Benjamin Franklin

     In 1771, Benjamin Franklin began to write the first section of his own autobiography when he was sixty five years old. An autobiography is a life history written by the person who experienced it first-hand.  The specific section we are currently focusing on, is the time that Franklin had an epiphany about how he expects to live for the rest of his life. The speaker is Benjamin Franklin, when he was just seventeen years old and decided that he wanted to do something better with his life. The occasion is his life and takes place in the year 1723. The subject in his autobiography is moral perfection  and it mainly deals with self-improvement. The audience is for anyone who is willing to read about Franklin's life and his accomplishments. Benjamin Franklin provides us with a record  of his many achievements and an understanding of his exraordinary character. Throughout his entire writings, his tone is informative, descriptive, and practical. This is different from many other stories becuase he is not writing to persuade, he is simply writing for whoever would enjoy reading it.

     Benjamin Franklin realized at a young age that if you wish to become better, you also have to work it. As a result of this he created the thirteen virtues, which are temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. To work on becoming better at each of these virtues, Benjamin Franklin also created a sort of a chart to help him keep track of how much progress he was making. Each virtue had a different meaning, for example temperance meant not to eat or drink to point where we are full and feeling lousy, but silence meant not to waste any time talking about irrelevant topics, but instead talk about subjects that are beneficial for everyone. One other aspect of his virtues is that people may also define them differently. Benjamin Franklin wrote three other sections in autobiography later in his life, but he was only to write up until 1759.