Honoring Benjamin Franklin after Independence Day
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Many people celebrate Independence Day with barbeques, family time, and of course, fireworks. However, few people know about the historical significance of the Fourth of July. Benjamin Franklin was one of the most influential figures in American history, and he wrote social commentary as America came to fruition in the 1700s.
Benjamin Franklin critiques the historical era that he was a part of by exploring universal truths during a dynamic time in American history. Using a character named “Poor Richard” (458), Franklin asserts how mankind is fundamentally flawed. Franklin uses criticism within “The Way to Wealth” to suggest that the proper way to achieve personal fortune is to take great care of oneself while also acknowledging the fact that all people are still human.
Some historians label the eighteenth century as the Age of Experiment. In terms of his writings, Benjamin Franklin does agree with that perception of his own time period, but he also provides a proper warning about how dire consequences can happen as mankind attempts to discover more through experimentation.
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After exploring more about himself within his autobiography, Franklin reveals a profound fact by the end of Part II of this particular text. Benjamin Franklin came to the conclusion that people need to be careful with pride. Indeed, pride is a major vice that can tarnish people, and it often results in their personal misery as pride corrupts them morally. Pride essentially becomes a catalyst towards disaster because being too self-absorbed can cause people to lose sight of what really matters in life.
Finally, Benjamin Franklin uses his texts to reveal how it is appropriate to experience a sense of pride after achieving a major accomplishment within the Age of Experiment, but that same hubris can also transform noble experimentation into burdensome trials and tribulations.
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