The mood in Ragged Dick is optimistic, inspirational, and occasionally comic, as Alger uses the novel to convince his readers, especially boys of Dick's age, that they can replicate the protagonist's journey to success. The novel does touch on the grim reality of late-19th-century poverty through Dick's initial homelessness, Johnny Nolan's abusive father, or the Wilkins family's looming eviction. But through his upbeat tone and persistent argument that individuals can escape such circumstances through a combination of hard work, thrift, and education, Alger prevents the mood from becoming sad. For example, when describing Dick's daily routine in the novel's first chapter, Alger writes:
He jumped out of the box, shook himself, picked out one or two straws that had found their way into rents in his clothes, and, drawing a well-worn cap over his uncombed locks, he was all ready for the business of the day.
Active verbs like "jumped" and "shook," as well as the image of Dick picking straw off his clothes, creates a jaunty portrait of the narrator. And referring formally to his humble shoe-shining job as "the business of the day" adds a comic note to the scene. When Dick starts speaking to his friends later in the chapter, his dialect—and the occasional miscommunications that result from it—heighten the comic mood. Even as he introduces the subject of Dick's poverty and homelessness, Alger encourages readers to forget about it and feel not pity for the boy or anger about the broader problem of social inequality, but excitement about his adventures.
As the novel goes on, the plot shows that rich men—including Frank, Mr. Whitney, and Mr. Greyson—are usually generous and fair, and thus deserving of their good fortune. By contrast, those who stay poor, such as Johnny Nolan or Jim Travis, generally turn out to be lazy or dishonest. This pattern of character development boosts the mood by assuring the novel's audience that wealth is distributed more or less justly in America, and that readers need not feel too much sympathy for those who fail to lift themselves out of poverty as Dick does.
Throughout the novel, Alger explicitly states that he wants his audience to feel inspired by Dick's story and use it as a blueprint for their own lives. Invoking his "young readers" at the close of the first chapter, he writes that:
Perhaps, although he was only a boot-black, they may find something in him to imitate.
Statements like these alert the reader that Ragged Dick is an educational story and encourage them to derive moral lessons from his escapades. As the novel proceeds, Dick becomes more refined, achieves more professional success, and shows off his street smarts by apprehending thieves and con-men in the city. As a result, he becomes less of a comic figure and more of an inspirational one. By the novel's end, as Dick saves a child's life in a final expression of heroism and gets a job as a result, the novel's comic mood subsides and the reader is left with a feeling of respect for the young man.
