Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick Essay

Supposedly, both the individuals with ascribed statuses with hereditary wealth and the poor and homeless have equal chances to become successful although, Orestes Bronwnson in The Laboring Classes, pointed out that this is not true. “Do the young man inheriting ten thousand pounds and the one whose inheritance is merely the gutter, start even?” (219). As a result, the harsh separation of the rich and the poor, where capitalism thrives and,” the division of the community into two classes, one which owns the funds…the other provides the labor” (216). The inhumane apprehension of a capitalist society that keeps its workers “in a permanent system, [has] given preference to the slave system” (214) says a lot about the evils of capitalism corresponding with the false American Dream. An outcome of capitalism is the frustrating rivalry between the poor. “There’s more people! That’s what’s ruining the country. The competition is maddening”

In John Fante’s novel Ask the Dust, class plays a major role in trying to live out the American Dream. Since the main characters in this story are not wealthy, they are looked down upon as lower citizens. They are struggling to make ends meet working minimum wage jobs or not even working at all. For Arturo Bandini, he is having that exact problem. He has to go through earning a living, becoming a writer, and a confusing love life. Many people come to America or Los Angeles for that matter in search of wealth and popularity. They think they will see celebrities and meet famous people and then they will become famous as well. But after a while, they

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

Written by Horatio Alger, in the late 1800's, hit upon the most important topic in America at the time; the "American Dream." The "American Dream," being the idea that everyone, from all walks of life, can come to America and be successful, in any way in which they want to, so long as they have hard work and determination to do so. Ragged Dick for filling this "Dream" by making his way up in society, and eventually making a wealthy man of himself. The first was that fact that no one should give up. Through all of the hardships Dick was put through, including the loss of his parents, the misfortune of receiving no education, and the fact that he lived on his own for most of his life. Another important topic that was covered, was that hard work pays off. In Dick's case, he worked hard at a boot-black, treated people with respect, and finally caught a break from his hard work, by receiving a high paying job. The kind of people that would enjoy this story would be people of all ages. No matter what age, or what level of education one may be, this story teaches lessons that anyone can benefit from. It doesn't matter if a twelve year old boy, or a fifty year old woman picked up "Ragged Dick," because they will both benefit from what the story speaks about. I think it is a heroic act to set up dream and tend to achieve it, because there is a fine line between a dreamer and a successful person. A dreamer is a person that day dreams without the aim of act towards it. But a heroic person like what we have in the novel of Ragged Dick is that he worked so hard and started from a very simple job a shoe shiner to finding a job to earning more money helping himself to become a successful

He enters the kids’ bedroom to see them sound asleep. These children are exactly the type of fortunate kids that “Class in America” describes. “The bottom line is that very affluent families transmit their advantages to the next generation . . . economic success is due in large part to the wealth and privileges bestowed on them at birth” (Mantsios 392).

It is impossible for the minor characters in Ragged Dick to have a fair chance at being recognized as decent members of society because of the emphasis Horatio Alger Jr. places on Dick Hunter. The better qualities of Dick are constantly being reminded to the reader, giving them little room to disagree with Alger’s heroic portrayal of him. Horatio Alger Jr.’s preference to homosexuality also reflects his choice in excluding any useful female characters in his novel. Minor characters lack understanding from readers because information surrounding them is absent, causing them to be judged on face value alone.

In chapter sixteen, “Social Class and Inequality” the essays show different cases in which being rich, poor, smart or middle class can affect a person. In the writings of Angela Locke in “Born Poor and Smart” (338-339) Angela summarizes her life of what it was like growing up with a poor, yet smart mother. However, in “When Shelter Feels like a Prison” (374-376) Charmion Browne writes about being poor, and living in homeless shelters. Somethings in life, are no more than learning experiences, and only you can change it.

“The United States is a nation where people are supposed to be able to rise above their origins. Those who want to succeed, it is believed, can do so through hard work and solid effort.” (Andersen, pg 1) If this was only true we would live in a world in which we would all prosper based on how hard we work. The truth of the matter is that income inequality and institutional classism were simply built into the sheer fabric of this nation. Income inequality has affected many in the United States. For many the American Dream is simply that a dream.

However, by further analyzing this argument can be concluded to be untrue because class structure limits mobility for people. Today’s society is cursed with a diminishing middle class. Due to this fact moving up the social and economic ladder is becoming increasingly difficult. This fact is depicted by Homans when he describes the decrease in social mobility, “People felt very strongly that the foundations - what they had believed they would achieve by working hard, doing things right - were not the same as they had been before”(Homans). People are finding it harder every year to move up the societal structure, despite the fact they work hard and attempt to move up. This fact correlates with the fact that the American Dream no longer has a huge present on Americans. People are simply finding it harder and harder to achieve their dreams. A similar dynamic occurred in The Great Gatsby, “It eluded us, then, but that’s no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning-”(189). Here Nick describes the fact that Gatsby was not able to achieve his dreams as a result of the past catching up with him. This event describes the same idea of a decrease in the ability to move up

The axis of inequality that will be focused throughout this paper is the social class. Social class is defined as a group of individuals who are categorized according to class (i.e. poor, middle, and upper) due to their income, wealth, power, and occupation. Social class is socially constructed by the way we view how much income and wealth a person possess (Ore, 20011a, 10). In reality it is much more than that. According to the text, poverty is not only the shortage of income, but it is the rejection of opportunities and choices that leads a person to a standard way of living (Ore, 2011a, 10). Stereotyping also contributes to it being socially constructed. These stereotypes influence us by defining who is who based on their principles in each class category. This can cause some to feel worthless.

The book really tugged a personal note because I come from a country where social inequality is rampant. There is inequality based upon ethnicity, gender, land ownership, linguistic ability, and even religious affiliation. However, by far the most brazen, pervasive, and important type of inequality is that described as class stratification. Class stratification enters in to an interpersonal relations, economic arrangements, and

USA is a very big country with a lot of people and the social classes are very important. We can see that social class plays big part of people’s life. Everyday people are working, studying, trying to be better. Even though right now it’s time when everyone has many opportunities in his life, anyway there is a gap between classes and groups of people with same features. And your background probably will build your future. And we need to find what kind of class we have right now and look into these classes. The main idea is that Social Classes still exist and it’s most general part of U.S.A society. There are three reasons why gap between groups still exist.

The class divide is a serious issue in America. Many people immigrate from foreign countries to the United States to have a better life. They start in the lower class and it is very hard for them to move up in class. In the New York Times article, “ Fifteen Years on the Bottom Rung “, by Anthony DePalma, he tells the story of a Greek immigrant and a Mexican immigrant and how they have very different opportunities to succeed. Although Peralta works very hard. He knows that money doesn't last long. Mr. Peralta said, “ Me, I’ve been here for 15 years, and if I die tomorrow, there wouldn’t even be enough money to bury me”(DePalma). Peralta demonstrates that the American

In Samuel Bowel’s and Herbert Gintis’ Education and Inequality, Bowels and Gintis investigate how education in the United States is unequal, especially to those indivduals who are financially unstable. In today’s extremely judgmental society, many are at a disadvantage based solely on their class, race, sex, etc. The quality of one’s education is compromised for a number of unfair reasons having to do with artificial inequalities.

people at the upper classes effortlessly, some people’s hard works might not be paid off,