Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger is a wonderful description of how hard work, perseverance, and good morals can help a person improve his circumstances. Dick Hunter, the protagonist, has some faults to be sure, as is mentioned in the beginning of the novel: “[Dick] wasn’t a model boy in all respects…he swore sometimes, and now and then he played tricks…or gave a wrong direction…Dick was careless of his earnings…all was generally spent before morning.” Additionally, Dick has gambled in the past, as he tells Frank in chapter six: “One time I saved up five dollars to buy me a new rig-out…when Limpy Jim wanted me to play a game with him…I lost every penny.”
However, despite his faults, Dick’s refusal to cheat or steal because it’s mean and wrong leads men like Mr. Greyson and Mr. Whitney to want to help him move up, seeing something good in him. Mr. Whitney gives Dick $5 to start working towards something good, the equivalent of roughly $85 today. Dick is humbled by this gift and makes a promise to himself that he will save his money rather than spend it on things he does not need. He rents a room so he can protect his money and his clothes, and after working hard for several months, has saved up $117 (around $2000 today). At the end of the novel, his good morals help him once again when he saves the son of a man who is well-off, who offers him a job starting at $10 per week, which is around $170 a week in 2019.
Ragged Dick is clearly geared towards boys given that there are very few female characters in the book; however, for a female in the 21st century, Ragged Dick is still a great book to teach that hard work and perseverance are the building blocks to success. For me personally, the novel showed that careful saving of money for the future is better than the instant gratification of spending on unnecessary indulgences. This part of the novel was definitely the part I identified with most because I had my first job this year, and had money to spend on things I wanted versus what I needed. My spending habits were suddenly very different. The success Dick obtained when he saved rather than spent his spare cash reminded me that spending money on things I don’t need is not going to be as rewarding than if I saved that same money for the future.
I completely agree with what you are writing. Throughout the novel, it is clear that Ragged Dick is a coming of age novel, designed to help transition younger boys to becoming respectable adults, similar to Ragged Dick. It shows Dick, who transitions from having "a habit of smoking. This cost him considerable, for Dick was rather fastidious about his cigars, and wouldn't smoke the cheapest" (8) to a man who refuses to smoke, gamble, or drink. He is quick to help others without looking for anything in return, and even offers to give a complete stranger, Frank Whitney, a tour around New York. With all this, he keeps an honest lifestyle, and is gracious and at the same time possessing humility about what is given to him. He refuses to accept gifts initially, unless he feels as if he has deserved it. The novel clearly shows a transition in the character of Ragged Dick, as he begins saving his money and getting an education. Symbolically, his name changes as his growth occurs. Starting off as Ragged Dick, it is in a sense poetic that at the end of the story he adopts his true name -- Richard Hunter. To me, this truly signifies that with everything that Dick has went through, and all the lessons he has learned, it has caused him to be 'spectable, and offers a moral guideline to the readers on how to act in order to become respectable as well.
ReplyDelete