Ben Franklin Autobiography

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Benjamin Franklin Autobiography Liberty University HIUS 221- Professor Michael Smith July 9, 2012 Question #1: One of the over-arching themes in Franklin’s Autobiography is that of self-improvement. Franklin intends for his own experience to serve as a model for others. Discuss key ways that Franklin presents his story as an illustration of self-improvement. Is he successful in the attempt? What motivates him toward this attempt? Does he strike you as a self-promoter or a genuinely benevolent man desirous of helping others? In your answer, use specific examples from the book to illustrate your points. Ben Franklin’s life started in 1706 in Boston. Franklin was the 15th of his father’s 17 children. Franklin was groomed from birth to become a minister and follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead of Franklin walking in his father’s footsteps Ben had an interest in reading and writing. Flash up a couple years and Benjamin Franklin became the founding fathers of America, he was a man who lived his life to its fullest potential. As he grew older and more mature, Ben Franklin became the model that the government officials, early colonists, and future citizens of the United States of America look up to for his wisdom. The tone throughout the auto biography of Ben Franklin is his evolution of self-improvement, and the model he left behind for people to follow. Ben Franklin helped shape the foundation of the United States of America, and in return his impression on early America has endured the test of time. Ben Franklin’s childhood could be described as a normal one. As we already know that Ben Franklin was the youngest of seventeen children. At a very early age, Franklin started working as an apprentice at his brother’s printing shop. After seeing where he could be utilized, Franklin began to help his brother print newspapers for the “New England Courant”.
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