Horatio Alger

In class the other night we talked a little about Eisner's influnece by Horatio Alger. I have never heard of Alger until my Progressive Age/ GIlded Age History class. Alger was an influentual writter who told stories which had typical 'rags to riches' plots. At least that is the impression that I had received by his book, Ragged Dick or Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks.

When the book was written it was a common thing for young boys to be living on the street where they had to find some sort of an occupation, such as black-booting, in order to make a living for themselves or their families. It is here that we find the 'hero' of the novel, Ragged Dick, who had lost his family and is trying to make a living for himself. Ragged Dick is different than the other boys though. He is an honest human and very ambitious. He is also very caring of other people even if they have wronged him in some way. There is one boy in the book who ends up losing his father who was his dependence to survive. Come to find out the boy's father was cheated by a family friend out of all his money therefore causing this boy to become poor. So the boy had to live on the street and start Boot- blacking as well. Ragged Dick invited the boy to room with him in his new home which is a very nobel thing. Eventually Ragged Dick decided to get schooling in order to get a better job which eventually works out. These are just a few examples of how this story goes.

I can see the relation between Eisner's book and Alger's book. To a certain extent Eisner's book does tell a fairy tail where the underdog rises to the top. In Cookalein, the 2 younger persons who lie about their financials do this in order to attracked a rich mate. Then as we see it ends terrible as the man rapes the women. Yet it turns out they both 'benefit' in the end where he finds another woman she decided to marry the man that really loves her. It's a small example compared to Ragged Dick yet the similar set-up is still there.

The young boy who finds the contract with God after Hersh feels that it is something worth valuing. Before he was a good boy but then he was almost beat by some younger boys yet he ends up with a victory over the 3 bullying boys. Then he finds this contract which he feels will also make his life better. Again, a small example to compare to Alger's story yet there is a similar general plot.