Success of Alger's Characters
The rags to riches theme which has been associated with Alger’s stories is in no way accurate, as his heroes rarely become extremely wealthy. His characters usually hold “low-level jobs in companies, often attaining personal stability but not wealth or prominent position.”
Some of Alger’s novels assert that material wealth is insignificant unless it is paired with middle-class respectability. For Alger’s characters, wealth was the product of a meritocracy, and the direct consequence of “honesty, thrift, self-reliance, industry, a cheerful whistle and an open manly face.” However, in some of Alger’s works there is also an implied belief in hereditary determinism, explicitly contrasting achievement based on merit.
Read more about this topic: Horatio Alger Myth
Famous quotes containing the words success and/or characters:
“I feel that you will not only be the making of my happiness, but also of my fortunes or success in life. The truth is I never did half try to be anything, or do anything. There was no motive ... and so I have lived, not an idle, but a useless sort of life. Hereafter I hope all that will be quite changed.... I shall have purpose and steadiness to keep ever doing, looking to your happiness and approval as my best reward.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.”
—Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936)