Horatio Alger wrote about 135 novels in the latter part of the 19th century. His stories were stories about poor boys with difficult life who achieved success thanks to their hard work and persistance. The stories follow the adventures of bootblacks, newsboys, peddlers, buskers, and other impoverished children in their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of respectable middle-class security and comfort. In his stories Alger emphasizes on honesty and hard work as the main ways to success. In ‘Cast Upon the Breakers’ the main hero must overcome adversity, dishonesty, villains and bad luck to succeed. With his inheritance frittered away by an inept manager, young Rodney is all alone, and he goes to New York City to join the corps of homeless children during the 19th century. He starts working as an errand boy, but the price for false accusations cost him too expensive - his job.