Interpellation, Superstructure, and False Consciousness: Examining 'Ragged Dick' Through the Marxist Lens Anonymous College

After a series of chapters were first published in an American magazine, Horatio Alger’s novel Ragged Dick was met with a fanatic readership and widespread critical acclaim. In March 1868, advertisements of the forthcoming full-length novel raved, “we are glad that Mr. Alger… [can] gratify an increasing demand to possess this interesting story. […] Probably no magazine story has ever excited so much attention as this, not only among the juveniles, but by its naturalness and vigor it has equally interested their parents and adult friends” (“Tangled Threads” 154). Such “naturalness” and “vigor” now register as deception for modern readers of the century-old novel, particularly when analyzed through a critical Marxist lens. By applying theories defined in Marxist criticism by Karl Marx, Louis Althusser, and Terry Eagleton, the seemingly good-natured novel offers scathing insights into the inner workings of America’s social infrastructure. Alger’s depiction of Dick, the story’s protagonist, and his glamorized rags-to-riches journey falsely legitimize the American Dream, both cementing a glorified capitalistic status quo as well as evoking disillusion in multiple classes of desperate readers who simply saw a rationalization they...