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Moral Perfection: The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin

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The Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin is written to explicate Benjamin’s Franklin’s life and goals of moral perfection. The tone of Franklin’s autobiography is smart and self-deprecating. Throughout Part two of his autobiography, Franklin criticizes himself for striving for perfection yet never quite reaching it. Benjamin Franklin’s writing style is plain and pragmatic throughout part two of the autobiography. His sentences are long but made up of short clauses which deliver thoughts of clarity. Benjamin Franklin wrote his autobiography for two reasons, to set an American Dream and to portray the ideal virtue. Despite Franklin’s difficulties of being raised in a poor family, he succeeded as a printer, scientist, and a political figure. His goal was to prove to the people of his time that it is possible to rise above your difficulties and succeed in life. …show more content…

Franklin created the thirteen virtues that he had found in various enumerations that he planned to live by. These thirteen virtues were temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He trained and polished himself to become a man of virtue. Franklin’s goal was also to encourage the people of his time to develop their own virtue in life. Throughout part two of The Autobiography he uses strategies such as biblical references, ethos, and symbolism to prove himself to be a true example of an Age of Reason author as well as a man coming through the religious authoritarianism of the Protestant era and into a world of progress through reasonable thought and

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841 Words | 4 Pages

In his writing a theme that is most prevalent is that of the American dream. Although not coined that yet, as the United States didn’t exist at the time. But right from the beginning Franklin speaks to the fact that he created his success and fortune from nothing but hard work, and intelligence. When describing Franklin’s Autobiography as a primary source, it is important to note that this theme of the American Dream. Most famously from the Declaration of Independence preamble, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” ( Dec. of Ind. Pre.).

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What don’t we know about this document (and where might we find those answers)? We don’t know the what the entire document is saying we only know part, but with a visit to the library we will be able to read the entire document and understand fully the purpose of the autobiography. I also am not sure if the auto biography was more of a diary or to be shown to the public, but with research I will be able to find out he intended reason for the document. 8)How does the author’s gender, race, and socio-economic class compare to the people about whom he or she is writing? Benjamin Franklin’s gender, race, and socio-economic class are the exact same as his son’s.

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Both articles, “Benjamin Franklin’s The Autobiography,” and, “Abigail Adams’ Last Act of Defiance,” are documents that have a big impact and are both very significant because of their influence on our foundational documents. In the article, “Benjamin Franklin’s The Autobiography,” Benjamin Franklin talks about the virtues and character traits that him and others should follow. The claim from his article is that he strived to never do something wrong and want to achieve perfection, and also wants other to do so. In the article he says, “when I conceived the bold and strenuous project of arriving at moral perfection” (Franklin). He is saying here that the reason he started this project was to try and achieve moral perfection even if he couldn’t,

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Franklin and Douglass both showed these values because they were determined to make a change in their lives and in the world. They both had obstacles to go through to get to where they did in their lives. At twelve years of age, Franklin worked in his brother James’s print shop. Franklin explained how when everyone would be on their break, he would go and read books. He would read any type of book, as long as he could learn something.

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833 Words | 4 Pages

When Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography was published in the 18th century, it reflected Franklin’s uncommon and advanced mindset at that time, considering the fact that at that time, humans could be hanged for doubting the Revelation. In his Autobiography, Franklin expresses skepticism toward religion and explains why he does not commit himself to one particular faith. However, Franklin respects the freedom of religion and highly promotes moral and virtuous behavior. Franklin discusses his reflections on religion and the distinction between organized religions and beliefs that are not bound to religious systems. He emphasizes that organized religion and sects are more focused on following specific rules and practices, than concentrating on really understanding God and His ideas of humility, moral behavior and virtue.

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568 Words | 3 Pages

He did not practice or embrace all aspects of religion and this was very off-putting to people at the time. Franklin believed that the only way to truly serve god was to do good by your fellow man. Franklin did not believe that we are at the hands of an angry and complacent god, who will only be satisfied by true grace. (Which was the common belief back then) He also tied his belief of private virtue to civic virtue.

