Cast Upon the Breakers

Cast Upon the Breakers by Horatio Alger, Jr. follows Rodney Ropes, a young boy whose life changes when his family fortune is lost due to wrongdoing by his guardian. Learning of his new financial situation, Rodney is forced to leave the comfort of his boarding school and confront the hardships of poverty. In New York, he struggles to secure work while trying to rely on the education and values he has been taught. Amid the pressure of social mobility and difficult ethical choices, Rodney grapples with feelings of loss and dislocation. He finds personal comfort in his mother’s jewelry, which he resolves to keep, even as he recognizes it could have value. As he encounters different people, including John Bundy and Dr. Sampson, the novel frames Rodney’s search for independence grounded in integrity.