Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick has depicted a general picture of New York in the late nineteenth century. The novel is about a street boy Dick’s rise from poverty to respectability. Someone may argue that Dick’s success is all because of his luck. He is so lucky that he has met lots of people who are willing to help him. In my opinion, luck is just a part. Dick’s rise is due to a combination of his efforts, perseverance, ambition, optimism, virtues, smartness and luck. It is true that Dick isn’t a model boy in all aspects. He likes playing tricks with unsophisticated boys, giving wrong directions, smoking, gambling and spending money generously, either with friends or in the Old Bowery Theater and Tony Pastor’s. But his nature is a noble one and have saved him from all mean faults (8). Dick is a boy of virtues. He has his own principles that he never steals or cheats. He is a boy is a boy of honesty. “Some boys get it easier than that… but I wouldn’t (3-4)”. Dick likes entertainment, but he all earns the money he needs by shining shoes. When Greyson hasn’t got anything …show more content…
Dick’s humor is more like a special way of making jokes. In many situations where he is faced with someone’s tease or bullying, he can use his humor successfully to “fight” back. When Mickey Maguire doubts that Dick steals, Dick responds humorously, which not only states his innocence and satirizes that Mickey is the person whose hands are not “clean”: “I don’t say anything about it… I ain’t a-goin’ to say (88)”. Sometimes it is also his interesting way of making fun of himself attracts customers to his shoe-shining business. For example, when Dick meets Mr. Greyson first on the street, he asks whether Greyson wants to shine shoes. Although Greyson thinks the price is a little high, Dick’s joke about himself finally convinces Greyson: “Yes sir,” said Dick, always ready to joke… why they don’t fit
Dick Hickock was the twisted individual who planned the invasion into the Clutter’s home and pushed for the gruesome policy of “no witnesses.” Unlike his partner in crime, Perry, Capote wrote Dick as an utterly unlikeable man with seemingly no redeeming qualities, no glimpse of humanity, and, above all, no feelings of regret. A court psychiatrist surmises that Dick suffers from “ a severe character disorder” which causes him to “seems obviously uninfluenced by [his moral standards] in his actions, [have] a pathological inability to form and hold enduring personal attachments”, “cannot tolerate feelings of frustration as a more normal person can”, have “a very low self-esteem”, and makes Hickock “feel inferior to others and sexually inadequate…these
Unable to conform to society’s norms, Richard Eugene Hickcok is raised by his parents who are modest farmers. In spite of his family’s hardship Dick’s childhood is pretty typical, he is popular throughout high school, plays sports, and he dreams of going to college. Due to his family’s lack of resources, Dick is unable to fulfill his dream of attending college. In spite of Dick’s unfortunate drawbacks Dick lives an average life, he marries has three children, and becomes a mechanic. Dick lives a typical American life, but soon after his third child is born Dick has an extramarital affair which ends his marriage. Shortly after his divorce from his first wife Dick remarries, but his second marriage ...
The whole “robbery” was planned by Dick, the drive was planned by Dick, and even the cover up process was his idea. Although he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger, Dick is equally responsible for the Clutter family murder as Perry. It would take a horrible person to murder a family, but it takes a vial beast to plan, examine, organize, and operate the murder. Dick grew up with loving parents who were no poorer than any other family in the neighborhood. According to both him and his parents, he was a good kid who did well in school and lettered in nine sports. Similar to Perry, he feels cheated in life and is willing to do anything he must to get what he deserves. Along with this, he has zero insight on how to life a normal life. Dick is the type of person to act on his impulses. He 's likes to have a good time and live in the moment. His aspirations are easy money and easy women. With this, he seems to have no ability to weigh the consequences of his actions, and he will do whatever it takes to get his way. This type of momentary reaction is prone to lead a life of “poor decision.” If he’s in need of money, he will write a few bad checks or maybe steal from a store. If this jig wasn’t plentiful enough, he hitches a ride with a stranger to basically rob and kill everyone in the car. Dick was known for being a terrible person as one man stated, “Dick Hickock! Don 't talk to me about
One of Horatio Alger’s books was called Ragged Dick or Street Life in New York, this book featured a young boot black named Dick Hunter and his friend Henry Fosdick. Dick in the beginning is living on the street and is never sure where he will sleep from one night to the next. He is fairly happy but wishes to be respectable. One day he offers Mr. Whitney, a businessman, to show his nephew, Frank, around New York City because Mr. Whitney is too busy to do it himself. After this day Dick’s life begins to change from a boot black with an uncertain life to a clerk who rents a room and earns ten dollars a week.
Horatio Alger's “Ragged Dick” is a story which expresses the morals found within a fourteen year old homeless boy. This young boy is quite different because of the morals and actions he showcases to others. Unlike other homeless individuals, Ragged Dick is a boy who puts forth honesty while acting in courteous ways which represent a true level of dignity. Although Ragged Dick is such a prideful and respectful young boy, he is also known as a “spendthrift.” Spendthrifts are individuals who are careless with their actions in terms of their spending as they have little no regard for their money. One example of this can be seen as we read, “Dick's appearance as he stood beside the box was rather peculiar. His pants were torn in several places, and had apparently belonged in the first instance to a boy two sizes larger than himself. He wore a vest, all the buttons of which were gone except two, out of which peeped a shirt which looked as if it had been worn a month. To complete his costume he wore a coat too long for him, dating back, if one might judge from its general appearance, to a remote antiquity” (Alger).
