Ragged Dick

Mr. Greyson is a wealthy businessman who serves as a mentor to Dick Hunter and Henry Fosdick. Initially, Mr. Greyson tests Dick’s honesty as a bootblack, seeing if he will bring a sum of change to his office. When he discovers that Dick has integrity, Mr. Greyson invites him to attend his Sunday school class: “I’ll take you into my class, and do what I can to help you” (132). Mr. Greyson takes an interest in Dick and Henry, welcoming the boys to sit with his family in the church pew and hosting them to lunch at his home. When the fatherless Henry is applying for a job, Mr. Greyson, “whose high character and position” are known to the prospective employer, gives an important testimonial to Henry’s character (162).

Johnny Nolan is Dick Hunter’s foil, a contrasting character who highlights the traits of another person. Johnny, a 14-year-old bootblack lacking in ambition, earns much less than Dick because “Dick was energetic and on the alert for business, but Johnny was the reverse” (46). Lazy Johnny is “a good-natured boy, large of his age, with nothing particularly bad about him, but utterly lacking in that energy, ambition, and natural sharpness” that distinguishes Dick (205). Having fled an alcoholic, abusive father, Johnny “was not adapted to succeed in the life which circumstances had forced upon him” (205). Dick feels that the unenterprising Johnny needs “somebody to look out for him” (216). Dick gives Johnny his regular bootblacking customers when he moves on to a new job.

Frank’s uncle, Mr. Whitney, gives important advice to Dick, serving as a mentor and an example of a poor boy who rose to become a prosperous businessman. Mr. Whitney gives Dick the opportunity to be a guide for his nephew, Frank, on a tour of New York City because he thinks Dick “looks honest” (55). Mr. Whitney persuades Frank to give Dick his first gift: a half-worn suit. He tells Dick to wash in their hotel room, transforming Dick’s appearance and future possibilities. Mr. Whitney encourages Dick to strive for a better position in life, telling him that “poverty in early life is no bar to a man’s advancement” (108). Mr. Whitney explains: “During my leisure hours, I improved myself by study” (109). He gives Dick a five-dollar bill and advises him to save money, study books, “determine to be somebody” (109), and help a less fortunate boy when he becomes a success. Dick will do that, giving the exact sum that Mr. Whitney gave him—five dollars—to help another boy pay rent.

Fourteen-year-old Frank Whitney was “[b]lessed with a good home and indulgent parents” (99). He feels compassion for Dick Hunter who works in the streets and sleeps in a box. Frank becomes Dick’s first true friend, gives him new ideas to improve his life, and serves as a model for Dick to imitate. As Dick tells a companion later: “Frank was a tip-top boy, and he was the first that made me ashamed of bein’ so ignorant and dirty” (196). When Frank’s uncle Mr. Whitney agrees to allow Dick to serve as Frank’s tour guide, Frank gives Dick his own half-worn suit, stockings, shoes, and handkerchiefs. Frank kindly tells Dick: “I’m better off than you are, and I can spare the clothes” (58).

Frank encourages Dick to aim higher than working as a bootblack. He tells Dick stories of other boys who have risen to prosperity. Frank sympathetically finds out Dick’s early history, advises him to maintain honorable behavior, and tells him to acquire as good an education as he can. Frank begs Dick to promise to stop gambling and suggests that he rent a room to have a guaranteed bed at night. Dick reflects that “nobody ever cared enough for me before to give me good advice” and “since his meeting with Frank, he felt that he would like to be a respectable man” (119, 129). Frank maintains his interest in Dick’s progress, proposing that the boys correspond when Frank goes to boarding-school to prepare for college. Dick is motivated partly by wanting “to have Frank witness the improvement he had made in his studies and mode of life” (199). In turn, Frank learns from Dick how to negotiate city life and avoid swindlers.

