A Response to The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

After finishing The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, I feel like I know Franklin's achievements and aspirations, but little of himself as a person. You can deduce his personality through writing, but truly understanding the character of someone so experienced and intricate is like looking at the sky and expecting to absorb the universe. That being said, I can understand that he is hardworking and proportionately intelligent. Throughout his life he lived with curiosity, which led to his inventive nature. He had failures, as everyone does, but achieved greatness in a plethora of areas. A founding father, an inventor, a revolutionary; Benjamin Franklin was one of the most important people in America's history, and humanity's history as a whole. Earth would be unthinkably different without his actions.

To me, Benjamin Franklin is someone to admire. Of course, it's extremely uncommon to admire every aspect of someone, as everyone has faults, and everyone has their own perspective on things. From my perspective, his negatives and mistakes are disproportionately inversed by his positives. "There are no Gains without Pains." (Franklin 95). I like this quote because it shows how hard working Franklin was. He understood that you have to give to receive. A similar quote that I enjoy is "... There will be sleeping enough in the Grave" (Franklin 95). This also allows you to perceive his a little bit of his character. He believed that you should do as much as you can when you have the chance. Spend little time resting, for you can dream for eternity when you're six feet under.

In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself. You see it perhaps often in this History. For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my Humility (Franklin 51). Once again, everyone has faults. Everyone has regrets, and everyone makes mistakes.

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Franklin acknowledges that, and stays humble. He knows the danger of pride, of ego. Instead of fighting it, he accepts it. He understands that no matter what you do; pride is not something you can separate from yourself. He knows that pride is human; it is one of our defining features. Instead of fighting a hopeless battle, he shows humility. To me, this expresses more of his character than anything else, and because of his willingness to accept the inevitable, I find him an affable person.

There is little I don't like about Franklin. But of course, I picture his collective experience as him, not defined parts of his nature. If I were to do the latter, I would criticize the following quote. "From a child I was fond of Reading, and all the little Money that came into my Hands was ever laid out in Books" (Franklin 13). He writes this to this to imply that he has always loved reading. But to me, I view this as selfish. He clearly states that he was born into a large family, with little supplies to obtain food. Had he money, he should have helped his family.

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