Appunti di Angloamerican literature

RAGGED DICK IS INTRODUCED TO THE READER

“Wake up there, youngster,” said a rough voice.

Ragged Dick opened his eyes slowly, and stared stupidly in the face of the

speaker, but did not offer to get up.

“Wake up, you young vagabond!” said the man a little impatiently; “I suppose

you’d lay there all day, if I hadn’t called you.”

“What time is it?” asked Dick.

“Seven o’clock.”

“Seven o’clock! I oughter’ve been up an hour ago. I know what ’twas made me

so precious sleepy. I went to the Old Bowery last night, and didn’t turn in till past

twelve.”

“You went to the Old Bowery? Where’d you get your money?” asked the man,

who was a porter in the employ of a firm doing business on Spruce Street. “Made it by

shines, in course. My guardian don’t allow me no money for theatres, so I have to earn

it.” “Some boys get it easier than that,” said the porter significantly.

“You don’t catch me stealin’, if that’s what you mean,” said Dick.

“Don’t you ever steal, then?”

“No, and I wouldn’t. Lots of boys does it, but I wouldn’t.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear you say that. I believe there’s some good in you, Dick,

after all.”

“Oh, I’m a rough customer!” said Dick. “But I wouldn’t steal. It’s mean.”

“I’m glad you think so, Dick,” and the rough voice sounded gentler than at first.

“Have you got any money to buy your breakfast?”

“No, but I’ll soon get some.”

While this conversation had been going on, Dick had got up. His bedchamber

had been a wooden box half full of straw, on which the young boot-black had reposed

his weary limbs, and slept as soundly as if it had been a bed of down. He dumped

down into the straw without taking the trouble of undressing.

Getting up too was an equally short process. He jumped out of the box, shook

himself, picked out one or two straws that had found their way into rents in his

clothes, and, drawing a well-worn cap over his uncombed locks, he was all ready for

the business of the day.

Dick’s appearance as he stood beside the box was rather peculiar. His pants

were torn in several places, and had apparently belonged in the first instance to a boy

two sizes larger than himself. He wore a vest, all the buttons of which were gone

except two, out of which peeped a shirt which looked as if it had been worn a month.

To complete his costume he wore a coat too long for him, dating back, if one might

judge from its general appearance, to a remote antiquity.

Washing the face and hands is usually considered proper in commencing the

day, but Dick was above such refinement. He had no particular dislike to dirt, and did

not think it necessary to remove several dark streaks on his face and hands. But in

spite of his dirt and rags there was something about Dick that was attractive. It was

easy to see that if he had been clean and well dressed he would have been decidedly

good-looking. Some of his companions were sly, and their faces inspired distrust; but

Dick had a frank, straight-forward manner that made him a favorite.

:

I

- in medias res. When the narrative begins, the action has already taken place before the

NCIPIT

novel begins. Indeed, there isn’t a general presentation of the setting in which the narrative takes

place, or an introduction of the characters. The narrative is engaged not with a summary or a

description, but through a dialogue, which is a defining feature of the novel. Ragged Dick is full of

dialogues, which make it very theatrical in a way.

The theme of the theater is brough up from the very beginning. The Old Bowery is a

o reference to a very popular theatre among middle classes of New York City in lower

Manhattan. At that time, cinema and television have not been invented, so the entertainment

of the various classes was the theater, beside literature. Dick is keen on the theater: he is

interested in the stories that were represented on stage.

N

- : omniscient third-person narrator, who is able to describe the external setting in

ARRATIVE VOICE

which the narrative takes place, and at the same time the internal life of these characters. He is also

able to comment on the action and the events that take place in the narrative. He knows everything

about his narrative world (omniscient). The narrator helps the reader to focus on certain elements

rather than on others, assisting the reader.

C

- : there is a young protagonist who looks a way but is another way

HARACTER CONSTRUCTION

inside. Dick looks dirty, dishallowed, unproper but, at the same time, he is described from the very

beginning as having a good heart. This quality of inner goodness is mirrored also in parts of his

looks, since it is said that he has a straightforward smile, and he inspires trust.

He has a sort of portable home, which is a dirty wooden box outside in which he sleeps when he is

not able to rent a room, as he some other times does. There are details of a very harsh reality, which

is the one of a 14-year-old orphan boy, who sleeps alone in a box in the open air. It is a harsh

reality, something that would concern any reader, but which is conveyed in an acceptable way for

the reader.

In the beginning, Dick is presented as a humorous engaging funny character, who is poor but has a

strong personality, handsome and honest. Beside these positive qualities, there are also some defects

(bad qualities) of the character: he indulges in pleasures (such as going to the theater even if he has

so little money that he must sleep on the streets) and smokes.

The Bildungsroman aims at correcting the initial flaws of the character.

T

- : the very first theme that is seen in the exchange between the porter (one of the first

HEME

benefactors of Dick, upon whom his fortune will be built) and Dick is about money. The very first

th

occurrence is in the 11 line of the first chapter and is about a question that the porter asks Dick: he

asks him about where he got the money that allowed him to go to the theater.

The other correlated theme is that of the contrast between honesty and dishonesty: Dick, from the

very first sketches, qualifies as somebody that does not any inclination to stealing. He rejects the

idea that he stole the money to get to the Bowery. This is proven to be true.

The idea is that money is so important that it defines the way you are, where you can stay and what

you can do. Money is everything. Dick’s relationship with money is complicated in the beginning,

S

and this will be stated at the end of the chapter, where the narrator intervenes explicitly. :

TYLE

irony is used, and somehow functions as a protective screen between the content of the narrative and

the reader with his/her emotions (he sleeps in ragged dirty clothes, and we can image the smell that

comes from them, but none of those unpleasing elements are conveyed in the text).

The other trait that needs to be stressed regarding irony is that Dick is a very humorous character:

he uses the tool of humor whenever his circumstances appear hard. Through the tool of humor, he

can reassure himself.

There is a controlled use of slang (informal English spoken in English streets – non-standard

English).

D

- between an unknown minor character (he will never be mentioned again in the narrative)

IALOGUE

and Ragged Dick, which is important to convey pieces of information about the protagonist.

Dick’s business hours had commenced. He had no office to open. His little

blacking-box was ready for use, and he looked sharply in the faces of all who passed,

addressing each with, “Shine yer boots, sir?”

“How much?” asked a gentleman on his way to his office.

“Ten cents,” said Dick, dropping his box, and sinking upon his knees on the

sidewalk, flourishing his brush with the air of one skilled in his profession.

“Ten cents! Isn’t that a little steep?”

“Well, you know ’taint all clear profit,” said Dick, who had already set to work.

“There’s the blacking costs something, and I have to get a new brush pretty often.”

“And you have a large rent too,” said the gentleman quizzically, with a glance at

a large hole in Dick’s coat.

“Yes, sir,” said Dick, always ready to joke; “I have to pay such a big rent for my

manshun up on Fifth Avenoo, that I can’t afford to take less than ten cents a shine. I’ll

give you a bully shine, sir.”

“Be quick about it, for I am in a hurry. So your house is on Fifth Avenue, is it?”

“It isn’t anywhere else,” said Dick, and Dick spoke the truth there.

“What tailor do you patronize?” asked the gentleman, surveying Dick’s attire.

“Would you like to go to the same one?” asked Dick, shrewdly.

“Well, no; it strikes me that he didn’t give you a very good fit.”

“This coat once belonged to General Washington,” said Dick, comically. “He

wore it all through the Revolution, and it got torn some, ’cause he fit so hard. When he

died he told his widder to give it to some smart young feller that hadn’t got none of

his own; so she gave it to me. But if you’d like it, sir, to remember General Washington

by, I’ll let you have it reasonable.”

- feller: fellow ; widder: widow

- He jokes all the time and is very theatrical in a way. He presents himself as a sort of actor whose

clothes are important as to identify him.

- He is talking about the possibility to sell his clothes, which he says belonged to President

Washington.

“Thank you, but I wouldn’t want to deprive you of it. And did your pants come

from General Washington too?”

“No, they was a gift from Lewis Napoleon. Lewis had outgrown ’em and sent ’em

to me,—he’s bigger than me, and that’s why they don’t fit.”

“It seems you have distinguished friends. Now, my lad, I suppose you would like

your money.”

“I shouldn’t have any objection,” said Dick.

“I believe,” said the gentleman, examining his pocket-book, “I haven’t got

anything short of twenty-five cents. Have you got any change?”

“Not a cent,” said Dick. “All my money’s invested in the Erie Railroad.”

- Another cultural-historical reference to the construction at that time of the railroads in the America.

Those were the times in which the railroad was built to connect the East with the West. He is talking

like he has invested in the Erie Railroad.

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Shall I get the money changed, sir?”

“I can’t wait; I’ve got to meet an appointment immediately. I’ll hand you twenty-

five