Transcript from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

from The Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin
from Poor Richard’s Almanack
Background
• Benjamin Franklin arrived in the city of
Philadelphia in 1723 at the age of
seventeen.
• He knew no one, and he had little money
and fewer possessions.
• However, his accomplishments shaped the
city in ways that are still visible today.
Franklin’s Accomplishments
• He helped to establish Philadelphia’s public
library and fire department.
• He helped to develop the city’s first college.
• Through his efforts, Philadelphia became the first
city in the colonies to have street lights.
• While Franklin was a brilliant man, some of his
success can be attributed to sheer self-discipline
which we will explore in this excerpt from his
Autobiography.
Literary Analysis
• An autobiography is the story of a person’s
life.
• Autobiography was a new form of literature
when Benjamin Franklin wrote The
Autobiography.
• His work helped set the rules for this new
type of writing.
Autobiography
• An Autobiography presents events in a
person’s life according to how that person
sees them.
• An autobiography can give personal views
of history. Information about the politics,
habits, ideas, and values of a society can be
found in autobiographies.
Reading Strategy
• Franklin tells his readers details about his
life.
• He explains his goals and interests.
• You can draw conclusions about Franklin
and his life.
• A conclusion is an opinion you reach by
pulling together facts and details.
Drawing Conclusions
• Use this pattern for drawing conclusions about
Franklin’s character while you read.
• Details: Franklin changes his plan when he
sees he is not meeting his goals.
• Personal Experience: You also thought of a
different way to meet a goal that was not being
met.
• Conclusion: Franklin makes adjustments to
meet his goals.
Literary Focus: First Person Point of
View
• Benjamin Franklin writes his story using the
pronoun I – using the first person point of view.
• A first person point of view shows events from the
narrator’s perspective.
• When a story is told from the first person point of
view, two important things happen
• First, we share directly the narrator’s thoughts
and feelings
• Second, we know only what the narrator
knows.
Reading Skill: Making Inferences
• Making inferences is like being a detective.
• You use your own experiences and
knowledge as well as evidence from the
text to make inferences, or educated
guesses, about what is happening.
Making Inferences
Evidence: Franklin gave
What little money he had to
Some people on the boat.
Knowledge: Giving money is
Always generous.
My Experience: My brother
Gave me the money I needed
To buy a new CD.
Inference
Franklin is a generous
Man. He is willing
To help people
Who need
money
Into the Autobiography
• Franklin began The Autobiography when he
was sixty-five.
• He continued working on it off and on until
his death, at eighty-four, leaving it
unfinished.
Summary
• Franklin is working on a plan to reach moral
perfection.
• He will work on thirteen virtues or qualities.
• Franklin writes the virtues in a notebook to see
how well he is doing.
• He makes a black mark beside a virtue every
time he forgets to follow it.
• He works on a different virtue each week.
• Franklin thinks his plan is helpful but not
completely successful.
from Poor Richard’s Almanack Summary
• Franklin gives advice about how people should
behave.
• He presents his thoughts in aphorisms, or short
sayings with a message.
• Many of his aphorisms come from traditional folk
sayings.
• Sayings such as “Well done is better than well
said” tell something about Franklin and what he
values.