Previous
Allusions
Chapter 15: Dick Secures a Tutor
Explanation and Analysis—Street Talk:
Throughout the novel, Dick and his fellow boot-blacks speak in a working-class dialect characterized by its use of slang and deviation from standard English. Alger uses unconventional spellings and niche idioms to give the reader a sense of Dick's speech. For example, Dick pronounces words like "widow" and "handkerchief" as "widder" and "handkercher." He also uses slang terms that his upper-class friends don't understand: When he calls Frank a "brick," or a good person, the wealthier boy doesn't understand.
This dialect is meant to lend realism to the novel and give readers, who might not know anything about New York, a clear sense of how Dick and his peers spoke. It also injects a note of classist humor into the novel. For example, when Dick is pretending to be a rich boy in jest, he says:
“It’s fashionable for young gentlemen to have private tootors to introduct ’em into the flower-beds of literatoor and science, and why should’t I foller the fashion?":
Related Themes:
