TENNIS SECTIONALS AT 415 on THURSDAY (comparing ragged dick to stephen Cruz

Stephen Cruz presents a different side of the American Dream then was presented by the idyllic themes of Horatio Alger. Alger’s idealistic depiction of Ragged Dick showed how a man could raise from rags to riches with hard work and a little bit of luck. What Alger forgot to mention was how minorities did not share in this American Dream. Cruz showed how through his rise to power how minorities were not given equal opportunities to succeed in the way presented by the American Dream. Even as he progressed through the business world moving up, anything he tried to do to advance other minorities inhibited his path upwards, and while he was originally capable of doing this, as he advanced further into the realm of the executives he found that he was not willing to risk losing his job for the advancement of another minority. While this shows the flaws in Alger’s Ragged Dick, it also helps to prove it because the character himself was a minority and still managed to succeed in moving into the upper echelon of the business class. He was capable through hard work to achieve the same goals as Dick even though he was a minority.