- Blog – In what way does Cruz’s story contrast the idyllic themes of Alger? Are they also similar in some ways?
Cruz’s stories deal with the real world experiences of his own personal life. These experiences contrast sharply with the fictional stories of Horatio Alger. Cruz explains how in his life the fact that he was Mexican, not white, made him stereotyped against by the people in his job. Even though he was doing well financially he still felt that people were no treating him as a n equal. One of the clearest examples he cites is that when he hired a black woman to be a secretary at the office his boss fired her, for no good reason, while Cruze was on vacation. Alger on the other hand makes this comparison a little bit apples to oranges, this is because not once in the story Ragged Dick, Horatio/Dick does he mention race as a factor, which leads me to believe that he was probably white. Thus meaning that he was not taking into consideration the person getting ahead being black.
1 comment:
Chris,
I agree with what you are saying when you bring up the piece in Cruz's story--hiring a black person who was later fired while he was on vacation. That struck me as odd too because I think that he was hired to prove diversity in that company, but yet when Cruz hired a black person, that person was fired without Cruz's consultation. On the other hand, I don't agree with your statement about Cruz saying that he was stereotyped by people in his job because he was Mexican. In fact, I would just about say the opposite-- that he was almost rewarded or thought of higher than any other non-white person because he was Mexican. But overall, good blogs!
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