Wouldn’t it be nice to have it all? Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a society where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed in life? No one looks at race or anything of that nature just solely on merit and no matter where you come from or what you go through you have the same opportunity as the next person. Merit is the quality of being particularly good or worth especially so as to deserve praise or reward. Well, this is the message that Horatio Alger gives to his readers that some people feel as though it’s a myth as oppose to others thinking it’s great guidelines or a great blueprint to success. In a selection of the money and success chapter in “Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing”, a professor at Yale Law School, Harlon L. Dalton critiques the story of Horatio Alger “Ragged Dick” calling it a myth. Dalton says that you can’t just overlook the fact that people still are based upon race and class. The Horatio Alger myth conveys three basic messages. The first one says that each of us is judged solely on her or his own merits. The second one stated that we each have a fair opportunity to develop those merits. Last but not least, the third one implied merit would out. Each of them is, to be charitable, problematic. The first message is a variant on the rugged individualism ethos. . In this form, it suggests that success in life has nothing to do with pedigree, race, class background, gender, national origin, sexual orientation-in short, with anything beyond our individual control (Dalton). The second message conveyed by Horatio Alger is that we all have a shot reaching our true potential. To be fair, neither Alger nor the myth he underwrote suggests that we start out equal. Nor d... ... middle of paper ... ... Money and class was the context in which this work was written because in Horatio’s theory people were equal, started off equal, and have equal opportunity. I assumed that the author Horatio lived the American dream and didn’t see the reality of society and that’s another thing I feel like rich people tend to not notice is the reality of society. In conclusion, I know everyone would love to have it all and just wished it were this perfect plan or blueprint to success. Who wouldn’t, but its not. You can make it out but it’s going to be easy, some maybe easier than others but just stay focused and would get there. I side with Dalton’s point of view 100 percent although Horatio’s view would be nice and it does indeed sound great and grasp your attention. Even though people don’t have equal opportunity still work hard, stay consistent in doing so, and never give up.
Throughout the history of literature, a great deal of authors has tried to reveal a clear understanding of the American Dream. Whether it is possible to achieve lies all in the character the author portrays. The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye stand as prime examples of this. F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger, the authors of these titles, respectively, fashion flawed characters, Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield, with one vital desire: the longing to gain what they can’t have; acceptance and the feeling of belonging. Each retaining characteristics that shows their differences and similarities in opinion of the world around them.
Growing up in The United States, people are given this idea of an American Dream. Almost every child is raised to believe they can become and do anything they want to do, if one works hard enough. However, a majority of people believe that there is a separation of class in American society. Gregory Mantsios author of “Class in America-2009” believes that Americans do not exchange thoughts about class division, although most of people are placed in their own set cluster of wealth. Also political officials are trying to get followers by trying to try to appeal to the bulk of the population, or the middle class, in order to get more supporters. An interesting myth that Mantsios makes in his essay is how Americans don’t have equal opportunities.
“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” This mantra from Margaret Mead is a somewhat humorous yet slightly satirical spin on how people tend to think of themselves as one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable human specimens. However, one English teacher from Wellesley High School takes this critique one step further with his polemic presentation at the school commencement. David McCullough, a Massachusetts English teacher, gave a seemingly somber sendoff to his graduates in 2012, with a speech that contained some unapologetically harsh sentiments. However, by looking past the outwardly dismal surface of the speech, the students can infer a more optimistic message. By incorporating devices of asyndeton, paradox, antimetabole, and anadiplosis, McCullough conveys to each student that even though none of them is unique, their commonality is not a fault they all have merit and should strive to view the world through a more selfless lens.
In his essay “Land of Opportunity” James W. Loewen details the ignorance that most American students have towards class structure. He bemoans the fact that most textbooks completely ignore the issue of class, and when it does it is usually only mentions middle class in order to make the point that America is a “middle class country. This is particularly grievous to Loewen because he believes, “Social class is probably the single most important variable in society. From womb to tomb, it correlates with almost all other social characteristics of people that we can measure.” Loewen simply believes that social class usually determine the paths that a person will take in life. (Loewen 203)
Nevertheless, our social structure isn’t a brick wall were individuals are trapped in there social class. We are still able with education and the opportunities to shape our lives and achieve our full potential. Harlon L. Dalton emulates the possibility within his story about Horatio Alger, “neither Alger nor the myth suggests that we start out equal. Nor does the myth necessarily require that we be given an equal opportunity to succeed. Rather, Alger’s point is that each of us has the power to create our own opportunities.”
Social class was slightly more significant than racism and sexism, because the amount of money an immigrant had determined the way they lived, the food they ate, and what work they had to do. Sinclair explained how there were two different social classes, one was “the capitalist class, with its enormous fortunes,” and the other was “proletariat, bound into slavery by unseen chains.” The overall objective of the novel was to convince the reader into becoming a Socialist, where one could fix the terrible conditions of that time
According to Ty Kiisel, writer for Forbes magazine, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” (Kiisel). In the book Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger, Alger portrays a young New York boot black in the 1860s. Dick rises to become the embodiment of the American Dream through, as Kiisel notes, who he knows. Ragged Dick builds many relationships with upper-class men, fellow boot blacks, and even builds connections within himself, all while keeping his morality in check. The relationships that Ragged Dick forms are what make him achieve the American Dream.
Wolff, Tobias. “The Rich Brother.” Making Literature Matter. Ed. John Clifford and John Schilb. 2nd Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 391 – 403.
As Americans we are raised to believe that every individual has a chance to succeed; that is to succeed financially and economically, but not an equal chance. Ultimately, at...
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.
...d by a difference in wealth. The difficulty to provide for a family, much less make more money to rise above the working class, caused children born into working class families to feel like they were “stuck” because they did not have the extra time or money to devote to an education. Instead of being able to learn and grow during childhood, children in the working class focused on the survival of themselves and their family. This contrasts the middle class where children had the possibility to earn an education before working in the future. Horatio Alger argued that anyone can change their situation by a little extra work and by improving their behavior, but Ragged Dick was an unrealistic character. Children born into poverty often faced a cycle, where guidance and luck could not even help the escape the working class because they were committed to their families.
Diversity, equality and fairness are the latest buzzwords being kicked around in academia and the media. Everybody is supposed to achieve the American Dream today, regardless of who you are, where you came from, or what you do to get there. According to their math, equality of opportunity equals equality of outcome, and if it doesn't, rig the formula so it does.
Leslie McCall divides opportunity into five tropes, each corresponding with a way Americans conceptualize opportunity. Violations of each trope of opportunity correspond with a particular problem Americans might have with inequality. The first, the level playing field, requires equal access to the means by which one prepares for positions, usually by education. ‘Bootstraps’ opportunity holds that hard work and preference are sufficient
In spite of the privileged getting anything money can buy, an underprivileged person gets the important things money cant buy. Many people have heard the expression “if you give a man a fish you can feed them a day, if you teach a man to fish you can feed them a lifetime.” Well I believe privileged people are given fish and the underprivileged taught to fish.
Class distinction is one of Jane Austen’s themes in the novel, and the differentiation related to it is evidently depicted. Reading the novel from the first chapter, I realize that the author clearly illustrates that class is what matters most in many of the incidences displayed by the characters. Unless an individual is of a given class, the idea that he or she has money is not valued, since only birth in a certain background is what is of value. When a person openly values money over class, such a person is frowned upon. In general terms, the Novel shows a social world extremely stratified and full of pretension and class struggle.