In Ragtime (1975), Doctorow blurs the line between fact and fiction to emphasize the validity of historical accounts. Interweaves historical facts and figures with fictional events and characters to recreate history and produce a historiographical metanarrative. Hutcheon (1989, p.4) comments that “historiographical metanarrative works to situate itself within historical discourse without renouncing its autonomy as fiction.” Doctorow uses historical figures like Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan and intertwines their lives with fictional characters to blur the lines between history and fiction. While the text focuses on the Ragtime era, Doctorow introduces earlier historical figures to comment on the early years of the 20th century. The novel does not uphold the conventions of the historical novel and encourages readers to re-examine the accuracy of the historiographical representation. Furthermore, Doctorow questions literature's ability to accurately represent history by employing an unidentifiable narrator. Through the use of these techniques, Doctorow uses fiction to tell the events of the story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Ragtime, Doctorow presents components of the past through earlier historical figures and events that belong to later characters. According to Hutcheon (1989), "Doctorow's ironic mixing of fact and fiction and his deliberate anachronisms highlight his distrust of the objective presentation of history." After Sarah's death, Coalhouse Walker and his supporters blow up a fire station and call themselves an "Interim American Settlement". This is a deliberately anachronistic parody projecting black activists from the 1960s, rather than the ragtime era. Furthermore, Doctorow gives his characters an anachronistic foresight. The Little Boy predicts the assassination of Duke Ferdinand at the beginning of the novel when he tells Houdini to "warn the Duke". Parks (1991) argues that Ragtime is “not so much about the ragtime era as about how the era is viewed, composed, and recomposed.” Therefore, Doctorow's use of anachronism in the novel suggests that knowledge of the past is intertwined with later events. Ragtime does not follow the conventions of a classical historical novel in which a "progressive theory of historical development" or "a cyclical view of history" is presented. Doctorow instead highlights the role of transformation in the dynamics of history. In an attempt to popularize the fictional construction of the past, Doctorow intentionally imitates the received version of that past. Highlighting the idealized image held by the white middle class during the ragtime era, it openly exposes the erroneous sentimental images of the past. This is illustrated right from the beginning of the novel, when Doctorow presents an account of the ragtime era: “Women were bigger then. They visit the fleet carrying white umbrellas. Everyone wore white in the summer. Tennis rackets were heavy and the racket face was elliptical. There were many sexual swoons. There were no blacks. There were no immigrants.” Doctorow intentionally presents this naïve image of the past in an attempt to challenge the reader to reexamine the entire concept of historiographical representation. Savvas (2011, p.140) highlights that nostalgia plays a key role in producing an image of the past that is “distorted, premise-based, and constructed by excluding undesirable elements; undermining the reliability of patriotism, at the same time as it invokes it.” At the end of the paragraph, Doctorow evokes an aspect of the past that nostalgia had forgotten through the character of EmmaGoldman when he states, “Apparently there were some niggers. There were immigrants." The foreground of the novel is populated by three imaginary families; each elected to represent different classes of American societies in the early 20th century. According to Wright (1993, p.14), the beginning of the novel demonstrates that “entire racial groups have been erased from American history simply by not being mentioned, and the novelist's task, as conceived by Doctorow, is to rewrite them.” In". The narrator portrays the views held by upper-class white families in that period and questions the level of affluence attributed to this area, presenting two families who represented the marginalized members of society overlooked by historians. Through characterization of Coalhouse Walker, Sarah and their child, Doctorow presents issues of racism prevalent during the Ragtime era Walker is portrayed as a successful man who encompasses wealth as a result of the progressive era Ramin (2014, p.163) describes that Walker's progress in becoming rich and owning a car represents the very essence of the “American myth of going from rags to riches.” However, Doctorow portrays that this myth could never be experienced by a Negro text when the narrator states: “As he passed, they fell silent and stared at him. He was not unaware that in his clothing and as a car owner he represented a provocation to many whites. Through this depiction, Doctorow employs the use of fictional characters to portray a revised version of history, rather than creating his own version of historical events. Harter and Thompson (1990) argue that Doctorow inserts history into his narrative by “imagining new facts rather than changing the facts”. Doctorow uses verifiable historical events, such as Freud's trip to America and Emma Goldman's deportation to Russia. He mixes it up with the invention of new events that seem unlikely to occur in the story and with the interaction between fictional characters and historical figures For example, Doctorow incorporates secret meetings between Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan and Coalhouse Walker taking control of the library by J.P. Morgan. By incorporating his own invention of events, Doctorow challenges the reader to question their pre-existing ideas about how truthful the portrayal of the past can be. Doctorow presents historical figures idiosyncratically throughout the text and frees them from historiographical frames According to DeLillo (1997), “Fiction slips under the skin of historical characters. It gives them sweaty palms and the terror of restless nights. This is how human truth is re-proposed and consciousness expanded." Through the incorporation of these historical figures, Doctorow exemplifies a new human truth. In this approach, Doctorow recovers historical figures such as JP Morgan and Henry Ford to present an alternative vision of the history of opposing peoples during that era. Although historical figures are not the focus of the novel, their occasional presence creates confusion about the nature of the novel as a work of fiction or as a historiographical account of the past. Over the course of the narrative, Doctorow distances himself from the narrative voice “through the use of storytellers who compose the tale of the past that we read”. No decisive reference is made to the identity of the narrator, thus producing an unidentifiable narrator. By detaching language from a source, it can evoke numerous alternations in the reading of the work. Through this technique, Doctorow ultimately forces his readers to question literature's ability to accurately portray the past. The omniscient narrator describes the events of American society and intertwines them with the narration of the stories about the characters in the novel. 20.1 (1993).