Tom Sawyer

I feel that Mark Twain’s novel Tom Sawyer is a contradiction of Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick, in the sense that each are focused on the lives of two very different 19th century boys and touch on different ways these characters achieve what they want. Ragged Dick is a story saturated with the theme that hard work and honesty will lead you to success and the “American Dream.” This is true in many cases, but in Twain’s Tom Sawyer this idea of achievement is contested through Tom’s actions. Tom represents someone with little education and knowledge that is able to achieve his goals with seasoned people skills and his natural street smarts, like many in the contemporary business world.
“Say. Jim, I’ll fetch the water if you’ll whitewasl some.
Can’t, Tom. Ole Missis, she tole me I goe to go an’ git dis water an’ not stop foolin’ roun’ wid anybody. She say she spec’ Tom goin to ax me to whitewash, an’ so she tole me to go ‘long an’ ‘tend to my own business-she ‘lowed she’d ‘tend to de whitewashin’.”
“Oh, never you mind what she said, Jim. That’s the way she always talks. Gimme the bucket- I won’t be gone only a minute. She won’t ever know.” (13).
Tom has mastered the art of manipulation and is able to pawn off his duties on others for his own gain at another’s expense. Despite his trickery and unethical means of completing his tasks, we can help but love Tom. Another example of his keen business skills is on page 17 when Tom is able to convince passing kids into not only doing his chores for him but also cons his way into profiting from them as well. Even though we see Tom as the epitome of laziness, his witty people skills got him what he wanted time and time again. This new idea is a direct contradiction to Ragged Dick’s diligent work ethic and proves a point that people can achieve their goals by simply possessing strong people skills and being business savvy vs. the depiction of the hard working success story we saw in Ragged Dick. I feel that that Twain’s concept has a lot of truth behind it and is very evident in today’s business world.

Ragged Dick

The texts we have covered up to this point have been focused on addressing the issues pertaining to young woman of the 19th century. In these stories Sybil, Ellen, and Gerty all shared similar characteristics and were depicted as emotional, well mannered, domesticated and submissive young women; acting as a medium through which the author can influence the behavior of young women of the time period. In Ragged Dick for the first time we have a portrayal of a young man of the 19th century, the differences between the young men and women of the time are drastic. Dick is illustrated as a young funny, carefree, honest boy who enjoys gambling, smoking, and drinking; all things that were unheard of thus far in our 19th century literature.

As we discussed in class recently, Alger Is known for writing “rags to riches” stories. Ragged Dick is no exception, through Dick, Alger illustrates the idea that no matter your socio-economic status you can achieve the “American Dream” through honesty and hard work. This type of success story is something that we have yet to see in our other readings and was a refreshing change from the previous dark and emotional texts we have covered.

This idea of an honest, hard working man and a submissive, domesticated woman says a lot about 19th century society as a whole. The emphasis of these very clear and identifiable characteristics of both men and women in our stories shows exactly how a household of the time should be operated. Also, Ragged Dick shows us how men were potentially perceived as the dominant party in relationships in the sense that Dick is able to engage in “bad “ things such as smoking, drinking, gambling and no one raises a brow, whereas if any of our female characters were to partake in these activities they would be harshly criticized.