Examining the American Identity Essay

It is easy to see Benjamin Franklin was no doubt an archetypal American. No one since him has ever had the same amount of success as him. He was a private businessman who made enough money to retire early and to spend the rest of his life in politics. Around this time period only the rich were able to retire early. He was industrious. Franklin continually put forth the idea of the industrious American. He had support from the middle-class who did not care if he was rich but he was a man who was self-made and worked hard. This American attitude was formed early and most of it by him. Franklin was also not judgmental came to decisions and conclusions as a businessman and politician. However, his attitude was non-judgmental with respect to a

To what extent had the colonists developed a sense of their identity and unity as Americans by the eve of the Revolution?

Not only was the American Dream shown throughout The Bread Givers, it was also shown throughout the life of Ben Franklin. Ever since Ben was a young boy he was always very eager to learn and educate himself as much as possible, which laid out the foundation for Ben Franklin’s life. Ben grew up in a Boston with his parents and his seventeen siblings. He originally intended on following his father’s footsteps and becoming a minister, but that career path quickly changed when Ben showed significant interest in reading and writing. From there, he became an apprentice to his brother, James, who published the “New England Courant”. After some fighting, the brothers went separate ways. Ben moved away from home, to New York, with no connections or money. “I found myself in New York,

Many of the morals of the Americans are embedded in the Franklin’s aphorisms. For instance, the aphorism, “God helps them that help themselves,” not only reflects religious beliefs but also the American Dream, the mentality that one can do anything with hard work. Other aphorism by Franklin are still applicable today. In terms of social lives, Americans still widely believe that it is best to keep secrets to one’s self, which is mentioned with the aphorism, “Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.” Americans also enjoy sociable people who are approachable and polite; Ben Franklin, likewise, once said, “Tart words make no friends; a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.”

During the Enlightenment, the attitude towards labor evolves from a duty marked by shame, survival, and regret to one of pride, prosperity, and patriotism. This shift in attitude also affects the figuring of America’s identity; it is no longer a place characterized by its religious freedom, but also one that is explicitly described as a “land of labor” (Franklin 473), dominated by economic promise and industry. In Franklin’s eyes, religion, morality, and prosperity are not mutually exclusive. In To Those Who Would Remove to America, he reveals his belief that, “Industry and constant employment are great preservatives of the morals and virtue of a nation” (476). Therefore, the moral integrity of the American people in addition to its potential as an empire are dependent on the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. God’s identity also shifts from that of an ambiguous father-like figure and provider, to one that is a creator, similar to innovators like Franklin (how humble of him). Franklin describes God by word of the people, revealing, “The people have a saying, that God almighty is Himself a mechanic, the greatest in the universe; and He is respected and admired more for the variety, ingenuity, and utility of His handyworks than for the antiquity of His family” (472). Franklin’s writings illuminate that the traits most admirable during the

The definition of what America is, and furthermore what an American is, has been eternally elusive. However, it can be reasonably said that the vision of America rests upon freedom of expression, the right to property, and self-determination. These ideas are explored in one European’s examination of American agricultural society in the late 18th century. Letters from an American Farmer by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur illustrates the gilded nature of the early vision of America; one that appears to be simplistic and based in freedom, but lies on a foundation of oppression and greed.

At the time of his era, Benjamin Franklin was the perfect candidate to sell the American Dream to the people of the New World due to the circumstances of his upbringing and the persistence that followed it. Benjamin grew up hand to mouth as a child with a family that did not have money and consisted of thirteen brothers and sisters to support. This perfect rags-to-riches story expresses the American dream’s idea that people of poverty can become anything they set their minds too. Another characteristic of Benjamin Franklin that translate to the American Dream is his persistence. Throughout his autobiography, Benjamin gives the reader an abundance of examples describing his work

Benjamin Franklin wrote his report on his Thirteen Virtues to the common man of his time. However, as the average man in the late 1700’s was considered to be a white male landowner, his virtues were not intended to be applicable towards African Americans, women, and children, and as a result, the virtues do not fit the roles of those people groups. In many circumstances, these Virtues did not affect the minorities at all; others would only pertain to them at a future time. All three groups, African Americans, women, and children, could have been influenced by Franklin’s writings, and would be able to then relate them to their lives.

