Benjamin Franklin; Modesty Or Arrogant?
Benjamin Franklin, also known as the “printer”, wrote an autobiography which captures his earlier life as an apprentice, a journeyman and finally, a printer. He moved all over, from London to Boston, acquiring useful skills for his passion of writing. Franklin gave enormous tribute to his career in printing because it became the channel for his road to fame and wealth. In his introduction to The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Kenneth Silverman writes, “The modesty of Franklin’s style is itself, that is, an expression of his desire to prevail” (p.xix). Silverman’s statement is communicating that Franklin’s approach to life uses humility to make clear his aspiration to succeed both in his personal and public life. He uses this humble approach because he thinks it is the best approach to life.
The Autobiography supports Silverman’s claimed assertion about Franklin’s modest approach in numerous ways. Throughout the first part of the book, Franklin accomplishes many things in both his private and public life. He establishes the Junto club, after converting to deism. This club was open to intellects who shared an interest in philosophy and morality. Also, he gets married to Miss Read, becomes official printer of Pennsylvania, and prints The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency, which gained political attention that landed him a prestigious job printing paper currency. Even more, he founded the first American Library. All of these events in his life are extremely recognizable accomplishments for Franklin, that could have easily taken his self-esteem to the highest degree; arrogance. Franklin could have formed the “Junto” group and acted in a superior, inferior manner by not joining those intellects that came because he simply did not think they were on the same level as him. Also this is a great example of how he was bettering social progress, how humble.
There is another example of Franklin’s modesty in the letter Mr. Benjamin Vaughan writes in which he...
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