Social mobility: patterns, causes, and economic impacts

Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick: Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-blacks (1868)

Ragged Dick is the first of a series of books Horatio Alger wrote about young boys and for young boys (Trachtenberg, 1990). The protagonist is a boy of 14 named Dick Hunter. Since he was seven, he has had to fend for himself on the streets of New York City. He supports himself as a boot-black, polishing shoes for a dime a pair.

Various interpretations have been put on his books, referring to people who start out poor but work hard and end up wealthy and successful as "real Horatio Alger stories." However, in reading the book, the reader will realize that this interpretation isn't entirely correct, for Alger's young hero doesn't want wealth, fame or status. He simply wants to have a secure job and enough money to live on. Neither wealth nor status figure into his goals, and he goes so far as to tell others he does not seek to be wealthy. What he seeks is upward mobility, to no longer sleep outdoors in a wooden box lined with straw and to have middle-class "spectability."

Other critics have looked at Alger's novels as celebrating individualism (1). Certainly Dick Hunter lived an independent life, but he did not want a life independent of society's values. He tried to live by middle class standards, avoiding any chance of stealing or otherwise taking unfair advantage of others. In fact, Dick Hunter wanted to conform. He had lived outside society's bounds and didn't want to be there any longer. Calling Ragged Dick a "rags-to-riches" story would be a gross exaggeration of both Dick's goals and the close of the novel.

In fact, Dick Hunter goes out of his way to adopt middle-class sensibilities whenever he can. Ragged Dick has figured out that the harder he works, the more money he will make. He has observed this both by the results of his willingness to work hard and use his wits to get him more customers and by the relative failure of a friend who doesn't work as hard and as a result, often goes hungry unless Dick feeds him.

Alger's approach to telling Ragged Dick's story is strongly instructional, making it clear what Alger considers to be the "American Dream." He tells his young readers that anyone can achieve financial security, an adequate job and a respectable job if he works hard enough. Horatio Alger wrote his book at a time when New York City had many poor, orphaned children who were trying to find their way as best they could.

One writer who commented on the novel reported a time when he was relaxing in his yard, and his father said to him, "Better enjoy it now," (Leverenz, 1998) suggesting that childhood was for play but adulthood for hard work. Alger suggests that when one starts out with some disadvantages, childhood is for hard work also. Through some improbable situations, the illiterate Dick Hunter learns to read. However, Alger then suggests that it's not what you know but whom you know. Ragged Dick finally gets his desired job not because he is a hard worker and learned to read, but because he saves a child from drowning and is hired by the father. No doubt Dick could not have gotten such a job had he remained illiterate, but it was luck that really made the final difference for him.

In such examples, and other examples in the story where Dick feeds a hungry friend even though he has little money himself or pays someone's rent so they won't be evicted, as well as saving the child from drowning at the end of the story, Alger tells his reader that it isn't enough to work hard but that one must have a generous spirit as well.

Dick grows when he stops spending all his spare money on things such as shows and gambling, starts to save and spend his money to help others. He also demonstrates that he can have some discretionary money but still systematically save for the future, for by the end of the book he has $100 in his savings account, a considerable sum for those times.

Dick also shows middle class aspirations in other ways. For instance, when people attempt to put him down, he responds with wit rather than anger. A customer comments on his shabby coat and he says that it is so battered and torn because George Washington fought many battle in it. He adds that it would be disrespectful to stop wearing it. By these tall tales, he finds a way to tell the person that he won't be an object for their scorn. Leverenz (1998) interprets this quite negatively and asks, "Why does nobody notice that this model of boyish honesty is lying all the time?" Since people tell white lies all the time to spare other people's feelings, and since the ability to tell an entertaining tall tale has made Mark Twain, Will Rodgers and others famous, and since no one is ever hurt by his ability to deflect criticism well, the charge of "lying" seems unfair. In reality, Ragged Dick is demonstrating another important skill that will help him move into the middle class: an ability to get along with all types of people. In addition, some of Ragged Dick's "street smarts" will be of value to employers. He was able to steer a visitor to the city away from con artists, and not easily fooled. When his bankbook is stolen, he is easily able to figure out who stole it as well as make sure he gets it back.