Ragtime question

We just saw a production of Ragtime and on the way home were talking about the names -- why do they not name Father, Mother, and Younger Brother? We thought it might be because they're supposed to be generic, but they do give Edgar a name, and really, Mother is a fairly specific character.

Any thoughts?

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No idea why they give Edgar a name because he doesn't have one in the novel.

Ragtime is based off of a novel by E.L. Doctorow from 1975, and these were the character names from the book. I am not sure what his exact reasoning was, but I've always assumed that he gave them "generic" names because they were supposed to be representative figures of the time. They interact with some infamous people from the early 1900's, but they are supposed to represent "the All-American Family" of the turn of the century. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but that's how I always viewed it :)

I think it's because Edgar is the narrator of the story- all the names are what HE would call his family members. And if you go with the E. L. Doctorow connection, indeed he is the "teller" of the tale.