THE HORATIO ALGER
MYTH
By: Steven Serna, Christopher Lawrence, Jesse Chuquitaipe, Miguel
Gomez, Ian Chochrek, and Riley Murphy
"HORATIO ALGER MYTH"
• In the article "The Horatio Alger Myth" by Ralph D. Garner, the author write a
biography on Horatio Alger. Many of his stories were rags to riches stories that
inspired many low class children around the United States. Some examples
that were portrayed in this article were the Luck & Pluck Books and the
Ragged Dick Series. They all relate to the American Dream.
They all relate to the American
Dream because the stories are
about poor people who work hard
throughout their stories and in the
end the characters become
successful in terms of wealth.
CENTRAL CLAIM
•The author is saying that the idea of achieving the American Dream through
hard work is a myth.
•A myth is a widely held but false belief or idea.
• So many people thought that they could improve their social class by
working hard, but in reality they couldn’t. Therefore, achieving the American
Dream is a myth.
• The purpose of Horatio Alger's books was to inspire kids around the United
States and pushed them to an improved future.
EVIDENCE AND EXPLANATION 1
• “He was, without doubt, America's all-time best-selling author! But there are
critics who protest that Horatio Alger was an overrated fraud. He misled kids,
they claim, probably causing many who stood up to the neighborhood bully
to wind up with a bloody nose,” (Gardner 62).
• Horatio Alger was a popular author in America. That means a lot of people
were reading his books. However, he wasn't that great because of his short
stories that misled kids into thinking that they could improve their social rank
but they couldn't. The evidence shows that kids were motivated to take
down the bully that ended up getting beaten up in the end. It shows how
the American Dream can be misleading because many people think they
can upgrade their social rank by trying their hardest but they end up not
succeeding.
EVIDENCE AND EXPLANATION 2
•“Horatio Alger’s literary quality, modern critics complain, was meager to say the least.
The Alger Hero often was cloyingly virtuous, his rise from rags to riches too often based
upon incredible luck. … it is reasonable to suggest that millions who were enchanted
by his stories gone by would disagree,” (Gardner 65).
• Horatio's literary quality was meager. What it means to be meager is that his works
lack quality. The Alger Hero was cloyingly virtuous and these characters that
became rich in these rags to riches stories were too lucky. This is saying that it is very
unlikely to go from the lower class to the upper class and you would need to be very
lucky to achieve that rank. However, people disagreed with this and those people
don't realize that the American Dream they wanted to reach wasn't realistic. People
would keep trying to place higher in social rank because they believed that the
stories are applied to real life and they thought they could do it to. Just because it
seems possible to do in a story doesn't mean it's attainable in the real world by
everyone.
EVIDENCE AND EXPLANATION 3
• “Few will disagree that Horatio was a novelist of tremendous influence. For
youngsters on farms and in teeming cities he provided repeatedly acknowledged
incentives to struggle upward. His stories magic effect upon many was their own
resolve that ‘if Ragged Dick could do it, so can I!” (Gardner 66).
• Many people agreed that Horatio was a huge influence in America because of his
reputation as a popular author. His stories is what got poor people into believing and
having confidence in themselves to live the American Dream. His books had a way
of connecting the reader with the characters in the book and that is what touched
them and made them realize what their role was which was to move up in rank.
However, people would struggle upward but not get anywhere really to achieve the
American Dream. This is because people at that time believed that rags to riches
stories are true stories and that they could achieve the American Dream just like
Ragged Dick; yet they don't realize that these are just stories, so it isn't true and it isn't
realistic for this to happen to people.
CONNECTION TO THE
GREAT GATSBY
•The central claim connects to the Great Gatsby because in the novel “The
Great Gatsby” there is a symbol that represents the American Dream. It is the
green light.
•The green light in the novel was Gatsby’s inspiration and his aspiration. His
dream was to be with Daisy again.
•Gatsby worked hard to become wealthy and thought that he would be able
to attract Daisy to be with him.
•However his dream already died. “He had come a long way to this blue lawn,
and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.
He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast
obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under
the night,” (Fitzgerald 180).