Lesson 1.6 · Unit 1 · RI.11-12.6, RI.11-12.3
The autobiography that invents the self-made man
Franklin's Autobiography is the origin of a figure who runs through the rest of this course and out the other side into American life. Gatsby has a version of Franklin's schedule in his pocket, and the novel says so.
- Franklin wrote the Autobiography in four parts between 1771 and 1790, and it was published after his death.
- It is addressed to his son in the first part and to a general public thereafter, and the shift changes the book.
- The self-made man is its invention: a person whose worth comes from effort rather than from birth.
- Franklin presents character as a project, with a list of thirteen virtues and a chart for tracking them.
- Appearance is treated as a legitimate tool, and he describes arranging to be seen working.
- The prose is plain and ironic, and the irony is usually at his own expense.
- The Puritan self-examination survives the theology, since the chart is a spiritual diary with the salvation removed.
- Fitzgerald quotes the structure directly in The Great Gatsby, which this course reaches in unit 5.
Where students lose marks: treating the book as sincere self-improvement writing. Franklin is often laughing, and an analysis that misses the irony reads a comedian as an earnest man with a chart.
The text. Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography, written 1771 to 1790. Public domain.
In order to secure my credit and character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. I drest plainly; I was seen at no places of idle diversion... and to show that I was not above my business, I sometimes brought home the paper I purchas'd at the stores thro' the streets on a wheelbarrow.
In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride, disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.
Step one: read the first passage for its two halves. He was industrious in reality, and he avoided all appearances to the contrary. Those are different claims and he makes both.
Step two: examine the wheelbarrow. He carried paper through the streets in order to be seen doing it. The work was real and the visibility was arranged, and Franklin records the arrangement without embarrassment.
Step three: state what the passage argues. That reputation is a thing a person builds deliberately, like a business. This is a genuinely new idea in a culture that had understood character as given by God and confirmed by conduct.
Step four: connect it to the Puritans. Winthrop's colony was watched and judged by God; Franklin's tradesman is watched and judged by customers. The habit of living under observation survives, with the observer changed.
Step five: read the second passage carefully. He describes pride as unkillable, admits the reader will see it in the book, and then closes by observing that overcoming it would make him proud of his humility.
Step six: name the technique. A joke that concedes the charge. The sentence is funny and it is also an accurate account of a real difficulty, and Franklin gets the benefit of both.
Step seven: state why the irony matters to reading him. A reader who takes the thirteen virtues straight finds a priggish man with a chart. A reader who notices the jokes finds a man who knows exactly how the project looks and does it anyway, which is a more interesting and more American figure.
Step eight: point forward. Gatsby's father produces a boyhood schedule from his son's book: rise, dumbbell exercise, study electricity, practice elocution. Fitzgerald is quoting Franklin, and the novel's judgment of Gatsby is partly a judgment of this book. Unit 5 returns to it.
Questions 1 to 5 are recall. Questions 6 to 10 ask for reasoning.
- When was the Autobiography written, and when published?
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Written between 1771 and 1790; published after Franklin's death
- What figure does the book invent?
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The self-made man, whose worth comes from effort rather than birth
- How does Franklin track his character?
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With a list of thirteen virtues and a chart
- What does he do with a wheelbarrow, and why?
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Carries paper through the streets so as to be seen not being above his business
- What does he say he would be proud of?
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His humility, if he ever overcame his pride
- What are the two separate claims in the first passage?
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That he was industrious and frugal in reality, and that he avoided all appearances to the contrary. Those are different things, and Franklin asserts both without pretending the second follows from the first. He is describing a reputation as something built deliberately alongside the conduct it reports, which is the passage's real subject. Actual industry, and the deliberate management of its appearance
- Why is the idea in that passage new?
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Because the culture it emerged from understood character as given by God and merely confirmed by conduct. Franklin treats reputation as a thing a person constructs on purpose, like a business, and records arranging his own visibility without embarrassment. That is a different theory of the self, and the rest of American literature argues with it. It treats character as constructed rather than given
- How does Franklin inherit the Puritans without their theology?
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Winthrop's colony lived under observation and judgment by God; Franklin's tradesman lives under observation and judgment by customers. The chart of thirteen virtues is a spiritual diary with the salvation removed. The habit of continuous self-examination survives entirely intact while the thing being examined for changes from grace to reputation. The habit of living under observation survives with the observer changed
- Analyze the sentence about pride.
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It concedes the charge in the form of a joke. He describes pride as unkillable, warns that the reader will see it throughout the book, and closes by noting that conquering it would make him proud of his humility. The sentence is funny and it is also an accurate account of a real difficulty, and Franklin collects the credit for both at once. It concedes the charge as a joke and is accurate at the same time
- What does missing the irony cost a reader?
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They find a priggish man with a chart, which is the standard complaint about the book. A reader who notices the jokes finds someone who knows exactly how the project looks from outside and undertakes it anyway, which is both funnier and more interesting. It also matters for unit 5, since Fitzgerald is answering the ironic Franklin and not the earnest one. A comedian read as an earnest man with a chart