The historical book I selected to read for my critical analysis paper was the published autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, it was extremely entertaining. This book was revised by Frank Woodworth Pine and Illustrated by E Boyd, and the first release date was August 4, 1995. It was extremely entertaining how the book was broken down into three sections. The sections of the book were about his personal background of his humble upbringing, and how he validates his genuine value as a human being. As well as discussing his Religious and political views.
First and foremost Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706, and he was the youngest of sixteen siblings. Benjamin Franklin successful father Josiah Franklin had seven kids with his first wife, and had ten kids with Benjamin Franklin’s mother Abiah Folger. His mother Abiah Folger is a member of the Folger family, which is the famous family for Folger’s coffee. Benjamin Franklin was born in a Puritan family, and he was baptized as a Puritan. Throughout the years he retained a lifelong commitment to the Puritan virtues, and political values he had grown up with.
Those Puritan values included his devotion to egalitarianism, education, industry, thrift, straightforward honesty, temperance, charity, and community spirit. Although later on in Franklin’s life he became a Deist, the definition of being a Deist believes in natural religion. Franklin believed that being a Deist, was God’s way for humans to discover the truths through nature only. Therefore, Franklin did not believe in a God, he strongly believed there was a higher power. Furthermore, Benjamin Franklin was a smart kid growing up; he enjoyed reading books, and writing at a very young age.
When he initially started reading and writing Benjamin knew he needed to improve his writing, and reading skills. Franklin made certain to read and write every day to improve his weaknesses. He utilized different tactics every day to learn from his discovered mistakes in writing. The first successful tactic was to suit the measure, taking words from bestselling books and modifying them into verses. The second tactic was jumbling up his collections of hints into confusion, and weeks later form them into full sentences and complete the papers. Benjamin utilized those techniques to teach him the method of arrangements of his thoughts. Therefore comparing his work with original papers helped him discover mistakes and amended it.
Eventually he became an astonishing writer throughout the years of practice. Those that knew Benjamin Franklin always encouraged him because how smart he was at a young age. Other individuals genuinely believed Franklin would make a well-educated person, because of his unique characteristics. Although Franklin attended school for a temporary time, due to financial hardship. Benjamin Franklin Father Josiah Franklin could not afford to pay for his education because he had an enormous family to support. In other words during that period of time, school was extremely expensive to pay for.
Even though he could not attend college, he was able to take writing and an arithmetic class, but in the meantime he also helped his father with his business. Franklin father Josiah Franklin was known as an English businessman that made soap and candles. Benjamin did not enjoy working in his father business to cut wick for candles or run errands for his father. Therefore Benjamin Franklin eventually learned how to do printing from his older brother James Franklin. He became a newspaper editor, printer, merchant in Philadelphia, and he became very wealthy.
Franklin also devoted additional years in England and published the famous “Poor Richard’s Almanac and the Pennsylvania Gazette”. In addition “The famous Poor Richard’s Almanac and the Pennsylvania Gazette” was one of the colonies first and best newspapers. Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette provided information about politics to the society. After a while Franklin had become more interested in inventions and science. He inherits a legacy of inventions, observations, and discoveries that I did not know about. In the book he appeared to be described as an inventor, scientist, diplomat, entrepreneur, philosopher, author and a politician.
Benjamin invented numerous of things, he invented swim fins, bifocals, street lamps, rocking chairs, the Franklin stove and so much more. He is absolutely well recognized for his experiments with electricity, Benjamin Franklin invented lighting rods. This entrepreneur also invented the musical instrument called the glass armonica. Aside from Franklin great scientific experiences and inventions, the Principles of the Enlightenment guided his political reviews. From my understanding from the autobiography, it appears that he was considered a liberal.
The reason why it appears that he was considered liberal is because I judged from Benjamin Franklin’s writing. Therefore, for my understanding the author was basically stating Benjamin believed in a governmental action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all. In generally speaking that is why he appears to be a Democrat. Most importantly he was one of the founding fathers that wrote the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was written July 4, 1776, and it was initialed on August 2, 1776. Franklin promptly signed all four documents for the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, the Treaty of Alliance with France, and the United States Constitution.
Franklin also was a Postmaster General under the Continental Congress and the President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. “On this little fund we began, the books were imported; the library was opened one day in the week for lending to the subscribers.” Benjamin Franklin founded and co-founded America’s first circulating library. He also founded America’s first liberal arts academy which is right now the University of Pennsylvania. Although my opinion about Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography is that, it appears to be divided into three sections.
The first section was personal, the second section validates his value as a human being, and the third section was about politics and his Religious beliefs. In contrast writing this critical analysis paper I focused more on those three aspects. While reading his autobiography he appears to be a humble man. I say this based upon on how he describes his struggles, weaknesses, strengths, failures, and success.
The autobiography was very detailed about things that occurred in his life and how he handled certain situations. Benjamin Franklin indicates how humans could live great, and how humans could get through hardships in life. Franklin did not leave out any information, as I stated earlier the autobiography was extremely detailed, and that is my reasoning for liking the book. He talked about everything he has achieved in his entire life, and what he experienced to achieve it. By interpreting this book it appears to me that Benjamin Franklin was a dedicated and determined man.
I would recommend this book to other students because it gave me a better understanding of who Benjamin Franklin was. In my outspoken opinion I only knew the most important facts about Benjamin Franklin. By reading his autobiography I learned more about his personal background, inventions, co-founding, and his scientific experiments. Furthermore, I like the way the book was written, it was not complex to understand. I found it interesting how he taught himself how to write. It was incredibly impressive after he could not resume his education due to financial hardship; he furthered his education from personal studies, and communicating with other people.
Benjamin Franklin was a wise man no matter how hard things got for him he still continued to achieve his goals. The message I received from his book was that, without struggle there’s no progress. Franklin most definitely ensured his readers that he took part in all efficient manner of services towards the country. This book relates to History 1301 because he was involved in signing the Treaty of Paris, and Benjamin Franklin played a part in the American Revolutionary war and the Iroquois Confederacy.
In conclusion Benjamin Franklin wrote his own autobiography to his son William Franklin, and for others. For the most part before he died he wished to share the details of his life that led him to success. This autobiography was a notable source for exploring Benjamin Franklin’s excellent ideas about struggling ,failures, and becoming successful. All three sections in his book covered his personal upbringing, Religion, Political views, and it was absolutely clear that he wanted to make sure the readers preserve his legacy.