Ragged Dick, an Interesting Story and a Bad Choice For a Title

Read excerpts from Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger (RA p. 264-269)

Blog – Dick is essentially rewarded for his actions with the job opportunity of a lifetime. What implicit argument is the story making about what it takes to be successful?

The story makes an implicit argument that those who help others selflessly will be rewarded for their actions. The implicit argument in this story, better termed the moral of the story shows that to be successful you have to help other people. The story notes that Dick would have saved the boy who was drowning even if the father had not offered a large sum of money. This shows that Dick, despite his lower status in society, contained the traits of a hero. It even notes, his penmanship had improved, showing that he had moved up in society, he wrote his signature neatly. Back then a neat signature was considered the mark of a gentleman. In the story the author refers to Dick as “our hero” for parts of the story. The story also shows that success has a base in skill and education. In the story the skill was swimming and it mentions that not even a year before he was illiterate.