Horatio Alger Myth Analysis

As Samuel Gompers notes, “I maintain that this is a true proposition- that men under the short-hour system not only have opportunity to improve themselves, but to make a greater degree of prosperity for their employers”(2). Men who are overworked have “lives to work instead of working to live” (2) which is accurate. They do the same thing every day having a routine and no time devoted into bettering themselves and having thoughts on ideas or anything. The author is Samuel Gompers and the intended audience is working men, more specifically those who hire the working men. To make them realize what they are doing by assigning so many hours to men. This is a primary document as it may have been composed during the midst of a time when men were constantly overworked.

The short story I have chosen to read by Washington Irving is 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.'; This story takes place in a little village on the Hudson River which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally known as Tarry Town. The main character in the story, Ichabod Crane, who 'tarried'; in Sleepy Hollow came about for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity. The main point of the story began with the arrival of a Negro with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a party at the Van Tassel's mansion. After receiving the good news, Ichabod fixed up his best and only suit and borrowed a horse from Hans Van Ripper, in order to impress Mynheer Van Tassel's daughter, Katrina. He did so

In Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick, Alger writes about a rag-to-riches story and points out valid and key messages that tell of things like hard work and determination can take anyone from the bottom to the top, despite one’s economic class. I do realize that in real life that although these messages hold key to making it in the world, everyone does not have the equal opportunity to succeed or move up in class rankings like Alger says.

The Horatio Alger myth is “Strive for Success “it was known for one to mentally visualize themselves going from rag-to-rich by following this myth.

Barbara Ehrenreich is a political/social journalist and writer. She is a best-selling author with a dozen book credits to her name. Her works include Blood Rites, The Worst Years of Our Lives, and Fear of Falling. She also has written articles for Time, Harpers, The New Republic, The Nation, and The New York Time Magazine. Her Ph.D. in biology endows her with the experience and discipline to approach as a scientific experiment the study resulting in her newest book, Nickel and Dimed.

It is evident that there are still a number of falsehoods that contribute to the adversity many people of color have to overcome in this country. Yale Law School professor, Harlon L. Dalton and Sociologists Naomi Gerstal and Natalia Sarkisian dissect two such falsehoods in their respective essays. In his essay, “Horatio Alger” Dalton takes on the rags-to-riches myth commonly portrayed in Horatio Alger’s works of fiction. Likewise, Gerstal and Sarkisian’s study on Black, White, and Latino families reveals data that debunks the widely held belief that families of color are weaker and more disorganized than their white counterparts. While both essays examine myths that negatively affect Black and Latino people, the authors often use different

In the current state of America, several issues such as race, gender, sexual orientation and upward mobility are still relevent concerns. The Horatio Alger Myth of being able to move upward on merit and hard work alone is an ideology of the 1950's that clings to the coattails of America's lower class even today. Though the thought of moving upwards in society is hopeful, it is not always plausible. The barriers seperating people in the lower class and upper middle class is growing. What is needed is the Redefinition of upward mobility for pleople of lower income. The Horatio Alger Myth is still just a myth for most, when it needs to become a reality.

The purpose of Barbara Ehrenreich 's novel was to present empirical and philosophical arguments against social policies associated with poverty and the ideologies surrounding it. Ehrenreich had an English degree and was used to doing research and writing about the experiences surrounding her findings. However, with her research surrounding Nickel and Dimed she took a more empirical approach by living the experiences of her research to discover the undercover truths surrounding minimum wage jobs. Ehrenreich knew it would be difficult to transition from her ivory tower

In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, the author Barbara Ehrenreich took on an experiment for better understanding of the working class. She left her comfortable life and took on lower paying jobs herself.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s meritorious non-fiction, Nickel and Dimed, details the life of Ehrenreich as she goes undercover in the low-wage workforce. She works several minimum wage jobs all across the United States in the shadow of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. In an excerpt from her writing, her sympathetic view towards the American low-wage workforce and their disgusting workplace is revealed through a coalition of rhetorical strategies. Ehrenreich metaphorically casts the role of Jerry’s: a restaurant in Key West, Florida; to the gastrointestinal system.

The world bestows its big prizes, both in money and in honors, for but one thing. And that is Initiative. What is Initiative? I’ll tell you: it is doing the right thing without being told. But next to doing the thing without being told is to do it when you are told once. That is to say, carry the Message to Garcia: those who can carry a message get high honors, but their pay is not always in proportion. Next, there are those who never do a thing until they are told twice; such get no honors and small pay. Next, there are those who do the right thing only when necessity kicks them from behind, and these get indifference instead of honors, and a pittance for pay. This kind spends most of its time polishing a bench with a hard-luck story. Then, still lower down in the scale than this, we have fellow who will not do the right thing even when some one goes along to show him how and stays to

After the Civil War America experienced a period of huge industrial growth. Government devotion to business and new breakthroughs left urban poor and working class unattended. This widened the gap between the rich and the poor, making it difficult for a less fortunate individual to work their way up in society. Many Americans, however, believed that it was definitely not impossible to become successful in life a lot of times due to myths of success stories like Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger. It is a novel about the hero’s transformation from a ragged, homeless boy of the streets to a respectable clerk with a salary of ten dollars per week. The novel follows “myth of success” formula: a young man - decent, but with no real prospects for the future

The Horatio Alger myth is one of the oldest myths in the history of the United States of America. Horatio Alger was a 19th century author who wrote short stories that all had the same universal theme: a young man rising from a poor childhood to become a successful adult. Alger’s stories were enormously popular during his time and continue to be so today with the term “Alger Myth” become a household saying. The popularity of Alger’s stories is not surprising when one considers America has consistently pushed the notion that anyone can achieve success if they work hard. Every child in America is told at some point in their life that they can be anything they want to be.

There are many facets that can either make or break someone as a “hero”. In literature, a hero does not necessarily have to be a knight in shining armor, a caped crusader, or an exact replica of the archetype but, there are certain qualities and expectations that determine what makes a hero. A typical hero has strength, appeal, courage, righteousness, and success, meaning that they have the physical and mental capabilities that can lead them to eventually achieve their goals. In most cases, the protagonist of a story is the hero, but this is not true in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. Set in Sleepy Hollow, the story chronicles schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane’s, time and sudden disappearance from the “haunted” town.

The American Dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas" (12). Duke's references to Alger are pointedly sarcastic; at the end of the novel, he describes himself as "a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger ... a Man on the Move, and just sick enough to be totally confident" (204). Ultimately, this motif underlines Duke's countless observations about how diseased American society has