What struck me when reading Frederick Douglass’ narrative were the differences that could be contrasted between his work and life and that as described in Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. In class, Avery commented on one of the most noticeable differences he saw between the two works lay in the authors purpose for writing them. Between both pieces, similarities in themes can be found, but the social classes of the two men largely influenced their lives and writings and purpose. Benjamin Franklin wrote to impart wisdom, to share what he deemed a humble upbringing as the new American way with prosperity being an achievable prospect for anyone who worked hard enough. Franklin’s writing is filled with what he fancies as worthwhile tidbits of advice to the common man, much in style to his writing of Poor Richard’s Almanac. Franklin is accustomed by the time his autobiography is published to being generally well known and revered, so he has lost much of his humility, even in his writing. In contrast, Douglass is not so famous when he publishes his narrative, and even though he is known among the abolitionist community, he is trying to prove himself. The whole reason for his writing is the prove his experience, versus the purpose of boasting his experience as Franklin did. Douglass’ advice comes not as add-ons or proverbs, but are embedded directly in his descriptions of his life, not with the ulterior motive of influence. Lily suggested in class, that some of Douglass’ narrative, in particular descriptions of his wife and marriage are passages that could potentially be taken out of context today and quoted without reference to slavery. She wondered if this is something that Douglass would approve of, parts of his work not being used for their intended overall purpose. Franklin’s work begs to be dissected and uses in pieces of information, but Douglass’ is a work in it’s entirety, written to demonstrate experience, legitimacy, and atrocity.
I like your ideas about the different writing styles of Franklin and Douglass. Franklin writes in a very quotable way. As if his goal is to write short snippets of sage advice that should be attached to his legacy. This was seen during our pointing session in class; the lines that stood out the most were ones that offered a clever generalization on life or a short insightful observation. In contrast, the Douglass reading pointing session was focused on detailed lines about life in slavery, hardships and obstacles Douglass had to overcome. His work functions better as an entire novel, a carefully constructed argument created for a specific group. To view snippets of the novel without considering the context and structure of the entire work disregards the importance of the account as a whole. Franklin’s work doesn’t have this as a consideration, instead he seems to encourage readers to take each sentence apart and apply to several different aspects of their life.
I also found the comparison between Douglass’ autobiography and Franklin’s autobiography to be really interesting. They clearly have two distinct voices and styles, and I also agree that the major difference between these two works is their purpose in writing it. Franklin seems to be boasting about his successful life and the steps that he took to get to that point. For example, he talks extensively about the morals that he tries to live by, and the routine that he lives by every day that he believes brings him the most success. On the other hand, Douglass was simply relaying the experiences of his life and his relationship with the institution of slavery. He is the true success story out of these two men, but he is much more humble and is not seeking fame or admiration. While both of these men may both represent some sort of “rags to riches” story, I agree that their ultimate motives in writing these narratives were quite different, and obviously they had vastly different life experiences.
The ideas and differences presented here also reflect what I noticed between the writings of Frederick Douglass and Benjamin Franklin. One large contrast between the two’s writing stems from a passage in the Bruner reading from August 29, where Bruner says that a man can only write an autobiography if he can be confident he will never repeat the same mistakes he made in the past. In Ben Franklin’s case, writing at an older age, while living in wealth and security granted him that confidence. In Douglass’ case, his book was written for the sole reason of legitimizing his claims and sufferings.
I think that Ben Franklin’s more quotable passages, do definitely make good little snippets, but when I read his work I didn’t feel like they were used to impart bits of wisdom, rather, to justify his actions. Which he may have felt the need to do seeing as what an anomaly he was for his time, being someone who moved between economic classes, who moved from the business world to the political world, an expatriate, an inventor etc. But the similarity between the explanations Franklin offers for his eccentric lifestyle and the little aphorisms that Poor Richard that Chloe pointed out is undeniable. So now I think that Ben Franklin was probably trying to get people to see how his eccentric, distinctively American lifestyle could be a social norm, reinforced by platitudinous little quotes that parents tell their children (especially since the autobiography is addressed to his son).