Horatio Alger Ragged Dick Summary

Dick, the main character in Ragged Dick, is a man that fits every trait Alger describes in the story. He is a man who has a mediocre job, and is a very hard worker. Throughout the story, signs show us that Dick is a man who has ambition and is very determined to one day get away from his poor

Dick began to act out, adopting uncharacteristic activities such as, “gambling and writing bad checks” (Capote 166). Capote quotes Dick’s father, “I never knew him to do those things before” (166). One of Hickock’s neighbors exclaimed to Harold Nye, “Dick Hickock! Don’t talk to me about Dick Hickock! If ever I met the devil!

Koski asserts that Dick meets “every one of Cleckley’s sixteen criteria”, and uses direct quotes from the book to point out the traits that Dick would have identified

Everything began in Chicago, on the 16th of December, 1928. Philip Kindred and Jane Kindred Dick cried and wept for the first time in their lives. Jane died after 41 days, because of the carelessness of their mother, Dorothy Grant Kindred (who didn't take her to the hospital at the proper time, a money matter). Since then, Dick had a unconscious culpability complex and we can understand perhaps a bit more why he felt anger toward his parents. Moreover, Jane would be found in many phildickian writings later on. Dick's dad, Joseph Edgar Dick, had a nice job indeed: cutting the throats of pigs as an employee of the government. His mother censored official texts of the government's spokesmen. Here again, what feelings went through the young Dick

Dick’s physiological problems are affecting Perry, stealing Perry’s true character, his innocence, and one of the last decent things about him. This places Perry in the victim side of the story, lonesomely leaving Dick as the murderer and the main cause of all the arisen

Cultural Dictionary defines psychopath as “A mentally unbalanced person who is inclined toward antisocial and criminal behaviors.” Dick’s childhood is normal; his parents love him and provide for him as best they can; despite his parents love, Dick is a psychopath who lives a life of crime simply because it is in his nature. Dick’s psychopathic nature is evident throughout the novel. For example, when he needs money, he resorts to writing fraudulent checks. Dick shows absolutely no remorse after he tricks people into giving him money. Dick simply feels that it is acceptable to scam people in order to get what he wishes. In addition, Dick shows his psychopath tendencies after he and Perry rob and murder the Clutter family, Dick goes on with his life and never feels any remorse about the murders that he committed. Dick obviously doesn’t see anything wrong with murdering innocent people because he is a psychopath. Dick’s lack of consideration for other people’s life clearly shows that he truly only cares about himself. An additional example of Dick’s antisocial tendencies is when he is arrested for the being involved in the deaths of the Clutter family, and he decides that to blame Perry for the deaths of all four members of the Clutter family in order to avoid

There is no justifiable reason for taking the life of an innocent man, it is an wrongful act that Dick becomes blind to. The fact that Dick can once again plan someone’s murder without giving it a second thought, shows the reader how much of an animal he truly

He opened a savings account for himself and deposited all of the money he had, except for the correct amount to pay change to Mr. Greyson, whom he owed from a shine the prior day. In paying his debt to Mr. Greyson, he earned his trust and bought himself an invitation to Sunday school and eventually lunch with the gentleman and his family. This was the start to Dick’s better life of saving his money, renting his own room, and meeting Fosdick, his new friend and private tutor. One day he ran an errand with Fosdick for his employer and the two rode the ferry when they witnessed a young boy, the age of 6, fall of the edge of the boat and into the water. Dick, not hearing the father’s offer of a reward for anyone who would save his son, dove in to save the boy anyhow. Once the boy had been returned safely to his father, the father was so grateful to Dick that he took him to have his wet suit dried and provided him with a suit nicer than his original suit from Frank. Dick then went in to speak with the man, as per his request, and was offered a position in his counting room with a wage of ten dollars per week, considerably higher than his wage would be at any other store or counting room. Dick gleefully accepted his offer and lived content knowing how hard he had worked for this day.

Dick’s secret is told, by saying, “The child accepted the gift, whereupon Dick smiled and winked at her, for his sexual interest in female children was a failing of which he was “sincerely ashamed”-a secret he’d not confessed to anyone and hoped no one suspected (though he was aware that Perry had reason to), because other people might not think it “normal”.” Dick himself even thinks that his interest in prepubescent children is not “normal” and thus it is something he keeps hidden from everyone. Except Perry, who was able to figure it out by simply being near Dick. Dick is someone who is dangerous and based off of the passage, he is a pedophile. Even later, it’s stated “Seducing pubescent girls, as he had done “eight or nine” times in the last several years.”

