ENGL 5444: Childhood in Culture
Dr. C. Sigler
1. Compare and contrast the maturation or "growing up" experiences of Alger and Carroll’s main characters. Both novels were written in the 1860s, and both involve "journeys" and encounters (positive and negative) with the worlds and experiences of adulthood. In addition to differences in culture (British/American, pastoral/urban), do the novels suggest that there were differing expectations for Victorian girls and boys? Do Alice and Dick need different skills to succeed in their journeys? What lessons do Carroll and Alger each seem to believe youg readers should learn from children's literature?
2. How is Dick characterized? What makes him appealing?
3. At the beginning of the book, Dick is far from a model boy: he drinks coffee, smokes cigars, likes to play tricks and gamble. Yet, despite his so-called imperfections, how does the book try to convince us that Dick is truly a "gentleman"?
4. What kinds of key roles do the supporting characters play? Are any of these roles familiar from the "Cinderella" myth?
5. What would you say are the key themes of this novel?
6. Alger is credited with developing a "rags to riches" philosophy based on the ability to "strive and succeed." Using the novel Ragged Dick as a template, what seem to be the specific elements of this philosophy? In other words, what values or ideas does this book take for granted as being necessary to achieving that all-important RESPECTABILITY?
7. Alger's plots are supposed to typify the democratic "American dream"—that anyone can succeed in spite of their background—but is this book truly democratic in its values?
8. Alger novels, including Ragged Dick, also served almost as guidebooks for young boys who wanted to come to “the big city” to try and make their fortune. What are some of the realistic details about surviving on the street that Alger includes for these readers? Click here to see a collection of Lewis Hines' photographs of nineteenth-century working children like Dick. How does Alger seem to feel about child labor?
Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832-1899) in 1868.