66 pages • 2 hours read
Horatio AlgerRagged Dick
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1868A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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The Rise of the Self-Made Man
Through the character of Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger demonstrates the rise of the self-made man. The ability to rise from rags-to-riches, from humble beginnings to prosperity, was a popular concept in American culture long before Alger’s career as an author. The American dream of self-invention was based on the belief in the possibility of social mobility, the ability to improve one’s social status in a structurally classless society. In Alger’s novel, Mr. Whitney affirms this belief by telling Dick: “You know in this free country poverty in early life is no bar to a man’s advancement” (108). Many examples of this optimistic philosophy inspire Dick. Mr. Whitney describes his beginnings as a poor apprentice and his affluence after inventing a machine. Dick’s friend, Frank, tells him the amazing story of Dick Whittington, a poor boy who became Lord Mayor of London. Frank also informs Dick that A. T. Stewart, owner of the largest store on Broadway in New York City, began as a teacher, then started in business in a small way, “and worked his way up by degrees” (88). A kindly policeman encourages Dick by pointing out a well-dressed gentleman and revealing that the man had started as a newsboy and was now a prosperous bookstore owner.
The novel emphasizes the importance of an individual’s own efforts in determining their success. Mr. Whitney advises Dick: “Remember that your future position depends mainly upon yourself, and that it will be high or low as you choose to make it” (110). The orphaned Dick knows that he has “only himself to depend upon, and he determined to make the most of himself, –a resolution which is the secret of success in nine cases out of ten” (167). Alger shows that Dick’s enterprise, energy, alertness, and “manly” self-reliance lead to opportunities that better his position in life.
While material prosperity is the most obvious measure of success in Ragged Dick, Alger also defines Dick’s rise in terms of attaining respectability: “But Dick was too sensible not to know that there was something more than money needed to win a respectable position in the world” (130). Mr. Whitney encourages Dick to study during any leisure time: “If you try to learn, you can, and if you ever expect to do anything in the world, you must know something of books” (109). Dick must learn to wash, dress in neat clothes, improve his manners, attend church, and pursue education to truly move upwards from poverty to the higher levels of society.
The Rewards of Virtue
Alger repeatedly illustrates the importance and rewards of virtue. Dick’s scrupulous honesty earns him extra money and new opportunities for advancement. When Dick bravely stands up to a scheming clerk who claims that Dick presented a counterfeit bill, Dick’s customer gives him an extra fifty cents for his trouble. When a hungry Dick resists the temptation to steal a loaf of bread in a bakery, the baker hires him to do an errand for ten cents. When Dick passes Mr. Greyson’s test of integrity by returning fifteen cents in change to his office, Dick acquires a new mentor who introduces him to church and invites him to lunch with the Greyson family at their elegant residence. Later, Mr. Greyson provides a valuable testimonial to the character of Dick’s friend, Henry, which enables him to get a job. Although Alger acknowledges an element of luck in a man’s rise to success, he shows that Dick’s unselfish willingness to risk his own life to rescue a drowning boy elicits his happy ending: an offer of employment at a handsome salary.
When Dick’s friend, Frank, tells him the story of A. T. Stewart’s advancement to fortune, Frank points out that Stewart was “strictly honorable.” Frank tells Dick that avoiding doing anything dishonorable “will make people have confidence in you” and allow Dick to achieve real success (89). Dick’s virtuous hard work is rewarded; other boys’ laziness or stealing is not.
Alger modifies the individualistic emphasis of the rags-to-riches story by presenting generosity as a key virtue. Mr. Whitney offers Dick money and encourages him to help others in the future.
Even earlier, Dick demonstrates a generous nature, treating a fellow bootblack, Johnny Nolan, to a meal. Dick also treats the younger Henry Fosdick to dinner when Henry only has enough for bread and butter. Dick’s offer to share his lodgings with Henry is rewarded by the education he acquires from Henry’s tutoring. When Dick learns that Tom Wilkins’s family will be evicted, Dick offers him five dollars, then realizes that he has fulfilled Mr. Whitney’s request. Dick feels “fully repaid for what he had done” for Tom Wilkins by the satisfaction of saving “an entire family from privation and discomfort” (193). When Dick gets employed in a new job, he gives his regular bootblack customers to the poorer Johnny Nolan. Alger conveys the message that a rising man should assist a “less fortunate friend […] up the ladder as he advanced himself” (215).
The Importance of Appearances
In Ragged Dick, Alger often portrays a person’s physical features as representative of inner temperament. The novel also focuses on the connection between an individual’s appearance and his or her treatment by society. Even when Dick is still a ragged, unwashed bootblack, he is a good-looking boy with a handsome face. Some of the other street boys “were sly and their faces inspired distrust” (40), but Dick’s “frank, honest expression […] generally won its way to the favor of those with whom he came in contact” (148). When Dick, who is dirty, offers his service as a city guide to the Whitneys, Mr. Whitney reflects: “Still he looks honest. He has an open face, and I think can be depended upon” (55). Frank is treated unfairly by the middle-aged woman passenger on the horse-car. Her meanness is reflected in her looks, a “sharp visage and thin lips [that] did not seem to promise a very pleasant disposition” (92). Alger describes the criminal Jim Travis as “a coarse-looking fellow” with a sallow complexion and “bloodshot eyes” (175,178).
Before Dick washes and dons a neat suit, Frank is reluctant to use Dick as his guide because he is embarrassed to be seen with him. A hotel employee prevents dirty, ragged Dick from entering Astor House until Mr. Whitney explains that he has something for Dick to do. A dishonest clerk thinks that he can “browbeat a ragged boot-black” and cheat Dick, but when Dick’s gentleman customer enters the shop, the clerk sees that it will be “a different matter” (52). “In his ordinary dress, Dick would have been excluded” (113), but after he dresses respectably, his gentlemanly appearance admits him to a more select restaurant. When Frank is accused of stealing by the woman on the horse-car, the other passengers side with the boys because “appearances go a great ways, and Frank did not look like a thief” (94).
