Tateh's life changes so suddenly that it is almost unbelievable. Before he sells his little flip books to the Franklin Novelty Shop in (page 133), he is struggling to support himself and his daughter by working on the street or in the mills for very little pay. Then we hear nothing about him until page 254, when we meet the Baron Ashkenazy and find out that he "had produced dozens of movie books for the Franklin Novelty Comapny. Then he had designed a magic lantern apparatus on which strips of paper printed with silhouettes turned on a wheel...the owners of the Franklin Novelty offered to make Tateh a partner...he sold his interests and went into the movie business...he invented a baronry for himself...his child was dressed as beautifully as a princess. He wanted to drive from her memory every tenement stench and filthy immigrant street. he would buy her light and sun and clean wind of the ocean for the rest of her life" (258-259). That was a long quote, but overall the time spent discussing Tateh's success was just a few pages. This makes it seem like it all happened very fast, although we do not actually know how much time passed between the two parts of his story.
In any case, Doctorow is clearly saying something about the immigrant experience. He even comments directly on it several times, making somewhat ironic-sounding generalizations about success in America as an immigrant. For example, he says "thus did the artist point his life along the lines of flow of American energy. Workers would strike and die but in the streets of cities an entrepreneur could cook sweet potatoes in a bucket of hot coals and sell them for a penny or two" (134). The narrator seems disappointed in Tateh in some ways. Instead of fighting for his rights, he made a living however he could, and succeeded at doing so. he escaped bad conditions, but he didn't work for the greater good. It is easy to imagine a mill worker feeling resentful towards Tateh; Tateh got out and made it big, while the mill worker has protested and been part of the I.W.W. and won against the mill owners, and has only gained "a few more pennies in wage" (130).
Doctorow also seems to be making fun of the idea that you could easily be successful in America by making it seem so easy. I'm not exactly sure why, but it seems pretty clear that Doctorow is not saying "Look, it really is that easy for immigrants to start their own businesses and become really rich". The speed with which Doctorow relates his rise makes it seem unreal, like a dream. Probably it was a dream for most of the immigrants who came to America, and remained one for their entire lives. Doctorow is saying that it was not a reality for most people by illustrating one of the people for which it was a reality.
However, it does seem like the narrator feels some admiration towards Tateh. He is not portrayed as a weak and sort of silly character, like Younger Brother is at the beginning of the book. He seems serious but intelligent before his transformation, and ebullient and jovial afterwards. He had "constructed [his happiness] without help", which is something he can be proud of. he is also clearly an innovative and enterprising man. Thus, although he is in the novelty and entertainment business, his success is respected and Tateh himself is respected.
Overall, Doctorow's depiction of Tateh's rise has mixed meanings. In may ways, the narrator seems to have the perspective of a person who had been born and raised in the U.S. but who worked in a mill or other factory and could not figure out a way to increase his wealth, status, or living conditions. He is jealous and annoyed that Tateh has managed to get out of the system rather than trying to improve it, admiring of his "pluck and luck" that enabled him to succeed, and, in the back of his mind, cognizant that such a rise does not happen to many people.
Your reference to a "dream" in describing the speed with which Tateh's transformation seems to take place is pointed: his narrative seems almost, at times, like a hyperbolic parody of the "American Dream" metanarrative. Except that Doctorow almost entirely glosses over the sweat and hard work that goes into making that rise possible--it all takes place "offscreen," to the extent that we don't even recognize Tateh at first in the "Baron Ashkenazy." Alongside the novel's repeated emphasis on the drastic inequalities that characterize America at this time, it would indeed seem facile to view Tateh as an unambiguous affirmation of the American Dream. As you note, *luck* plays a huge role in making his transformation happen--it isn't something he even aims for, but more like he stumbles into it. He might decide that his fate doesn't lie with the other mill workers in Lawrence, but Doctorow isn't going to let the reader forget about them so easily.
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