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.
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I agree that there is a very distinct difference between the work ethic of Ragged Dick and Tom sawyer. I believe that the "street smarts" that you say Tom has is not only beneficial in the business world but it can be used in every situation. Ragged Dick also has these street smarts apart from being a hard worker. The only difference is that Ragged Dick does not use his street smarts to pawn off his duties on others, but rather to be able to get through the city unscathed.
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