Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography Essay

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Narratives have been popular for many years and continue to grow in popularity. This tends to be true because of the autobiography aspect of narratives. These stories can help others understand their own lives and grow as a person. Benjamin Franklin wrote an autobiography that became very popular. Students learn about it throughout the country, but after reading it, many questions arise. People tend to think that Franklin didn’t care about others, based off the way he writes about certain situations. This leads people to believe that his autobiography is a revenge novel, but that is not the case. In contrast too other, I believe that the autobiography is written to the general public, in order to share his accomplishments and show that …show more content…
Keimer was a printer in Philadelphia, and Franklin was not a big fan of his work. In the autobiography he never spoke highly of Keimer, even though he was his boss. Franklin clearly states his feelings by stating “Keimer, tho’ something of a scholar, was a mere compositor, knowing nothing of presswork” (21). Some may believe that this criticism is the ultimate revenge because he put it into his own autobiography. This is a fair argument considering the autobiography was supposed to be a novel about Franklin and his accomplishments, but he still took the time to put his opinion on Keimer’s printing into the novel. Although there is supporting evidence for the statement that The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was a revenge novel, I believe that this is not the point of the autobiography. Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography was written to share his life accomplishments and stories with the public. Those who believe that it is specifically a revenge novel are looking at the fine details of the autobiography. There is much more to the novel than that, for example, he took part in many civic engagement projects. This autobiography shows the public that there is opportunity in the world and success can come to those who work for it. For example, in part three, Franklin shares that he wishes to fix things in his
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