Ragged Dick: from rags to redemption, a tale of coincidence and moralities

Ragged Dick (1868)- Horatio Alger Jr. (186 pages)

The tale of Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger Jr. follows the adventures and progression of a young boy named Dick, who happens to be ragged. The novel begins with Dick, a homeless boy, sleeping in a box. He wakes up and quickly heads to work as a bootblack or shoe shiner. Alger explains Dick’s initial existence briefly to provide contrast for his later progression. Dick then meets a wealthy boy named Frank who helps to enlighten him with new aspirations for learning and advancement that drive him forward for the rest of the novel.

Alger’s intended audience for this novel ranged widely but was meant to be easily read by young boys as a way to inspire them. This intended audience dictates a very high readability in line with Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer. When reading I found some unknown words, some being archaic, others just being unknown to me but these were the only readability issues I found and it did not happen frequently.

There are two main themes in this work: the illumination of the poor conditions for child workers and the moralities that are needed for personal improvement. Alger, much like Charles Dickens, does an incredible job of illuminating the harsh realities of some young children in the city. Dick embodies these struggles as a young boy with no parents, no home, and no education seemingly setting himself up for a life of hardships. Throughout the work, Alger illuminates other children that seem to be doomed to stay in poverty forever in characters like Mickey Maguire or Johnny Nolan.

The theme of moralities might seem very broad but I will narrow the scope. A large portion of the novel exemplifies the moralities needed to be a successful person and professional. Dick is honest, hard-working, passionate, determined, and selfless. These attributes are each explained numerous times from Dick’s selfless nature to give even when he doesn’t have much to give to Dick’s determined nature to improve himself with education. This coming-of-age story by Alger attempts to give children a model to look up to in the form of Dick, Dick is not without faults but consistently does the right thing and sets himself up to succeed.

I really enjoyed Ragged Dick. At times I found myself grinning after the fortunes of Dick had turned and circumstance had planted him in a favorable position. This is one critique of Ragged Dick that I have heard, that it is almost too fantastical that too much goes right for Dick and there are too many incredible circumstances to be realistic. I disagree with this critique. I believe in life you make your own luck, Dick works extremely hard and puts himself in a position to succeed thus when he does start to have luck turn his way it is extremely enjoyable to see.

Overall, I found much more insight in this work than I originally thought. I believed this would be a trivial, easy read that I would quickly move past and be none the wiser, I was wrong. Ragged Dick is a great coming-of-age story that truly warms the heart as it shows the great progression that Dick has undergone. Dick has struggled greatly in the past and that is why it is so enjoyable to see his progression both monetarily and personally. If you want an easy book to start reading the classics I would highly recommend Ragged Dick. Comparing it directly to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, I don’t want to discount either of these stories but I enjoyed Ragged Dick more. I found the storyline to be more compelling and I felt more invested in Dick than Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn.

As always, my scoring breakdown is below. Thanks for reading!

Score: 8- A very high score and similar to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but I don’t want you to think my rating system has become easier. Both of these books have greatly surprised me across all three categories.

Readability: 9- A very easy read with few instances of difficult word choice.

Thematic Questions: 7- Alger presents a great amount of detail depicting the struggles of child labor and the values needed for personal and professional improvement.

Enjoyment: 8- A very quick and gratifying novel that connects you with Dick and his story very quickly.