the past and irretrievable in the future. The premise of the American Dream, as outlined by playwright David Henry Hwang, is "the ability to imagine the way you would like your life to go and have a reasonable hope that you can achieve it. The subjectivity of the American Dream has often been ignored by employers of work and from the companies that dictated to a group of immigrants that fortune and wealth come from long and arduous hours of factory work; pioneers like Tateh recognize that the realization of their aspirations can be self-derived and certainly reasonably achieved through the American Dream. “Tateh joined the thousands of picket lines surrounding the [Lawrence, Massachusetts] plant, a massive brick building that stretched for blocks” (Doctorow 101) and in doing so, realized that “[t]he bosses they want you weak, so you have to be strong” (Doctorow 102). By striking legally, Tateh and his fellow strikers trigger a 15% wage increase, a 48-hour work week, and the elimination of the wage bonus. America gradually evolving”.