Benjamin Franklin and the American Dream
Introduction to American Literature
By: Evan Choate
The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin magnificently portrays the potential for all humans to achieve a higher affluence and reputation if one works hard enough for it. This is the basis for the American dream in which any man can achieve economic security and respect through the labor of their own hard work and honesty. Benjamin Franklin cared much about self-betterment which can be seen as a theme within the autobiography as well as the book itself blueprints all the different ways he himself rose from rags to riches.
The American dream is an idea that was not known to many in Franklin’s time. Many of the European countries were still distinctly defined by class …show more content…
Franklin grew up in Boston as the last son in a huge family of seventeen siblings. From childhood he had a strong work ethic with only a few years of formal training, he ended up teaching himself just about everything he knew. At seventeen he ran away to New York arriving almost completely broke to find no work and have to go on a journey of missed boats and fifty mile long hikes in making his way to Philadelphia on hopes of a job. He has to lodge with a friend as he works his first job at a printing press for a man named Samuel Keimer. After all this work he has to return to Boston to try and borrow money from his father. Unfortunately he had no such luck. Later Franklin wrote such a skillfully crafted letter to a friend that the Pennsylvania Governor himself admired his merit so much he encouraged Franklin to come to London to buy his own
Introduction to American Literature
By: Evan Choate
The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin magnificently portrays the potential for all humans to achieve a higher affluence and reputation if one works hard enough for it. This is the basis for the American dream in which any man can achieve economic security and respect through the labor of their own hard work and honesty. Benjamin Franklin cared much about self-betterment which can be seen as a theme within the autobiography as well as the book itself blueprints all the different ways he himself rose from rags to riches.
The American dream is an idea that was not known to many in Franklin’s time. Many of the European countries were still distinctly defined by class …show more content…
Franklin grew up in Boston as the last son in a huge family of seventeen siblings. From childhood he had a strong work ethic with only a few years of formal training, he ended up teaching himself just about everything he knew. At seventeen he ran away to New York arriving almost completely broke to find no work and have to go on a journey of missed boats and fifty mile long hikes in making his way to Philadelphia on hopes of a job. He has to lodge with a friend as he works his first job at a printing press for a man named Samuel Keimer. After all this work he has to return to Boston to try and borrow money from his father. Unfortunately he had no such luck. Later Franklin wrote such a skillfully crafted letter to a friend that the Pennsylvania Governor himself admired his merit so much he encouraged Franklin to come to London to buy his own