From Rags to Riches

The rhetoric of hard work leading towards heavenly rewards is held tenuously (almost religiously) by the Western world, specifically America. In being cited as ``masterpieces of the art of storytelling'' by the Western world, it is with no surprise that we find the frequently recurring theme of pauper turned price in the Tales. There is no doubt that the Horatio Alger stories inspired many of the Reconstruction's poor to deal with the day to day misery of a post-war depressed nation.² Let us review some of the stories which tell of these values.