Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick: The Real American Dream

Introduction

Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-blacks (1868) is the first of a series of books Horatio Alger wrote about young boys and for young boys (Trachtenberg, 1990). The protagonist is a fourteen-year-old boy named Dick Hunter. Since the age of seven, he has had to fend for himself on the streets of New York City, supporting himself as a boot-black — polishing shoes for a dime a pair.

Various interpretations have been placed on Alger's novels, with people who start out poor but work hard and end up wealthy often being called "real Horatio Alger stories." However, a careful reading of the book reveals that this interpretation is not entirely correct. Alger's young hero does not want wealth, fame, or status. He simply wants a secure job and enough money to live on. Neither wealth nor status figures into his goals, and he goes so far as to tell others that he does not seek to be wealthy. What he seeks is upward mobility — specifically, to no longer sleep outdoors in a wooden box lined with straw — and the middle-class "spectability" he so admires.

Dick Hunter's True Goals and the Rags-to-Riches Myth

Other critics have looked at Alger's novels as celebrating individualism. Certainly Dick Hunter lived an independent life, but he did not want a life independent of society's values. He tried to live by middle-class standards, carefully avoiding any chance of stealing or otherwise taking unfair advantage of others. In fact, Dick Hunter wanted to conform. He had lived outside society's bounds and did not want to remain there any longer. Calling Ragged Dick a "rags-to-riches" story would be a gross exaggeration of both Dick's goals and the novel's conclusion.

Dick Hunter goes out of his way to adopt middle-class sensibilities whenever he can. He has figured out that the harder he works, the more money he will make — a lesson reinforced both by the results of his own industriousness and by observing a friend who works less and, as a result, often goes hungry unless Dick feeds him.

Alger's approach to telling Dick's story is strongly instructional, making clear what Alger considers to be the American Dream. He tells his young readers that anyone can achieve financial security and a respectable livelihood through hard work. Alger wrote the book at a time when New York City was home to many poor, orphaned children trying to find their way as best they could.

Middle-Class Values and Work Ethic

One writer who commented on the novel recalled a time when he was relaxing in his yard and his father said to him, "Better enjoy it now" (Leverenz, 1998), suggesting that childhood was for play and adulthood for hard work. Alger suggests that when one starts out at a disadvantage, even childhood must be devoted to hard work. Through some improbable situations, the illiterate Dick Hunter learns to read. Yet Alger then implies that it is not only what you know but whom you know: Dick finally gets his desired job not simply because he is a hard worker who has learned to read, but because he saves a child from drowning and is hired by the grateful father. No doubt Dick could not have obtained such a position had he remained illiterate, but it is luck that ultimately makes the final difference.

In several key episodes — feeding a hungry friend despite having little money himself, paying someone's rent to prevent an eviction, and saving the drowning child at the story's climax — Alger tells his readers that hard work alone is not enough; one must also possess a generous spirit.

Conclusion

Alger's book suggests that through hard work and education, even the poorest boy can overcome class limitations, acquire the skills necessary to succeed on society's terms, and find established people willing to set aside any sense of entitlement and help him achieve his goals. The book naturally reflects its times; nowhere are poor young girls represented. Alger also establishes a strong sense of place, even including footnotes to explain certain sites mentioned in the story that have since changed.