Youth vs Experience

• Introduction - importance of Youth vs Experience
• Dick - presents aspects of both? Young & talented. Rags to riches. Putnam's quote.
• Youth - pos & neg. Pos- youthful & full of energy, lack of responsibilities - true for Dick? Neg- nicknames, lazy stereotype.
• Other hand: lazy characters e.g. Johnny Nolan - quotes?
• Maturity in experience: Dick being mature for his age.
• Maturity in age: Mr. Greyson and Mr. Whitney - mature, responsible figures.
• Other hand: Irresponsible adults - Mr Nolan, store clerk.
• Dick acting older than he is: Quotes?
• Street smarts as experience: Quotes? Experience as a boot-black. Dick vs Frank in street smarts & common sense.
• Appearances: Younger characters- dirty and ragged, except for Frank, and later Dick. Older characters- well-dressed and hygienic e.g. Greyson and Whitney, except for Mr. Nolan, presumably. Suggests experience is superior to youth.
• How characters are treated by how they look: When filthy, Dick is judged and the clerk tries to con him and threatens to arrest him. Whereas when cleaned up, he is treated with more respect, except for by Micky, who bullies him. 
• Experience as negative: Micky being experienced but mean, bullying Dick and being a "leader of a gang of young ruffians", contrasting Dick.
• Fosdick: Like Dick, he is both young yet experienced, but not in the same way. He can read and write, whereas Dick is a good boot-black and is street smart. 
• Conclude: pos and negs of both, youth and experience as separate, but can be overlapped by the likes of Dick and Fosdick.