lf. Soto was a nine year old Mexican American boy who wanted his family to imitate the "perfect families" he saw on television. Many writers also write about the nonexistence and the deceitfulness of the American Dream. Some authors such as Harlon L. Dalton take it another step and believe that the concept of the American Dream is not only false but it is actually destructive to American culture.
             In the story Ragged Dick, Dick is a young black man that came from a poor background. To earn money Dick was a shoe shiner. He used the half a day's worth of money he earned to pay for expenses, including the entire rent of his room. But Dick had bigger plans. He wanted to have a position in a store or counting room some day. Dick was receiving an education from his friend Henry Fosdick so that he could work in a better job. Dick had saved up more than a hundred dollars in the bank and was ready to move on from the boring and low paying job that he was working. Then one day Dick's fortunes changed. He was on a ferry boat with his friend Fosdick and next to them was a gentleman with two children. When the gentleman was not looking his six year old son walked to the edge of the boat and fell into the water. The child's father could not jump in and save the boy because he could not swim. Then without hesitation Dick jumped into the water to try and save the young boy's life. "His determination was formed before he heard the liberal offer made by the boy's father...in the excitement of the moment, he did not hear it at all, nor would it have stimulated the alacrity with which he sprang to the rescue of the little boy" (Alger 300). When Dick reached the boy he released that they were in the middle of the river. The ferry boat was already out of reach and at that moment it looked as though Dick's rescue attempt may cost him his own life. Then a row boat who witnessed the accident ...