This essay examines Mark Twain's satirical story "The Story of the Good Little Boy" as a pointed critique of the moral optimism embedded in Horatio Alger's popular rags-to-riches novels and the Christian didactic literature of the Gilded Age. The paper traces how Twain deployed irony to expose the gap between the promised rewards of virtue and the harsh realities of late nineteenth-century American life, a period defined by industrial inequality, political corruption, and the rise of robber barons. The essay also considers how Twain's later works, including The Gilded Age and The Prince and the Pauper, reinforce his skeptical but nuanced view of goodness, reward, and justice.
Mark Twain wrote several variations of "The Story of the Good Little Boy" at different times, driven by the conviction that irony was a great teacher. In all of these related stories, the "Good Little Boy" obeyed all the rules and never did anything bad, yet — in spite of Christian teachings promising that virtue would be rewarded — everything turned out badly for him.
Twain wrote these stories in response to the prevailing notion of his day that anyone could make himself a success through sufficient hard work, an idea popularized by Horatio Alger's "rags to riches" novels. More than 100 of these novels were published between 1860 and 1899, all sharing the common formula that a poor boy could make good through luck, hard work, and self-denial. "Pluck and Luck" were their themes, and Mark Twain took issue with this all-too-simple formula through his stories of good little boys whose luck turned out to be uniformly bad (Twain 1879).
The Gilded Age, which lasted from 1878 through 1889, was an era of mass immigration and rapid industrialism. Named by Mark Twain after his novel The Gilded Age, it was a time of burgeoning production and increased demand for American resources and transportation. The railroad boom brought goods from the West to the East and vice versa, supplying jobs and wealth for those with ingenuity in packaging and shipping. The refrigerated railroad car allowed vegetables to cross the country without spoiling, while cattle, minerals, and fuel criss-crossed the nation.
Yet the Gilded Age — an era in which opportunity existed for the few — made the many poor appear to be fools, since they could never make it rich. The gap between rich and poor was stark. While socialite Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish threw a dinner party for her dog, who arrived wearing a $15,000 diamond collar, most Americans went hungry and wore rags. Those who labored in factories owned by the wealthy felt uneasy and resentful of the instant fortunes of luckier men and women. Immigrants were arriving by the boatload and jobs were scarce. The 12 million families earning $380 a year or less dealt with crime and overcrowded living conditions. Strikes and riots followed, and the middle class grew fearful of what observers called "carnivals of revenge" by the poor (PBS 1999).
Politics offered one outlet, and Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall began providing services to the poor while enriching itself. This culture of corruption reached the highest levels of government, touching the presidency and cabinet of Ulysses S. Grant (PBS 1999). Oil and steel created millionaires — figures like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie — who were equally known as robber barons for their ruthlessness. Many fortunes and famous names emerged during this period, and the lives of the rich became fodder for the literary market. Twain's own The Gilded Age was yet another ironic tale, this one about political leaders who had succeeded by being "bad" rather than "good" (Library of Congress 2007).
All of this prompted Twain to declare: "What is the chief end of man? — to get rich. In what way? — dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must" (Twain 1873).
Ever the master of irony as a vehicle for moral instruction, Twain wrote The Gilded Age and "The Story of the Good Little Boy" to demonstrate that it does not take much observation to conclude that being virtuous does not guarantee wealth or success. In the story, the little boy is good to the utmost degree: he never disobeys his parents, loves going to church, and follows all rules at home, at school, and at church — even when his "sober judgment" suggests it may not be the most profitable course of action. The other children do not understand him, but he does not mind. They protect him because they consider him "afflicted." He reads his Sunday-school books and believes everything they say, even though he never observes their lessons confirmed in everyday life.
Knowing from his reading that all good boys die young, he decides he wants to become one of them. He wants to die young and have all his relatives and friends standing around mourning his passing, and he wants a book written about him describing how he gave to the poor and refused to betray other children who misbehaved. He is not entirely sure he wishes to die, but since that is the documented fate of good boys, he is determined to see it through.
Up to this point, Twain is describing the aspirations of children who take their parents' Christianity seriously. They want to believe the literature produced by the church and by Christian authors such as Horatio Alger. They want to be honored as "good little boys and girls" and reap the supposed rewards of virtue. Twain describes the rationale — which is, of course, flawed — and the expected outcome, which is equally flawed but depicted with some truthfulness relative to the Christian literature of the era.
The boy soon discovers that everything turns out opposite to what his church literature promised. It is not the good little boys who are rewarded and spared misfortune, but quite the reverse. When he tries to do good, bad things happen to him. When he attempts to help people or animals, they are not grateful — they are angry, and he is the one who gets hurt. When he tries to instruct boys who are breaking the rules, he is the one who is punished, yet he remains determined to be good.
He seeks employment armed with a teacher's glowing recommendation, but lacking experience he cannot get the job, and the recommendation counts for nothing. He meets his end suddenly while attempting a good deed, though no one understands this; he is simply blown apart — "so they had to hold five inquests on him to find out whether he was dead or not." He perishes without fulfilling his greatest wish, to be honored as a good little boy, because he is falsely judged to be the perpetrator of the very misdeed he was trying to prevent.
This story was written with tongue firmly in cheek by a man who was keenly observant about what life had to offer both the good and the bad. Twain was able to show that it often does no good to try to be virtuous, because the wicked sometimes receive the breaks that the virtuous deserve, while the virtuous end up footing the bill. This was Twain's way of asserting that the dominant literature of the day was so flawed as to be misleading — indeed, criminally ignorant of the truth. The truth, he was arguing, was the opposite of what was taught in church literature, and well-meaning Christians who had their children read Horatio Alger's novels were doing those children a disservice.
Still, human nature — as illustrated by the Good Little Boy's case — wants to believe. People tell themselves and their children stories like Cinderella and watch films like Shrek, enjoying the idea that if one is good and continues to be good against all odds, one will be rewarded with some kind of crown and prosperity. It is this conviction — that goodness ultimately triumphs — that humans cling to, the belief that being very, very good will bring very, very great reward. Unfortunately, as experience often reveals, this is not the case, and being conspicuously virtuous can annoy others to the point that they will do anything to get even.
Yet even Mark Twain must have believed in the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3–10)
"Universal desire to believe goodness brings reward"
"Twain revisits reward and justice in later work"
Twain, Mark. The Gilded Age. New York: Classic Literature Library, 1873.
Twain, Mark. The Prince and the Pauper. London: Clays Ltd, St. Ives plc, 1996.
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