Summary Of From Ragged Dick By Horatio Alger

Within his story, “From Ragged Dick”, Horatio Alger wrote about a man who came from nothing that eventually ended up being very successful with high merit. Many people in the know this type of success story to be termed as the American Dream.
Throughout this story, a man named Richard Hunter, or Dick, yearned to hold a position in a counting room. He worked hard to improve his language, reading, and writing skills because of his determination for a successful future (Alger 246). He valued intelligence and success. Although, after his hard work and many rejections, he began to lose hope for a better future. But, by doing an altruistic, heroic action things looked up for him.
Dick saw a little boy fall into water when he could not swim. As soon as Dick saw that the boy needed to be saved, he ran to him immediately with no hesitation even though he knew it was dangerous and without thinking of any potential personal gain (Alger 248). After he saved the young boy, the boy’s father later offered Dick a job

Although merit may be one of the ways people are judged, there are many other factors that apply within the American society. An example used in Dalton’s story was about a student who was in the top of their academic class and the were referred to as “the best Black” rather than simply “one of the best students” (261). Clearly, this example illustrates one of the ways people are judged by their race. In this example we can see that people of color are not recognized for hard work as meticulously as White people in the American society, which sets them back for success later on. This story alone is judgement just based on race and skin color rather than the high merit and success that everyone is capable of, but may not have the same opportunities to use those skills to achieve greatness because they are in a minority