Ragged Dick - Critical Analysis

In his essay, Gordon Beauchamp notes that Horatio Alger’s novels make the male youth of America feel as they “any of them, too, could succeed in life, if, like the Alger hero, he… were good and brave and industrious and perhaps saved a banker’s daughter from a runaway horse.” This suggests that as well as the bravery, resourcefulness and honesty that Ragged Dick is known for, in order to be successful one would need to prove themselves to someone higher up in society. This is because bravery, resourcefulness and honesty is not enough to get people to believe in and trust you. The boys would need to get on the good side of a respectable gentlemen, like a banker as Beauchamp writes. This is evident in ‘Ragged Dick’ when Dick is trying to get change for the gentlemen he shined shoes for. The man behind the counter insisted he had given him a counterfeit bill. Dick would not have been believed by the manager had the man he shined shoes for not come in to back him up. Dick had to prove his honesty by having a sponsor who could vouch for him.

Cara Erdheim talks of how “Alger traced the rise of his boy heroes from penury to middle-class respectability.” This is particularly persuasive in that we can see from Ragged Dick that this is the route that his plot took. When we first meet Ragged Dick he is on the streets living in a box and spending the money he does earn on gambling and leisure activities, only just having enough for food. Throughout history, gambling has always been linked with poverty in a desperate attempt to build on what has been earned. Over the course of the novel, Alger allows Dick to see that saving and sensible living is a better way to live and build on what is earnt, this results in Ragged Dick referring to him at the end as Richard Hunter, Esq., a much more respectable name for a boy with a secure job and a lot in his savings.

John Swansburg questions in his article, “is it more like a mass delusion keeping us from confronting the fact that poor Americans tend to remain poor Americans, regardless of how hard they work?” This is an interesting question, but unpersuasive in terms of Ragged Dick. By living sensibly, working hard and trusting the right people, Dick builds up some savings and by the end of the novel is no longer poor. What Alger is suggesting in his ‘rags to riches’ novels is that you can better your position in society if you are determined enough and work hard enough to earn it. That is the entire premise of the American Dream. However, this doesn’t mean that there haven’t been people who were unsuccessful in bettering their position. Alger is merely proving that it is a possibility to achieve.