The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was not an easy book to read. Writing styles have changed tremendously since the 1700’s. Despite the cultural differences I learned a lot about the man and the time. Benjamin Franklin was a remarkable man. He was a printer, author, politician and an inventor. He was one of fifteen children in his family. Because he was from such a large family he was sent out to work at a very early age. He only had a few years of grammar school education when he started working in his fathers business. During his days off he educated himself through books. He was not happy working in his fathers business for very long. Unsure of what he wanted to do; his father took him around town to introduce him to other trades available to him. Not entirely pleased by the choices available, he settled on the printing trade. He worked as an apprentice in his brother’s print shop for several years until tension ended their relationship.

By this time he was in his late teens. He moved to Philadelphia to continue in the printing business. He did well in Philadelphia but was always unhappy working in someone else’s print shop. The governor of Philadelphia offered him

The main thesis of this book is the hardship that Franklin was faced with and how he grew up to become the man that he did. I believe that the one sentence that deals with the theme of this autobiography is a quote of something that Franklin once said; “I cannot boast of much Success in acquiring the Reality of this Virtue; but I had a good deal with regard to the Appearance of it.” Concerning the belief that working hard will help him to achieve his goals, Franklin also states, “If you work hard you will lead a fulfilling life.” A third quote from Franklin's autobiography, that states the importance he placed on hard work as away to achieve success is; “Industry, Lose no time.-Be always employ'd in something useful.-Cut off all unnecessary Actions.” This shows how Franklin wasn’t the type of person who waited for something to happen but worked hard to achieve his goals.

Then the autobiography ends, without even touching on the facts about Franklin in America or his signing of the declaration of independence and of the U.S. Constitution. (The reason for the end of the autobiography is that Franklin died before he was able to finish it.) This book was more then just another boring autobiography. This book amazed me by how a lower class son of a candle maker could grow up to become who he did. That man was Benjamin Franklin. Even though I enjoyed much of this book, I did find some parts of book to be boring. For instance, to be honest I didn’t enjoy how Franklin went so far back in time to describe his grandparents and the older generations of his family. I think he says so much about his parents, grandparents, and family because those were his routes. This information about Franklin’s older generations helped me as a reader to get more insight into Franklin’s family but wasn’t very informative because it didn’t relate his family to what goals or influences they had for Franklin when he was growing up. So the book was interesting from some perspectives, while others were less convincing. Even with these ambiguities, I found this book doesn’t relate to all the events and actions of Franklin’s life mainly to, but how he outdid others. This was not only a story of success but also of triu

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Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania Assembly, William Franklin, Vaughn Franklin, Reality Virtue, Actions” Franklin, Philosophical Society, Franklin America, Benjamin Franklin’s, Benjamin Vaughn, benjamin franklin, franklin’s life, printing business, printing trade, theme autobiography, print shop, son william, hard achieve, major accomplishment, life mainly,