Ben Franklin Autobiography: Themes

In the autobiography, Part Two reflects lots of virtues in life, and how to approach attaining those virtues while working towards the common good. Franklin was interestingly disconnected while conjoined with religion in his life as he states in Part Two in the biography. But the virtues he looks to attain apply to everyone and leaving religion out of the virtues enables all cultures and societies to connect with the text. His self-consciousness in the beginning of part two when he gets multiple conformations to continue writing on these subjects. It made makes Franklin look humble as is one of virtues, which I don't know stylistically if that was intentional. His shifting viewpoints on America as a new power in the world changed through the ending of the novel. 

Throughout the novel in the beginning of section one, the inclusion of the letters reassuring Franklin to continue to write was interesting because it revealed part of his personality that gets hidden through history. But it allowed the readers to see his self-consciousness, which generally the public perception of Ben Franklin is not self-consciousness but rather evolutionary thinking. However he originally starting writing this autobiography because he thought it would be something useful for his kin to remember him through, but as he started writing he decided that every American should be aware and use these virtues and lessons in their own lives. For the time period Franklin was alive these 13 virtues made absolute sense, today, and these virtues have taken a backseat in the lives of Americans. Not to take away from the work Franklin produced, in the context of history today and trying to use his Autobiography as a learning tool for the present, it could be looked at working on moral perfection. 

             

One theme of the biography that I became attached to is Franklin's take on education. Its something you "want to do" rather than "have to do". Which applies to society today because school is not seen as a privilege in the United States anymore, its the place you are stuck until you reach maturity. Knowing that this is not how education is seen today forces the idea that there is a problem with our education, but his understanding of education and the way it should be used and learned is spot on. I think our societies today should begin to figure out how to make school this effective.