The Industrial Revolution In Ragged Dick By Horatio Alger

Society is ever changing. Literature is a reflection of society at certain periods of time. In the 1800s society saw one of its greatest changes. The Industrial Revolution had come to fruition, and all people were feeling its effects, good or bad. The Industrial Revolution to be put simply, was the true beginning of cities, factories, assembly lines, and less dependence on agriculture. While this revolution had many positive technological and economic effects, it affected the worker in ways unimaginable at the time. The typical factory worker worked in unsafe work conditions, and were underpaid. As one can imagine, this created a social divide between the people who were happy about the change, and people who were affected poorly by it. As

Alger’s most powerful character was Ragged Dick, who embodied these characteristics perfectly. Dick is overly generous at many points in his journey to respectability. Ragged Dick from shining shoes finally starts to become a “capitalist” by saving money in the bank, but his friend Fosdick wanted to find a reputable job, therefore Dick gives him money for him to buy a “serviceable suit” (Alger 18). Therefore, draining his account and Alger showing a man completely disregard capitalistic gains, and being generous to one of his close companions. Dick’s self denial is evident throughout the text, but it is most evident in two scenarios. The first is the setting within the bank when Jim Travis tries to deceive the bank and steal from Dick, and is caught. Instead of Dick being vengeant he denies his self interests and asks for Jim travis to be set free (Alger 23). Secondly, the scene where Alger saves the child from drowning complete generosity and self denial is shown. After Dick nearly drowns, he tells the father of the child “It wasn't any trouble...I can swim like a top” (Alger 26). Even though many of the generous deeds and acts of self denial set Dick back, he eventually came out on top because of luck. The man whose boy he saved was a successful capitalist, and offered Dick a job. He then finally made it to respectability in the world by being using selfless characteristics to get lucky. Both of these authors show these characteristics lead to success because most people were turning into cold capitalists. These characters described in these works fit into the society of their time, and Baum and Alger are showing that even though these characteristics seem counterintuitive to capitalism it leads to