Ragged Dick By Haratio Alger: An Analysis

Having the mind and determination to become successful isn’t an easy task. Success isn’t considered a gift, it should be a hard task to achieve and it matters how it is accomplished. Success

Success is a concept that is constantly altered and has a different meaning from person to person. The stereotypical definition of success would be someone who has a high-paying job or is in the upper-class. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers: The Story of Success, approaches the concept of success in a different and unique way. Gladwell discusses how opportunities, cultural legacy, and hard work all coincide with each other to produce real success. He uses mostly logic and multiple unrelated anecdotes to support and provide evidence for his statements. Gladwell's main argument is that although hard work and talent are essential for success, one’s given opportunities and cultural legacy is what really

Success is different for every person. For some people success is making a lot of money, for others it is living a just life. Some people view success as becoming the best in their career. Every person has their own view of what success is. Once one goal is accomplished, another is set. In the novel, Into the Wild, Chris McCandless was a young man who set many goals for himself. He achieved many of his goals through his life. Chris's idea of success was far different from other peoples. The concept of success, is the achievement of one's goals to satisfy oneself and society.

By definition, success is a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity. How an individual reaches the point of success is “not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky- but all critical to making them who they are” (285). Throughout the book, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, the pieces of the secret to success are put together. Three parts of success include pure luck, the amount of time and effort put into working to achieve your goal and where you come from.

There are many different understandings of what success is. Some relate success to money, others relate success to happiness, but it all depends on the type of person.

Success is the chance to go out there and use the resources available to take advantage of opportunities that most people do not. Usually, things happen in life and it can prevent the process of obtaining success. In the readings, “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and “Horatio Alger” by Harlon L. Dalton conveys the message that success is not always an everyday thing and it takes opportunities for it to become part of life. In “The Lesson”, an angered girl named Sylvia is taken on a field trip to a toy store with Miss Moore to learn a valuable lesson. The lesson is to become successful in society because it is the only way to make it to the top. On the other hand, “Horatio Alger” shows more of a realistic viewpoint where success is not as

Success is a weird word. Sometimes you spend your whole life trying to find it and sometimes you’re just plain lucky enough to have it already. Success is never given, it’s earned by the ones who deserve it most. But what is it that helps strive people to the end? Does the end even matter? In life, people are sent on journeys to not only finish, but to experience every little thing along the path. In other words, life is about the journey and not the destination. In both Whale Talk and Stand by Me, characters find meaning for their lives by enduring the hard times, pouring themselves into relationships with other people and staying true to their own systems of belief.

The meaning of "success" has numerous interpretations, whether it is your own or society's definition. Within Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell explains that being successful has nothing to do with what kind of person you are, so whether you are intelligent and hardworking or lazy and aloof, it depends on your circumstances growing up. Whether your parents happen to be immigrants, you are one of the smartest men in the country or you make a habit of practicing an activity for a certain amount of hours a day, your own personal success, according to Gladwell is defined by the conditions you grew up in; the idea of being successful varies from culture to culture, therefore, there is no definite meaning of success other than one's interpretation.

Success is such a strong word for me, but after reading the novel, “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates”, by Westley Moore, I came to the conclusion what success really means to me. “The Other Wes Moore” is about the lives of two men with similar neighborhoods, names and growing up in the wrong direction. Westley struggle with academics and behavior; so he was sent to Valley Forge Military School. He ends up as an army officer, a graduate of John Hopkins University, and a White House fellow. Wes struggle financially, which led him to sell drugs, a thief, and a convicted killer. The choice that they make determines the encounters that they deal with. The important factors that caused Westley to become successful in life while

The United States in the 1900's was a very tough place for an orphan. Children were left homeless and had no hope to survive. They had to dream in boxes on the street in Hell's live. They dreamt of a warm bed and a nice meal waiting on the table. They dreamed of having money that would give them power to enjoy everything else in life. The children at least wanted to get out of Hell's live to live on Mott Street. Hell's live is beneath the poor and Mott Street is the next best thing. Most children all had intuitive to start a little job from boot blacking to selling newspapers. Some were also thieves. They all had to find some way to fulfill their stomachs. There were children who had dreams of something more. Some wanted to

Success comes from self-determination, motivation, and hard work – that was the message I received from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell helped me understand that the outliers mentioned in the book didn’t gain their success easily. Some may have had lucky opportunities and where born in the right year, but they had to work hard, they were smart, and out of their achievements, they made an impact on society. Prior to reading Outliers, I was lost among the success of others because I thought these people came from wealthy families, which meant they had a head start, but I was wrong. Success has a different meaning to everyone, but the commonalities of success are the advantages and opportunities given to us.

Honestly, after reading Ragged Dick i started to asked myself what part of my personality made me successful in life. I truly believe my success in life wasn't a part of my personality, more of a fake who accepted handouts. i never had to work for anything, cheated my way through school and basically life which may sounds a little unbelievable but it happen. Dick also was a bit generous , given clothes away , helping a young man get his 50 bucks back and offering to cover rent from Toms Wilkins mother. I'm not so generous , i like to receive blessings having someone pay my rent or helping me get my stolen my back.

Alger secured his literary niche in 1868 with the publication of his fourth book, Ragged Dick, the story of a poor bootblack's rise to middle-class respectability. This novel was a huge success. His many books that followed were essentially variations on Ragged Dick and featured casts of stock characters: the valiant hard-working, honest youth, the noble mysterious stranger, the snobbish youth, and the evil, greedy squire. In the 1870s, Alger's fiction was growing stale. His publisher suggested he tour the American West for fresh material to incorporate into his fiction. Alger took a trip to California, but the trip had little effect on his writing: he remained mired in the tired theme of "poor boy makes good". The backdrops of these novels,

Personal success is defined by how content and enjoyable your life is. That is not to say that challenges and disappointments aren’t included in this. A rich, eventful and challenging life doing what you enjoy and positively affecting others seems to me to be just about right. Find a job you love and you’ll never work another day in your life. I know I won’t. In my

Now, with technology advancing at the same rate as society matures and changes, success is a concept that can be different to many different groups of people. Gladwell insists that success is formulated through a series of hidden advantages and cultural legacies that are fixed, therefore that’s why many do not become successful. I simply do not feel that is the case. Success is achieved through ambition and hard work that is instilled in you. Anyone has the power to take matters into their own hands and create their own success.