Representation of the Early Eighteenth American Society in Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography

Abstract

Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography is about the personal interests, activities, events and his works that he completed in his different time period and simultaneously these characteristics represent the contemporary American society. He introduces the major hardships and difficulties in the narrative as a personal voice but he becomes a representative to tell about the voice of many American people. His feelings of nationality, economic development, stable political system and good manners are not merely his personal voices rather this was voice of contemporary American citizens. Although, the narrative begins by addressing to his own son, he intends to tell a true history of contemporary American society to his audience. All the descriptions of Franklin in this Autobiography as personal events, they represent the contemporary circumstances of America. Therefore, Franklin’s personal narrative embodies the eighteenth century American society.