Reflection #10

Franklin's writing style is far different than that of any puritan writers such as Bradstreet or Bradford, who wrote "Upon the burning of our House" and "Of Plymouth Plantation" respectively. While listening to the computer read me "The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" I noticed that Franklin did not once mention god, or anything too religious that often. In fact one of the the only religious thing he mentioned was that the first house he slept in was a Quaker house. "I joined them, and thereby was led into the great meeting house of the Quakers near the market. (Franklin 108)." This little detail is what really separates his rationalist writing style from that of the other two aforementioned authors. These two authors are both very puritan in their writing styles, for example I will delve deep into the text of Bradstreet to find an example. Oh so many to choose from, so here are several examples. "And to my god my heart did cry" (Bradstreet 91)." "It was His own, it was not mine, Far be it that I should Repine" (Bradstreet 91)." "Yet by his gift is made thine own there's wealth enough I no more (Bradstreet 91)." As you can see Bradstreet mentions god a lot, which is much more than Franklin did. Very different. Very. Franklin simply goes on about his trip to Philadelphia, and talks about the people he met and the things he saw, and the things he did, and the things that differed from his original location. Basically the typical thing you would expect from a rationalist which is nice because a basic Puritan writer in the same situation probably would have talked about how god had made the people so different that they were inferior, and all the things god had created for them to do, and how all the things they saw were inferior because god wanted them to be so, and how god had made this location inferior to the persons original location. Then they would go on a rant about how everyone who didn't follow their religion deserved death and what not. From Bradford's tale you can easily see the puritan creeping out like some sort of inflamed lymph node. "But it pleased God that he caught hold of the topsoil halyards which hung overboard and ran out at length" (Bradstreet 64). As you can see, Bradford is very similar to Bradstreet in the sense that it took me less than ten seconds to find these examples, and they are both far different from Franklin because he doesn't spout nonsense about god and what not. One thing that Franklin wrote that caught my eye was when he said "Man is sometimes more generous when he has little money, than when he has plenty" (Franklin 108). It is a very interesting phrase as it shows a little bit of how Franklin thinks. I'm not sure if this is truly rational thought, and I would call it philosophy myself, but philosophy and rationalism can be close at times so I'm calling it rational. Why not?

Bradford, William. "from of Plymouth Plantation." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 15, 62-67. Print.

Bradstreet, Anne. "Upon the Burning of our House." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 15, 91. Print.

Franklin, Benjamin. "From the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 15, 106-108. Print.