Mick Maguire, “a stout, red-haired, freckled-faced boy of fourteen” (122), is Dick Hunter’s antagonist, “his old enemy” (199). In contrast to Dick’s protectiveness toward younger, smaller boys, Micky is a bully who preys on vulnerable youths because he does not “fancy tackling boys whose strength was equal or superior to his own” (153). Bold and reckless, Micky is the leader of a band of boys whose behavior gets them frequently arrested and imprisoned on Blackwell’s Island. Micky comes from the impoverished Five Points district of New York City. He has “a jealous hatred of those who wore good clothes and kept their faces clean” (122). When Dick improves his appearance, Micky tries to assault him for what he views as Dick “putting on airs” and trying to act superior (122).

Henry Fosdick serves as a tutor to Dick Hunter and a faithful, disciplined companion in Dick’s studying and social advancement. Smaller and slighter than Dick, Henry is forced by his father’s death into working on the streets as a bootblack, but his “natural timidity” and “shrinking from publicity” do not permit him to earn as much as Dick (133, 141). Raised by his father to be an educated youth, Henry is not as comfortable with the “coarse” bootblacks as Dick but feels more at home at the luncheon hosted by the wealthy, respectable Greysons.

Dick assists Henry by offering to share his room rent-free in exchange for Henry’s lessons. Dick also directs bootblacking customers to his shyer friend, increasing Henry’s income. Although Henry is only twelve years old, “he had always been studious and ambitious to excel” (137). Henry’s father had been a printer who provided his son with many books to read, “thus Henry had acquired an amount of general information, unusual in a boy of his age” (137). With Henry’s excellent instruction, Dick progresses rapidly in his education. Dick also learns how to say his prayers at night by following Henry’s example. In turn, Dick helps Henry by buying him new clothing and encouraging him to succeed in getting employed at a hat store. Henry gets a raise and continues to suggest ways for the boys to advance in life: attend a night school and move to nicer lodgings.

Ida Greyson, the pretty, 9-year-old daughter of wealthy Mr. Greyson, represents respectable, young females in society and Dick Hunter’s introduction to them. When Dick sits next to Ida in the church pew “it was the first time he had ever been near so well-dressed a young lady,” so “he naturally felt bashful” (143). Ida is cordial and welcoming, but inquisitive. Her questions embarrass Dick, but Ida takes a fancy to him. Ida’s favorable response to Dick indicates the broad appeal of “his frank and handsome face” (148). 

Roswell Crawford is an arrogant snob. Alger uses his character to contrast with and highlight Henry Fosdick’s humble personality. Roswell is well-dressed and egotistical. He disdains manual labor, such as the “dirty work” of making a fire at his previous place of employment, and he sneers at boys who are not the sons of gentlemen. The shop-keeper selects the well-dressed Rockwell for a job, but ultimately hires Henry whose “modest bearing, and quiet, gentlemanly manner [are] entirely free from pretension” (161).

Tom Wilkins is the archetype of the poor boy that Dick had promised to help when he accepted five dollars from Mr. Whitney earlier in the novel. Mr. Whitney’s assistance to Dick was designed to inspire the boy to help someone else less fortunate when he could. Dick’s generous nature already had prompted him to assist Tom, a bootblack “about a year younger than himself, who appeared to have been crying” (169). Tom is an example of a deserving youth caught in unfortunate circumstances: his mother broke her arm and is unable to work, but the rent is due. Dick knows that Tom is “an excellent boy, who never squandered his money, but faithfully carried it home to his mother” (170). Tom had always refused to join Dick in his former extravagant theatre attendance. Dick experiences the satisfaction of saving a family from deprivation when he gives Tom the necessary funds.

“A sallow-complexioned young man, with dark hair and bloodshot eyes” (178), Jim Travis is the novel’s primary villain. Jim represents the opposite of what aspiring boys should emulate. Jim spends more than he earns, avoids hard work, gets drunk, utters profanity, disdains study, and tries to tempt Dick and Henry to depart from their good habits and go to the bar-room. Seeking a quick, easy way of getting cash so that he can make a fast fortune at a California mine, Jim steals Dick’s bank-book. Jim’s dishonesty leads to punishment, not reward: He is arrested and imprisoned at Blackwell's Island.