Immigrants were “absorbed” (Doctorow, 14) in to the city and forced to assimilate to society the best they could. Doctorow describes the negative stereotypes American’s had about immigrants people believed that they raped, murdered, stole and drank. They were filthy and illiterate” (Doctorow, 14). The immigrants were not good enough for society from the start, for “they were despised by New Yorkers. He compares their treatment upon their arrival in America to the treatment of animals, for when they arrive they go to a “curiously ornate human warehouse…tagged, given showers, and arranged on benches in waiting pens” (Doctorow, 14). To start the novel, Doctorow describes the journey of immigrants to the United States in the early 1900s. Doctorow’s intent is to show not only the class struggles immigrants faced at the turn of twentieth century America, but also he is showing that they could not stay true to their roots because in order to succeed they had to submerge themselves in the American melting pot. It is not enough for immigrants to work hard to achieve the American Dream: Tateh has to completely change by immersing himself in to the American melting pot in order to live a happy life, because his true identity is not good enough for American society. He achieves what many people define as the American Dream, which is gaining both social and economic wellbeing, for he marries the character Mother, and he becomes a successful filmmaker. By the end of the novel, Tateh changes his name, moves to Lawrence Massachusetts and starts a new life. He is a quiet man, but he attends radical socialist gatherings in the city. He lives on the lower east side of New York City working as a peddler and silhouette artist. The character that is facing the most amount of change is Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia. Doctorow, a second-generation Jewish immigrant, situates his novel in this time period because at the turn of the century everything was changing such as technology, values, and lifestyles. Doctorow explores different characters facing changes at the turn of the twentieth century in America. In his novel Ragtime published in 1974, E.L. The American Dream: Immersion in the Melting Pot
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