Oberg and Stout put it best in the introduction of their book Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and the Representation of American Culture, “It is difficult, if not impossible to, think of two more widely studied colonial figures than Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards. As Franklin and Edwards have been studied individually over generations, so also have they been looked at together” (Oberg and Stout 3). Through their influential writing and critical evaluations of how to improve oneself, Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin both encompass American themes that ultimately define them as

Franklin self-consciously promotes himself as the ideal American in his book The Way to Wealth. He does so by creating two fictitious characters, Poor Richard and Father Abraham. Poor Richard is Franklin's pseudonym. He uses this pseudonymous character to inform the American public of industry and frugality. Preaching industry, Poor Richard says "Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy." For frugality, he urges people to "suppress the first desire, than to satisfy all that follow it." For Father Abraham, he is to laud and promote Poor Richard's maxims, which is Franklin in disguise. The praise from another person is more credible than if Franklin is to praise for

Benjamin Franklin was a man of many outstanding accomplishments. He was a protégé in his youth, an inventor in his young adulthood, and later an activist. He started a newspaper empire in a city no one had faith in. He invented the Franklin Stove that would be used as a model for modern appliances. He even advocated for the abolition of slavery and the institution of women’s rights. At the surface Franklin seems impeccable, but authentically is far from it. In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Part One and Part Two encompass his flaws and his successes. As Franklin transitions from Part One into Part Two a drastic shift occurs in the representation of his character. In the introduction of Part Two, Franklin no longer writes with candor in regards to his flaws and mistakes, but writes with caution. With the progression from Part One to Part Two, critics such as D.H. Lawrence believe Franklin himself transitions from a “moral animal” into a “moral machine” (Lawrence 22). Changing between these two radically extraordinary moralities, Franklin forms his character into figure that should not be loved on the record of his pietism in the second part, however, but should be appreciated due to the duty he takes for his flaws in part one.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston into a traditional Puritan household and he grew up in morals and ideas of America’s first European settlers that affected Franklin when he is a child. “My parents had early given me religious impressions, and brought me through my childhood piously in the Dissenting way.” and “… my mind with regard to my principles and morals…” (Page 43) He lived in a time of tumultuous changes that his character and thought were shaped by a blending of Puritan heritage and enlightenment philosophy. Franklin’s father, Josiah, intended Franklin would go into the church that put Franklin to school as a child. “I was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church.” (Page 6) and developed his writing and math skill by his father altered his intention “took me from the grammar-school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownell…” (Page 6) Franklin was developed his writing skill and felt interesting in it. In his early childhood, reading became the most important part for Franklin’s self-improvement. Later on his life, he met up great literatures by Shakespeare, Pope, and Addison, which build up his character and attitude. He wanted to become an English writer when he met with the Spectator by Joseph Addison. “I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it.” (Page 11) and “by

The story of Franklin as the self-made man begins with him being the first man who rose from poverty to prominence. No one else in American history started out so low and gradually ended up so high. After Franklin no man could claim to be self-made without producing his own unlikely beginnings and becoming a prominent man. His story as a self-made man began with his interest and talents as a writer. In his Autobiography he talks about his path to prosperity “one who would thrill later generations even as they misinterpreted’ ( ). The first page explains that the future generations might take interest in his life in account of having emerged from the state of “affluence and same degree f reputation in the world” (). Franklin the printer and self-made man became a figure of American History..

Some of his widely-known writings are his Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Poor Richard’s Almanac (Perkins and Perkins, 191). When reading a work by Franklin, one can highlight the importance of honesty and hard-working ethic in life. The article The Way to Wealth becomes one of the most important business books and had been reprinted as well as translated into many languages (Carpenter, 2015). The article plays a significant role in shaping one of American character; self-made man (Powell,

It was quotes like this that pegged Benjamin Franklin as the face of America during pre-Revolutionary times. Franklin was a Founding Father, an inventor, a scientist, a polymath, a politician, a printer, and wore numerous other hats. He essentially changed the world’s view of America, showing everyone that Americans were not idle or unsuccessful, rather respected, appreciated, and intelligent. Three important aspects of Franklin’s life were his personal life, his scientific discoveries, and his impact on American history.