Benjamin+Franklin


 * Benjamin Franklin**



from [|the Autobiography]
Benjamin Franklin played a major role in America gaining its independence from England. Though autobiographies are seen in abundance in our world today, Franklin's Autobiography was one of the first to be written. It defined a secular literary tradition which served not only as a way to tell the reader about one's life, but also to teach the reader a better way to live his or her life. This autobiography is also the first literary work which writes about the fulfillment of the American Dream. In his autobiography, Franklin writes about his ascent from being a youth in the middle class to being one of the most admired men in U.S. history.

> - Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography gives us a way to see the man within the figure > - Everything that he did was set into a different light > //-// It is very biased in what is being stated simply because Franklin was exemplifying himself > - The actual text is very disconnected > > >
 * Franklin wrote it in varying time gaps
 * There may have been weeks to months in between each new section of the autobiography
 * It was not consistent in what was being written or said, one section may have little or no attachment to the one previous


 * Questions:**

1. Why do we continue to read Franklin's Autobiography even though it is simply an autobiography, is over 200 years old, and is extremely biased?

//from// [|Poor Richard's Almanack]
Using the pen name "Richard Saunders," Franklin published an yearly almanac named The Poor Richard's Almanack. It contained everything a basic almanac would, calendar, weather, astronomical, and astrological information, but Franklin's almanac also included something more, his aphorisms. They are moral virtues in which Franklin believed people should understand and live by. These proverbs are inner morals that some may not recognize until they are reminded of them. Ever since Franklin first published these almanacs in 1732, they have been used in American English and are part of our daily lives.

//- "Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing."

- "////Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."//

//- "No gains without pains."

- "A small leak will sing a great ship."

- "Well done is better than well said."

- "A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over."

- "The doors of wisdom are never shut."

- "He that lives upon hope will die fasting."//


 * Questions:**

2. Why are these proverbial expressions still used so commonly today?

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