美国文学概述Lecture 2 Benjamin Franklin.docVIP

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Social Background freedom from restraint; age of revolutions experimentation in science; the presence of the frontier; growth in nationalism; growth in materialism; the age of the gifted amateur; belief in progressivism. His life: Born into a poor candle makers family; the 15th of his father’s 17children Had very little formal education Was apprenticed to his older brother at 12 Ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune at 17 A printer, postmaster, almanac maker, essayist, scientist, orator, statesman, philosopher, political economist, ambassador The only American to sign the four documents that created the US One of the makers of the new nation Poor Richard’s Almanac: containing witty maxims for achieving wealth as a result of hard work and thrift. “Lost time is never found again.” “A penny saved is a penny earned.” “God help them that help themselves.” “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin ☆ A record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity. ☆ The book demonstrates Franklin’s confident belief that the new world of American was a land of opportunities which might be met through hard work and wise management. ☆ The book celebrates the fulfillment of the American dream. ☆ It is a Puritan document of self-examination and self-improvement. ☆ The spirit of self-reliance, originating from Puritan ethics, bloomed in the next century into Emerson’s Transcendentalism. Franklins Autobiography has received widespread praise, both for its historical value as a record of American’s first self-made man and for its literary style. It follows the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision. (the plainness of its style, the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression) It is often considered the first American book to be taken seriously by Europeans as literature