Criticizing a Criticism on Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Overall, I found J. A. Leo Lemay's criticism of Ben Franklin's Autobiography to be quite interesting. I was a bit overwhelmed at first by the complex writing style, however I found the style to be similar to adjusting to Shakespeare; once into the flow of the writing, reading and comprehension becomes a lot easier. Lemay brings up many good points throughout his criticism that I did agree on. While reading it, I highlighted the points I agreed with, the first being "The simplest possible answer, as well as the most common general impression, is expressed by the standard cliche, the rise from rags to riches" (Lemay). Although I have not read the entire autobiography of Ben Franklin, I can tell what Ben Franklin was trying to convey, and I agree with Lemay in that Franklin is trying to show how a poor man can become someone and end up doing something great with his life, much like Benjamin Franklin did.

Another thing I noticed while reading this criticism was that Ben Franklin was actually quite humble. Lemay puts it nicely saying, "Although Franklin writes of his early poverty a number of times, he rarely mentions his later wealth" (Lemay). I believe that Franklin's reasoning in being humble was that he had started out poor, and become someone important. However, he had probably been raised to be thankful for whatever he got, especially when he did not have much. Therefore he felt it unnecessary to brag and boast about his wealth and riches, as he more than likely had some idea what others would think of him if he were to go around broadcasting the fact that he was now rich, because who likes a braggart?

Lemay brings up a good point saying "[Ben Franklin's Autobiography] is the rise from impotence to importance, from dependence to independence, from helplessness to power" (Lemay). I really liked this point a lot because I agree with it. In general, people need to just step up and face the music so to speak. Lemay is saying that Ben's Autobiography is his way of telling people to wake up and do something with themselves. Because at this point, most of us are juniors in high school, one of the most important years in our high school career. I felt the point Lemay made relates almost directly to juniors in high school. Just because, for the past two years the majority of us have just sort of moseyed along and we have not actually sat down and thought about what we are going to do with our lives. However, at this point we all need to stop depending on others and become independent, stop being so helpless and become in power of our own lives, and make what we want to achieve important and our number one priority in our lives.

In reading J. A. Lemay's criticism about Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, I felt reading this criticism helped me. I was able to analyze what Lemay was trying to convey to his audience about Ben Franklin's writing, and I thought about my own life a little bit more and how relevant this article is to the lives of juniors in high school. Therefore, I found the article quite interesting to read.


Lemay, J.A. Leo. "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." In The Renaissance Man in the Eighteenth Century. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1978. Quoted as "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." in Bloom, Harold, ed. The American Dream, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=1&iPin=BLTTAD005&SingleRecord=True (accessed October 12, 2010).