Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream
This essay examines Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography as a foundational text in the development of the American Dream. Drawing on Franklin's own account of his arrival in Philadelphia as a penniless seventeen-year-old and his subsequent rise through the printing trade, the paper argues that Franklin embodied the ideals of industriousness, self-reliance, and perseverance that would come to define American cultural identity. The essay traces key episodes from the Autobiography to show how Franklin's experiences — navigating hardship, cultivating talent, and building a readership — established a model for success rooted in personal merit rather than inherited class or social standing.
- Introduction: Franklin as embodiment of the American Dream thesis
- Arriving in Philadelphia: Humble Beginnings: Franklin's arrival and early career in printing
- Industry, Wit, and Self-Making: Industriousness, the Almanac, and rising success
- Conclusion: Franklin's legacy as model of American meritocracy
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds its argument in direct quotations from the primary source, giving the analysis textual authority even within a short essay format.
- Uses a concrete biographical episode — Franklin's stormy voyage and arrival in Philadelphia — as a symbolic anchor for a broader thematic claim about perseverance.
- Maintains a consistent thesis throughout, connecting each paragraph's observation back to the central claim about Franklin and the American Dream.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates thematic close reading of a primary source. Rather than summarizing Franklin's life chronologically, the student selects specific moments from the Autobiography and interprets their symbolic or cultural significance, using them as evidence for a literary and historical argument about national identity.
Structure breakdown
The essay follows a classic five-paragraph structure: an introductory paragraph establishing the thesis, three body paragraphs developing the argument through textual evidence and analysis, and a concluding paragraph that broadens the claim to contrast American meritocracy with class-bound European societies. The Works Cited entry confirms MLA formatting at the high school or early undergraduate level.
Introduction
Ben Franklin exemplified the conviction that if a man worked hard enough, he could obtain prosperity in America. This abundant reaping of the fruits of one's labor is what became known as the American Dream. Franklin was certainly a proponent of this ideal, as is evident in his Autobiography. This paper argues that Franklin's Autobiography marks him as a man who had a profound impact on the formation of the American Dream's essential character.
Arriving in Philadelphia: Humble Beginnings
Franklin's life illustrates how a young man can arrive in a major city without any money in his pocket and, through the application of his knowledge of a trade, set about amassing a fortune. That is precisely what Franklin did when he arrived in Philadelphia at the age of seventeen, having passed through "a squall that tore our rotten sails to pieces" (Franklin 17). The squall represents all the turmoil a person must overcome in order to succeed, and by weathering this storm on his way to opportunity, Franklin demonstrated that he was equal to the task.
As Franklin notes, he "immediately got into work at Palmer's, then a famous printing-house in Bartholomew Close," which is significant because it shows that Franklin did not simply take the first position available but sought out a prominent establishment (Franklin 32). There he chose to exercise his talents and began writing "a little metaphysical piece" on "Liberty, Necessity, Pleasure and Pain" (Franklin 32–33). Through the pamphleteering of his ideas, Benjamin Franklin began to make a name for himself. He engaged in conversation with other learned gentlemen and steadily learned all there was to know about his new surroundings. He moved to a new position, believing he was leaving printing behind, yet always open to the course of events, he never fully closed any door.
Conclusion
Ben Franklin rose up out of obscurity to climb his way to the top of his profession, starting at the bottom of the ladder and working his way up year after year. In this way, he embodied the pursuit of the American Dream — the idea that opportunity awaited one around every corner. This is certainly the impression Franklin creates in his Autobiography, as he makes his way in Philadelphia, plying one trade and then another before finally finding his groove.
Franklin's experiences demonstrate that a young man of obscure origins could indeed become "somebody" in America, unlike in other parts of the world where class restrictions determined one's fate and how far one could go in pursuit of a better life. In America, Franklin showed that it did not matter where one came from: with talent and hard work, the Dream could be had.
Works Cited
Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. NY: Dover, 1996. Print.
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