Abstract
This essay examines the character of Mother in E. L. Doctorow's 1975 novel, Ragtime, through the lens of the literature that sits on her nightstand: an antisuffragist text by Molly Elliot Seawell and a pamphlet about family limitation by Margaret Sanger. Mother's character stands with one foot in the world of radical feminism and another in the milieu of antisuffragists. This context reframes her interactions with marginalized figures in the narrative and undermines her supposedly happy ending. Reading Mother in view of these texts makes her a dynamic character in the novel, revealing her inner life and agency.