Honestly, after reading Ragged Dick i started to asked myself what part of my personality made me successful in life. I truly believe my success in life wasn't a part of my personality, more of a fake who accepted handouts. i never had to work for anything, cheated my way through school and basically life which may sounds a little unbelievable but it happen. Dick also was a bit generous , given clothes away , helping a young man get his 50 bucks back and offering to cover rent from Toms Wilkins mother. I'm not so generous , i like to receive blessings having someone pay my rent or helping me get my stolen my back.

motor company, "when I [Dick] had an automobile wreck with a company car. I was in the hospital several days with extensive head injuries" (Capote 278). The car accident caused his face to be slightly maligned, and, as concluded by Dr. Jones, caused residual brain damage and instability in his personality (Capote 286). Dick's father also confirmed that Dick had changed after the crash, expressing that "He just wasn't the same boy" (Capote 255). After experiencing the crash, many parts of Dick's life began to go downhill. His marital life twisted woefully, and when all was said and done, he had gone through 2 marriages. He did not have a steady job anymore, and he began to commit petty crimes, such as writing bad checks and stealing. The latter resulted in him being in jail, where he had met Perry, who was behind bars for burglary as well, among other charges. Dick and Perry had both agreed to kill the Clutters, however when the time came, Dick showed signs of doubt and lingered, while Perry had almost no hesitation. This seems to point back to each man's past, where Perry, who had a rougher childhood, did not seem to think twice about killing the family. His scarred adolescence points to a more cold-hearted, bitter, and lonely person, while Dick's more favorable youth showed signs of mercy and conscience.

Dick was written. He seems to exemplify expected behaviour of a young boot-black by his rough exterior, involvement in fights, lack of money, and disregard for others including their property. Micky Maguire is the enemy of the story, and it is clear that the “hero” must always rise above the bad characters in order to provide a lesson with the story being told. Dick is known to keep his cool and remain confident around Micky, even when a fight is breaking out between the two of them (Alger 94). While Micky is indeed a cruel boy as it seems, Dick does bring on some of the taunting himself because of the cocky manner he upholds when speaking to Micky. Even with Dick being smart-mouthed toward Micky, there is not any sympathy towards Micky in the novel because of his ruffian ways and rudeness towards Dick. Alger does not give Micky credit for why he acts like this towards Dick nor does he establish a true reason why Micky turned out to be such a tough street boy. His childish actions are likely caused by jealously over Dick and not because of sheer hatred (Alger 91). Micky is not given chances like Dick and whether or not Alger sets it up so that option luck is a rewarded behaviour,

Many chapters will start with the introduction of a new character. Normally, this would confuse me because of the build up of different characters. But, he made it an emphasis to describe each character with enough details to differentiate each person from each other. “Uncle Dick was out next door neighbor and an important part of our lives. Known to the rest of the world as Richard Fowler, I really thought he was my uncle. He was close to all the children in the Tebow family, probably in no small part because he’d never been married and therefore never had children of his own” (Tebow 7). Tebow brings Uncle Dick into the story to help describe his life in Jacksonville as a child. He spent much of his time as a child at Uncle Dicks.

What the readers know of Dick’s past is very little, as Capote works to characterize him through flashbacks the readers know it was his plan to kill the Clutters and he does have some family “there were those Dick claimed to love: three sons, a mother, a father, a brother—persons he hadn’t dare confide his plan to(Capote 106).” But Capote characterizes Dick more so through descriptions of his habits than through his memories. “Inez was a prostitute…she was eighteen and Dick had promised to marry her. But he had also promised to marry Maria, a women of fifty who was a widow of a very rich banker(Capote 118-119)” Dick is shown throughout the book as someone who uses people to get what he wants, he calls on Perry to help him with his plan, he uses women for sex and money while making promises he never intends to keep. “If he knew Dick, and he did—now he did—would spend the money right away on vodka and women(Capote 119). Capote does not draw any sympathy from the readers, Dick is perceived as an emotionless man who pretends to believe in people and want the same

Dick's ideal, was to marry the perfect woman, Nicole, write his fantastic book ‘psychology for psychiatrists' and be the best psychiatrist in the world. At the beginning of his career all of these things were attainable, but slowly each one of these things slipped away to falter his life. These things were not only just an ideal or a plan in life, they were a necessity for Dick. He dreamed of them all and it was from then on that it became an obsession. This lead to Dick's belief that his life couldn't be fulfilled unless all of these things were obtained.