By structuring his novel where time is out of joint, Dick is able to illustrate that one’s perception of reality is entirely based on what one believes to be fact. This point is illustrated through Ragle Gumm, who, “from his years of active military life” in the beginning of the story, “prided himself on his physical agility” (Dick 100). It is not until time is mended again toward the end of the book that he realizes that it had been, in fact, his father that had served in the war. This demonstrates how one’s firm belief can turn into a reality, as it did for Ragle Gumm for the two and a half years he lived in the fabricated city of Old Town.
The tenement was the biggest hindrance to achieving the American myth of rags to riches. It becomes impossible for one to rise up in the social structure when it can be considered a miracle to live passed the age of five. Children under the age of five living in tenements had a death rate of 139.83 compared to the city’s overall death rate of 26.67. Even if one did live past the age of five it was highly probable he’d become a criminal, since virtually all of them originate from the tenements. They are forced to steal and murder, they’ll do anything to survive, Riis appropriately calls it the “survival of the unfittest”. (Pg.
In Italy, after he begins his affair with Rosemary, Dick is disillusioned with her. He finds that Rosemary belongs to other people. In his disillusionment, his thoughts turn to Nicole, and how she is still "his girl - too often he was sick at heart about her, yet she was his girl" (213). Rosemary is no longer his possession solely and this cracks his surface. He returns to his love for Nicole like a guard, because he is weak without it. He refers to it as "an obscuring dye" (217). He is Nicole, and Nicole is he, and at this point the line between them has been blurred to bring them together. Dick does not realize that as much as he believes Nicole depends on him, he is dependent on her. He depends on her neediness to define him. Dick knows, however, that Nicole is important to him and that the thought "that she should die, sink into mental darkness, love another man, made him physically sick"(217). Not only is this excellent foreshadowing on Fitzgerald's part, but it gives us a measure just how dependent Dick is. Physical illness is uncontrollable. If even the thought makes causes him to have psychosomatic symptoms, it is imaginable what the actuality would bring. Dick needs Nicole badly, more so than ever at this point.
The first relationships with the upper-class that Ragged Dick builds are with Mr. Whitney and his nephew Frank. “I may be rash in trusting a boy of whom I know nothing, but I like your looks…” says Mr. Whitney (Alger 23). Dick’s appearance at the time could not be called proper by any means; he truly lives up to the name Ragged. Whitney talks more about his inner features rather than his physical ones; he could see Dicks accountability and honesty. Before he lets Dick give his nephew a tour he lets him take a bath, gives him a new suit, and even grants him five dollars. Mr. Whitney leaves Dick with some advice, “your future position depends mainly upon yourself” (79). The next person of the upper-class Dick becomes acquainted with is Mr. Grayson. The day before he acquires the suit from Mr. Whitney, Mr. Grayson employs Dick to shine his shoes; he doesn’t have time to wait till Dick gets back with his change. When Dick comes by to drop off Mr. Grayson’s change the next day, dressed in his new suit, he is invited to attend Mr. Grayson’s Sunday school class where Mr. Grayson would “do what he can to help [Dick]” (102). Dick probably would not have gotten the invitation to Su...
Dick presents our main character, Commissioner John Anderton, as the balding, pot-bellied founder of a revolutionary new crime detection system who's been showing his years for longer than he'd care to remember. In the short story, he has just acquired a new assistant, Ed Witwer, and fears being replaced by the younger man. In the beginning, Anderton is portrayed as slightly insecure about his job (to the point of near paranoia of being set-up), as well as his importance to society, though by the e...
Saul Bellow’s The Dangling Man is a novel that contains no specific plot line, but rather follows Joseph and his narrative and thoughts as he depicts the American point of view during the time of the Great Depression. Joseph dangles between civilian and military life during the time of his journal, hence becoming the dangling man who is a “man without a purpose, without a job, without direction” (Possler, 21). In a way to describe its broadness, The Dangling Man is a novel of the city of Chicago and World War II in which, at the same time, it is a novel of a city and of a war; a novel of supposed choices wherein reality there are no such choices. Joseph, himself being the “Dangling Man”, is someone who is neither a stranger nor an outsider; his life could be described as a man who is in a situation where action and life is simply movement drained of meaning. He describes his being as a “narcotic dullness” (Pynchon, 13). This is what makes Bellow’s novel a great example of an individual’s relationship in ...
Alger, Horatio. “From Ragged Dick.” Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Colombo, Gary, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin's, 2013. 252. Print.
The understanding of the point of view of the author in any novel is crucial to understanding the significance of the message that the author is trying to demonstrate. In Moby Dick, Herman Melville uses the literary devices of allusion and tone to illustrate his point of view. Melville uses this technique to convey many of his messages. In chapter 110 of the novel, Melville demonstrates his belief of and lack of knowing about the afterlife in Queequeg’s death scene. Melville uses a tone of mystery and incompleteness to illustrate his belief that we are still present in the physical world in the afterlife. He then uses obscure and abstract allusions to support the mystery of the afterlife. Melville was trying to convey his confident belief in the existence of the afterlife.
Imagine that you were on the streets and no one was willing to help you. The story of “Not Poor, Just Broke” written by Dick Gregory. Tells a story about a little boy, named Dick Gregory, who lived in the city slums of New York in the 1930s. There are several reasons that cause his hardships and his views of the world The reasons were he does not have a dad to help his mom, his envionment, and his background of being an African American.
“Richard Cory” is a poem written by American poet Edwin Arlington Robinson during the late 18th century. The poem is about a man named Richard Cory who was more of symbol than actual person. The author uses Richard Cory as symbol for wealth in America during the American Industrial Revolution to express his feelings of the upper class. The author uses this poem to show class disparity in America while portraying the wealthy class as being surrounded by a veil. Robinson wanted to show that the wealthy class was distinctly separated from the lower class; while also, revealing that the upper class was not genuinely happy by using the surprise ending.