Dick And Manhood

The sometimes hopeless and doubtful period of Dick’s youth ends immediately after he meets Frank, who helped nurture his transition further into adulthood (Alger 31). Frank is the first person to speak to Dick as though he could have a bright future. He suggests there is “hope for you, Dick, if you try” (Alger 31). He is Dick’s inspiration to embrace the transition into adulthood rather than hopelessly accept his fate as a boot-black “vagabone”. Frank demystifies some of what Dick’s future could look like, and as a result spurred Dick to take action and become proud of himself. Through his relationship with Frank, Dick confronts his future and leaves the life of box-hotels and squander forever in pursuit of becoming a “respectable” man. Alas, Dick begins to build a family around him, to support his fresh determination, like so many other men in the eighteen hundreds. In the early nineteenth century young men’s organizations gained popularity, as similar men sought mutual improvement and shared fun (Rotundo 62). Interestingly, these young men’s organizations such as secret societies, lodges, and fraternities often performed similar functions of a family; in many instances members even referred …show more content…
There were many vague and confusing prerequisites to adulthood that young men needed to wade through as they struggled to find their path, education was one of them. Anthony Rotundo proposes that a youth who sought a place in the professions or upper ranks of business needed to have some form of formal education, but not always (59). As boys grow into men, the ways in which they measure each other’s worth transposes from physical strength to a more abstract measure of mental strength. It is because of this new form of value, that young men often sought out education as yet another tool in which the transition from youth to man can be made easier, and more