Father is the first character introduced in Ragtime and the patriarch of the novel’s central unnamed family. Father lives in New Rochelle, New York. He heads a business selling patriotic goods such as flags and fireworks. This is one of the many ways that Father represents old, entrenched power systems and their white supremacist, classist ideology. An explorer, Father goes on expeditions, such as to the Arctic. He commits imperialist actions, exploiting indigenous lives for personal gain. Additionally, he turns his back on his Black friend Coalhouse Walker, Jr. during Walker’s clash with the New York authorities. Father’s siding with the powers that perpetuate Coalhouse’s systemic oppression is another way that he embodies American systems of power. Father eventually divorces Mother and, at the end of the novel, dies during the sinking of the Lusitania. His death in one of the most important events of the First World War suggests that Father represents the old America that died at the turn of the century, after the onset of the war.

Mother is Father’s wife. She enables the family’s relationship with Coalhouse Walker, Jr. by housing Sarah and her infant son. In many ways, Mother represents a modern, progressive flexibility that contrasts with Father’s rigidity to change.