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198 Words | 1 Pages

This passage, “from The Autobiography” by Benjamin Franklin, is a narrative that clarifies the truthfulness that is presented in this version of the author. Franklin realizes that he needs to achieve personal integrity as he “...wished to live without committing any fault at any time” (Franklin 92). In order to obtain this moral perfection, he creates a list of thirteen virtues to follow in his everyday life; these virtues include imitating Jesus and Socrates, avoiding extremes, and rarely using venery for dullness. Contrariwise, Franklin shows honesty by admitting to bad behavior, and in some cases, he performed this behavior for his own personal gain. For example, Franklin went to sleep during a religious meeting because he was “...very drowsy

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596 Words | 3 Pages

The importance of Ben Franklin has been told all throughout history, along with the famous $100 bill with his face on it. Drafting the Declaration of Independence, foudning universities and libraries, the post office, shaping policies in the U.S., publishing newspapers, making advances in science, and letting us use bifocals and using lighting for electricity. Even if this man never finished school, he did much reading and experiments that help us out today. The reason why I chose to write about Benjamin Franklin was because he was a very important Founding Father and it’s important for people to learn all about

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

Contrary to its title, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, began as merely a series of letters before transforming into its current form; an autobiographical text. Throughout the text, the reader is introduced to the early life and work of the author: Benjamin Franklin. The biography is organized into sections that contain various details and aspects of his life at given times. However, in the introduction, he begins his story by implying that aside from the rest of the text, this section is meant to act as a letter to his son. Following this, Franklin delves into his ancestry before promptly shifting the focus onto himself.

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415 Words | 2 Pages

Franklin listed the ways and descriptions of what one should do to fall into having these as common everyday habits. Once trained to follow the virtues, by working on a specific one each week, man would be able to prove he was a paragon for the society. Franklin and his 13 virtues may not have represented the individuals of the day, but was a representation of what the “old lights” should and wanted to be

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631 Words | 3 Pages

Benjamin Franklin is known to be an “Archetypal American,” because of his beliefs on religion, self-improvement, hard work, and determination; but also his somewhat prideful spirit. Much of modern America is quite similar to Franklin in his actions throughout his lifetime. In his early years, Franklin’s father, Josiah, had a set plan for what he was supposed to do with his life, as a minister. Soon into his education, he found an interest in reading and writing, so he began pursuing a career in printing.

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628 Words | 3 Pages

Among the discussion of the virtues that Franklin believes make a person the most characteristic, he continues to discuss reality and appearance in Part Two of his work. Franklin discusses that he has set a goal “to arriv[e] at moral Perfection.” (Franklin 534). The way that Franklin thought he could reach this goal is forming twelve virtues that he feels everyone should aim to carry: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chasity, and humility (Franklin 534-535). Franklin formulates a plan for him to keep track of how he is obeying his twelve virtues by keeping a “little Book in which [he] allotted a Page for each of the Virtues” (Franklin 537), making it clear that Franklin believes that appearance is more important than

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621 Words | 3 Pages

Franklin made it a huge part of his life to continue bettering his education and himself. Due to Franklins determination, he became a very successful politician along with so much more. Lastly, religion was another large part of Franklin’s book, he speaks thoroughly about his thoughts on different religions and his search for what he truly believed in. Despite leaving his religious group and stating that he doubted the Revelation he still stated that he had respect for other religious groups and supported the

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1188 Words | 5 Pages

Many people think that The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is written to or for Franklin’s son, however it seems to be written to the general public. Most people believe that Benjamin Franklin is writing to his son. Franklin, at first, might have had the initial intention of writing this autobiography to his son because he started the essay with “dear son” (Franklin 1) and explains to him how he, himself, liked to hear about his ancestor’s stories. After telling the stories, Franklin starts to generalize what he is saying. He starts to tell his life story and his son is never directly mentioned in the book, until he is written about in part three.

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Looking over the different readings for this assignment, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to read. However, when I came across the “Where is Here?” by Joyce Carol Oates, and read a few lines, I thought back about my old homes that I used to live in. Growing up we lived in a few houses, so my story is much different then this old man’s is. But I still thought this was an interesting story.

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