Stephen Cruz’s story contrasts sharply with Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick not in how the protagonist achieved his dream but how he thought about that achievement. In both, the protagonist, through a combination of luck and skill, gained success when others around him were failing. Ragged Dick doesn’t take his achievement for granted, but neither does he question it. He accepts his good fortune and moves on to the good life. Cruz does not. He realizes that much of his success is due to the fact that he is Mexican, and that people attempting to cover up the racial discrimination going on in business hire him for the big bucks. Cruz is angry, and attempts to seek out the truth about the racial issue surrounding business. However, the racism inherent in the people he meets, and their desire to save their jobs by not rocking the boat prevents him from getting anywhere. Even with other minorities, self-interest defeats his attempts to unify. Cruz eventually sacrifices his high-paying job in order to escape the hypocrisy of being paid because of your race, whereas Ragged Dick presumably continues to cash in on his own good fortune.
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