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Virtues to Live By “A myth is a story…which serves to explain why the world is as it is and things happen as they do, as well as to establish the rationale for social customs and observances and the sanctions for the rules by which people conduct their lives.” (M.H. Abrams) This definition is basically indicating that all myths have origins based on what someone once believed to be the reality of their cultural and social surrounding. Although, Myths tend to revolutionize after many years of either cultural change or intellectual change I find the stories of Horatio Alger's tale of Ragged Dick, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and Harriet Jacob’s self narrative Incidents In The Life of Slave Girl to be very popular stories that have helped to establish what the American culture deems to be the rationale for how we function in today’s society. For this reason I see how these stories could be considered “myths” of how to achieve the American Dream. Through the writer’s didactic goals these “myths” have allowed readers to take into consideration the social and cultural messages that a