Ragtime Change Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Some of these men saw the way Evelyn's face on the front page of the newspaper sold out the edition. They realized that there was a process of magnification by which news events established certain individuals in the public consciousness as larger than life. (11.3)

Congratulations, you just witnessed the creation of the first celebrity. That's what happened when businessmen realized that a pretty face will sell newspapers, or soap, or whatever else they wanted. This represented a big change from featuring people who had actually done something to be in the news, rather than just being attractive. Now you know why TMZ exists!

Quote #5

Father related it to the degrees of turn in the moral planet. He saw it everywhere, this new season, and it bewildered him. At his office he was told that the seamstresses in the flag department had joined a New York union. (14.1)

This is Father's reaction after returning home from the Arctic. He's lost in a country that has definitely changed while he's been away, from the way his wife acts to the way the maid acts. When he left, people knew their place, and that is rapidly changing.

Quote #6

It was evident to him that the world composed and recomposed itself constantly in an endless process of dissatisfaction. (15. 6)

This is Little Boy's idea of change, and it's pretty simple: something new comes along, people adapt to it and get sick of it, and then something else new comes along. That's change in a nutshell.