The hero of this novel by Horatio Alger, Dick, is a boot blacker who earns a great deal of sympathy from the audience within the first fifteen pages of the book. He has been left to fend for himself for a while now, but despite the shortcomings in his manners and appearance, he remains someone who is trustworthy and has a good base of morals.
I was entertained by the stories of Frank and Dick's travels around New York City and absolutely endeared by Frank's uncle being so generous to Dick. However, this generosity sparked a question in my mind: if Frank's uncle had just given Dick the money outright, and Frank had toured the city by himself, how much of the book would remain the same? In my opinion, Alger would've had to construct a completely different plotline in order to push his moral agenda. Yes, Dick has the means to turn his life around from the money, but the only reason that he develops the ambition to change his ways is that he spends the day with Frank. He gets to see how the other half lives, so to speak, and feels so much better about himself that he can't go back to just being a grimy boot blacker with ten cents to his name at a time.
If Dick had simply received the money, I firmly believe he would've kept up his good morals like not stealing, but I think he would've eventually blown it all on plays at the Bowery or treating his friends to classy meals. It's an interesting concept because it isn't something that the audience would think of right away. We're meant to believe that the uncle's generosity is what makes Dick decide to start living 'spectably. However, had he not spent the day being treated like a person of worth and seeing all that the world could offer if he adopted the right morals and responsibilities, Dick would have little interest in changing his daily habits and trying to save up money. Frank plays a much bigger role than he is made out to. He seems like a charming companion who is kind to Dick and treats him to a fun day out, but in reality, he's also showing Dick the life that he could live every day, should he choose to work hard enough.
All in all, though money is often desperately needed and a great start to helping someone reshape their life, stories like Ragged Dick show us that a lump sum is little good if the recipient does not have the tools necessary to put it to good use. It's one of the less obvious themes of the story, but one that Alger nonetheless wanted to communicate to an audience of people with the ability to lend a helping hand.
I as well was engaged by the experience of Frank and Dick traveling around New York City, and was happy to read of Frank’s uncle’s generosity to Dick. I find it interesting that you question the impact of the sum of money presented to Dick, had it been presented in a different way. I entirely believe that Dick, having received the money after spending the day with Frank, had a much greater sense of what Frank’s uncle meant by “I hope it may be of service to you. Sometime when you are a prosperous man, you can repay it in the form of aid to some poor boy, who is struggling upward as you are now”(57). This came full circle towards the end of the book, after Dick passed on five dollars to Tom Wilkins. “Dick thought of this, and it occurred to him that after all he was only paying up an old debt”(116). Although Dick was most always a respectable young boy, before meeting the Wilkins he did not quite understand the concept of saving his earnings, and had the five dollars simply been a gift I believe it would not have sparked his savings, therefore leading to your point about needing a completely different story line to convey the same morals.
ReplyDeleteI think your question of whether or not the story would have changed if Frank's uncle had given the money to Dick from the beginning is really insightful. I also like your take on the fact that receiving the money outright would not have affected Dick in the same way, as in he would not be motivated to become more respectable. However, I look at it as Frank's uncle asked Dick to give Frank a tour as a way to earn the money. As in, Frank's uncle asked Dick to give Frank a tour of New York to ensure he was trustworthy. Even though Dick didn’t want to take the money at first and said to Mr. Whitney, “I didn’t earn it,” (Alger 57) he recognized that Mr. Whitney was giving him the money because he had earned Frank’s and Mr. Whitney’s trust. The fact that two people he just met had so much faith in him inspired him to make something of himself. If Dick had not gained the confidence to become a respectable person from Frank, he would not have succeeded in becoming more respectable. Since Frank instilled the confidence needed to succeed in Dick, Dick wished “to have Frank witness the improvement he had made in his studies and mode of life” (Alger 121). If Dick were to show Frank how much his life had improved, I think both Frank and Mr. Whitney would realize they made a good decision in trusting Dick.
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