66 pages • 2 hours read
Horatio AlgerRagged Dick
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1868A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Democratic Versus Aristocratic
Alger champions a democratic versus an aristocratic attitude to emphasize the benefits of a society without a rigid class system. In a democratic society, a self-made man can rise on the basis of his own merit, rather than ancestral inheritance. Dick is described as a “thorough democrat, using the word not politically, but in its proper sense, and was disposed to fraternize with all whom he styled ‘good fellows,’ without regard to their position” (122). Roswell Crawford is described as a “young aristocrat” (159) in attitude, “rather supercilious-looking […] genteelly dressed, and evidently having a very high opinion of his dress and himself” (158). As a gentleman’s son, Roswell refused to do the “dirty work” of making a fire at his previous place of employment. Roswell does not believe that bootblacks should be allowed to rise in life and apply for better jobs. Roswell contemptuously views bootblacks as his inferiors. Roswell is enraged when Henry, a bootblack, gets hired for a position instead of a gentleman’s son. Alger portrays Roswell’s aristocratic attitude as the wrong one. He is a villain and foil to Henry, who is humble, and Dick, who is enterprising but compassionate.
Reading and Writing
In Ragged Dick, Dick’s acquisition of reading and writing skills both symbolize his social advancement and contribute to it. Dick attended school for only two days in his youth. As he describes it: “I can’t read much more’n a pig; and my writin’ looks like hens’ tracks” (135). At first, Dick struggles with reading words of two syllables or more. Dick is embarrassed when he must sign his name to open a bank account. He only succeeds in writing “after a hard effort, accompanied by many contortions of the face” (130).
However, Dick is naturally intelligent and studies very hard, so after a year, he “can read well” and “write a fair hand” (167). When he receives a letter from his friend, Frank, he can easily read it as well as write his own letter, despite some grammatical mistakes. When Dick has the opportunity to gain a better position, he has “very much improved his penmanship” and he can write his name “in a free, bold hand” with “no cause to be ashamed of it” (214). Dick’s demonstration of his skills ensures that he progresses from being a bootblack to working as a clerk in a counting-room.
Swindles
Alger portrays multiple attempted swindles, indicating the dangers of the city and the many people who fail to succeed because they try to obtain money in a fast, dishonorable way. Dick does not get swindled because of his urban education: “I ain’t knocked round the city streets all my life for nothin’” (83). Unaccustomed to the urban hustle, Frank is amazed to learn of the “drop-game” swindle. When a man from the countryside gets fooled, Dick says: “A feller has to look sharp in this city, or he’ll lose his eyeteeth before he knows it” (104). A wise man in the city must learn to distinguish a counterfeit dollar bill from a real one and not end up the victim of misplaced confidence.
Alger shows the punishment for men who stray from hard work and try dishonest tricks and thefts to get quick cash: loss of a job, or arrest and imprisonment. The clerk, Mr. Hatch, who tries to pocket a genuine two-dollar bill and pass on a bad bill, is fired by his employer. Jim Travis steals Dick’s bank-book to withdraw money but gets arrested and is imprisoned.
