Ragged Dick By Horatio Alger: Analysis

Din Kale
DISC 1313
Ms. Lange
27 February 2015
The Expression of The American Dream
Benjamin Franklin was one of the most important and skillful men in American history. He was a man of care, pluck, and integrity. Franklin was a printer, though his business experiences were very varied. Benjamin Franklin wrote The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin over a period of eighteen years, making three separate attempts to complete it. Unhappily, Franklin died before the completion of the autobiography. Ragged Dick, by Horatio Alger, is a book projected for young boys. The author, a late nineteenth century writer, is worried with social values and directing boys into a nourishing and good life. His book tells the classic rags to riches story of the
Alger had been well known for his promotion of social values during the era in which he wrote. His books had promoted the rags to riches story by showing young boys how to lead the correct life. Ethics, honesty and clean living are central to Alger and his theme of social values. Boys should not drink, smoke or steal. They shouldn 't waste their time and money on these and other forms of entertainment like the theater and clubs. This isn 't the way to get ahead in life, the way to get ahead in life is to study, work hard and think big, Dick is aware of that and even declares “I’d like to be an office boy and learn business, and grow up ‘spectable,” (Alger 40). Both Dick and Henry spend their evenings studying, reading and engaging in activities that result in self-improvement because “If you ever expect to do something in the world, you must know something of books” (Alger 77). Henry teaches Dick to read and write in exchange for lodging. They are both willing to help others. Dick obtains more satisfaction from helping Tom Wilkins and his mother pay their rent than he has from anything else he does. Making the changes that they make in their lives gets them out of the rags they had been wearing and into respectable clothing and job positions. They live according to the author 's proscribed set of social values and go from rags to
Dick and Henry are successful because they want to be successful: “There were two reasons why Dick would like to have seen Frank. One was, the natural pleasure he would have in meeting a friend; but he felt also that he would like to have Frank witness the improvement he had made in his studies and mode of life." (Alger 199). They are willing to make the necessary sacrifices and spend their time working on self-improvement because this is what their goal is. Because they have the same goals, they are able to work with each other and help one another. Instead of spending their evenings at the theater or club, they spend their evenings studying. This is a big change for Dick who used to spend everything he earned, even if it meant sleeping outside. He has a goal of wanting to be respectable just as Henry does. They know that they have to be better educated and better dressed in order to get out of the bootblack business and secure the kinds of jobs that they want. Dick follows the advice he is given by the Whitneys and Henry follows the advice he is given by Dick. Their determination to succeed means helping each other even if it means a sacrifice on one of their parts and it was not an easy task: "It was indeed a bright prospect for a boy who, only a year before, could neither read nor write, and depended for a night 's lodging upon the chance hospitality of an alley-way or old wagon. Dick 's great ambition to 'grow