Beauchamp, Erdheim's and Swansburg's critical analysis of Ragged Dick.

The typical “rags to riches” storyline outlined by Horatio Alger in his many novels, specifically Ragged Dick, has led to speculations as to the authenticity of the reality of the ‘rags to riches’ within modern society.

John Swansburg speaks of this authenticity of an individual becoming successful within “Horatio Alger: The Bard of the Street Boys” in ‘The Self-Made Man’. Swansburg’s argument that Ragged Dick’s ‘attributes merely qualify the Alger hero for success; they don’t produce it’. Therefore, the whole ‘rags to riches’ of an individual succeeding is not so straight-forward. In order for the individual to become successful, he must be recognised for his personal traits and characteristics in order to become something of himself. This is seen clearly within Ragged Dick Chapter Three, with the counterfeit bill. Ragged Dick’s honesty as to whether the bill was counterfeit or not was not sufficient evidence for the store owner and therefore must seek external help from a man who was more successful than he was, which reinstates Swansburg’s argument that Dick has qualities that qualify for success but that it does not necessarily produce success itself.

Another argument that is particularly persuasive is within Cara Erdheim’s academic article, ‘Why Speak of American Stories as Dreams?’. Erdheim argues that the ‘American Dream’ which can be seen within the ‘rags to riches’ cliché of Alger’s books are ‘the birth, death, and rebirth of the American Dream show that the narrative has a life cycle of its own’. Dick was primarily a shoeshiner within the novel, and due to his characteristics of honesty, and righteousness he is reborn as a successful man who has a job within a mercantile firm with the aid of others as mentioned previously. Erdheim’s argument is persuasive as it shows a shift in lifestyles and ambitions surrounding the American Dream. Was Ragged Dick’s ambitions seen as to become just successful and out of the poor area of the city or to be something more tangible? Will Dick continue to be successful and continue to rebirth as argued by Erdheim or will he remain to succeed his original ‘American Dream’?

In addition to this, Gorman Beauchamp voices their view on the subject but is unsuccessfully persuasive. Beauchamp argues that with the success of literature of Alger’s novels, ‘in the last decade of the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth century a vast proportion of America's youth, it appears, were buying, borrowing and swapping’ such novels between themselves’. However, in comparison to Horatio Alger’s characters within ‘Ragged Dick’ it is argued that being literate was only for those who were educated. In Chapter Twenty, Alger writes about how Dick’s ‘street education was sharp’ whereas his tangible literate skills were improving suggesting that there are two meanings behind being literate within society. By being literate translates to being respected by others and being successful and having a sufficient financial income whereas ‘street education’ was about having an understanding about how the lifestyle of the poor was and how to evade certain situations led to being respected within a niche circle.

To conclude, Horatio Alger’s ‘Ragged Dick’ does meet to the arguments defined by Swansburg, Erheim but argues the authenticity of Beauchamp’s argument as to how successful Alger’s novels were among American youth culture therefore, Beauchamp does not provide a persuasive argument as to overall lifestyle and culture within America and the ideals surrounding the American Dream itself.

Sources:

Alger Jr., H., Ragged Dick, (New York, W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2007).

Beauchamp, G., 'Ragged Dick and the Fate of Respectability',

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mqrarchive/act2080.0031.003/34:7?page=root;size=100;view=pdf, (accessed 5^th March 2017).

Erdheim, C., "Why Speak of American Stories as Dreams?" (2013). English Faculty Publications. Paper 19., http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/eng_fac/19, (accessed 5^th March 2017).

Swansburg, J., “Horatio Alger: The Bard of The Street Boys” in ‘The Self Made Man’, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2014/09/the_self_made_man_history_of_a_myth_from_ben_franklin_to_andrew_carnegie.html, (accessed 5^th March 2017).