Bound to Rise Or, Up the Ladder is an inspirational story about how individual traits and efforts help one to succeed. It compares and contrasts two characters, their attitudes, efforts and consequently their success and failure. Bound to Rise is part of a series of rags to riches stories of boys working hard and achieving the American dream of wealth. The stories can be seen as tracing American cultural and social patterns.
Horatio Alger, Jr. authored about seventy books. He was the son of a clergyman, graduated from Harvard. His stories are pure, inspiring and as endearing today as they were when first published.