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Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Social Background
?
freedom from
restraint;
?
age of revolutions
?
experimentation
in science;
?
the presence of the frontier;
?
growth in nationalism;
?
growth in
materialism;
?
the age of the gifted amateur;
?
belief in progressivism.
?
His life:
?
Born into a
poor candle makers family; the 15th of his
father
’
s 17children
?
Had very little
formal education
?
Was apprenticed to his older brother at
12
?
Ran away to
Philadelphia to make his own fortune at 17
?
A
printer,
postmaster,
almanac
maker,
essayist,
scientist,
orator,
statesman,
philosopher, political economist,
ambassador
?
The
only American to sign the four documents that
created the US
?
One of the makers of the new nation
?
Poor Richard
’
s
Almanac:
containing witty maxims for achieving
wealth as a result of hard work and thrift.
?
“
Lost time is never found
again.
”
“
A
penny saved is a penny
earned.
”
“
God
help them that help
themselves.
”
“
Early to bed,
and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy,
and wise.
”
The Autobiography of Benjamin
Franklin
☆
A record of a man rising to wealth and
fame from a state of poverty and obscurity.
☆
The
book
demonstrates
Franklin
’
s
confident
belief
that
the
new
world
of
American
was
a
land of opportunities which might be
met through hard work and wise management.
☆
The book
celebrates the fulfillment of the American dream.
☆
It
is a Puritan document of self-examination and
self-improvement.
☆
The
spirit
of
self-reliance,
originating
from Puritan ethics,
bloomed
in
the next century
into
Emerson
’
s
Transcendentalism.
?
Franklin's
Autobiography
has received
widespread praise, both for its historical value
as a
record of
American
’
s first self-made
man and for its literary style.
?
It follows the
pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and
concision. (the plainness of its
style,
the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of
diction, syntax and expression)
?
It
is
often
considered
the
first
American
book
to
be
taken
seriously
by
Europeans
as
literature.
?
William Dean Howells asserted that
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