Need for a Cause

In Ragtime, the unnamed character Mother's Younger Brother has an inherent need for something to do. Be it chasing Evelyn Nesbit, fighting with Coalhouse Walker, or participating in the Mexican Revolution. Initially, his obsession and subsequent ejaculation on, and sexual relationship with Evelyn Nesbit seems just like a short and intense obsession. However, when we look at his actions in the rest of the book, it may have been more. This obsession may have been to fulfill a need beyond that of his sexual desire. Mother's Younger Brother just had a need to be doing something for some sort of cause, whether it be personal or for a greater cause. 

At first, with Evelyn Nesbit, Younger Brother seems to have nothing else in his life. He seems to be immediately infatuated with her because she gives his life purpose and something to actually pursue. This obsession reminds me of Borat's obsession with Pamela Anderson in the movie Borat. In Borat, the main character, Borat, a native of Kazakhstan goes to the USA to learn their ways to help better improve his home country. When he's just sort of wandering around in the states, looking for something to learn and do, he sees a TV program about model Pamela Anderson in his hotel room. He then drives from NYC to LA to try and find her and marry her. He hilariously fails, but that's not the point. The point is, he's looking for something to do and a cause to follow, so he finds a woman. Contrary to in Borat, Younger Brother Surprisingly succeeds. Another comparison I thought of when reading about Younger Brother and how he hired a prostitute just for the company and not the sex. Jake does this in The Sun Also Rises. This shows the extreme loneliness in Younger Brother's life that not even sex with Evelyn Nesbit, the sex symbol of that era, can fulfill.

To fulfill his extreme loneliness and need for something to fill the void of cause in his life, Younger Brother turns to a more significant cause in helping Coalhouse in his cause. When Younger Brother devotes himself to this cause, I feel like it isn't because he believes in what Coalhouse is fighting for, which at this point, is more than his vandalized car, but because he truly needs something in his life before he starts to self destruct. He's a very degenerate character who could, at any point, do something rash that could hurt himself or others. Ironically, he makes bombs. This incident that Coalhouse was victimized, happened at least in the same town as Younger Brother, and he could've believed in the related civil rights cause. However, Younger Brother's final stand in trying to fill the void in his life whose origins we don't even know, has seemingly nothing to do with Younger Brother in any way. He may have read about the Mexican Revolution in the newspaper, but to actually go all the way from New York to Mexico to participate and ultimately die for this cause seems a bit far. The only thing I can come up with as to how this relates to Younger Brother's story is that he must've been extremely desperate to find something to do after Coalhouse's surrender. He must've been addicted to the feeling of rebellion and living for something, which is what, in the end, killed him.