In Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, Samuel Keimer is a character who represents the antithesis of Franklin. The development of Keimer not only improves the reader’s understanding of the minor character, but also of Franklin, the major character. Franklin makes a point of showing the reader each of Keimer’s faults and contrasting them with his own merits.When Keimer is first introduced to the reader, he is in very much the same circumstances as Franklin; they are two young men trying to make a fresh start in a new town, the only difference being Keimer’s economic, and thereby social, advantage. In comparison to Franklin, however, Keimer is a flawed and immoral man; this difference is what makes him the ideal model for Franklin to scrutinize. As Benjamin Franklin consistently moves up the social and economic ladders, more than surpassing Keimer’s achievements, Keimer quickly falls into poverty and loses everything. “With the rest I (Benjamin Franklin) began to live very agreeably; for they all respected me, the more as they found Keimer incapable of instructing them, and that from me they learned something daily.”1 Franklin goes into great detail to teach the reader how one should live one’s life in order to avoid the same fate as Keimer.
In Franklin’s opinion, many factors attribute to his rise to glory and Keimer’s fall to disgrace; these elements help to provide the foundation for some of Benjamin Franklin’s thirteen virtues. The virtues are designed to show how a person can lead a morally flawless life, which is why the morally corrupt Keimer is the perfect counter-example for Franklin. The first of these virtues is Temperance. The amount of Keimer’s temperance can be summed up in the following quote: “He was usually a great Glutton” (BFA 29); he is unable to last through the ordeal of abstaining from meat and eventually orders and eats an entire roast pig before his guests can arrive. This scenario also shows an example of Keimer’s lacking of the fourth virtue, Resolution, and of the ninth virtue, Moderation. The lack of Resolution can be named as one of the main causes of Keimer’s downfall in society; Franklin points out that it is virtually impossible to attain economic success without drive and perseverance.
Franklin, however, eats and drinks little and often goes on vegetarian diets; he has been quoted as saying, “Eat to live, and not live to e...
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...him to attain a social step up on Keimer. At one point in his autobiography, Franklin gives the reader a lesson on the value of rhetoric and the use of the Socratic Method. Franklin then uses the example of Keimer and their frequent debates to show how, by using the Socratic Method, he is able to completely confound Keimer to the point that Keimer becomes “ridiculously cautious, and would hardly answer me the most common Question, without asking first, What do you intend to infer from that?” (BFA 28).Franklin attributes Keimer’s failure to all of these characteristics, and attributes his own successes to the opposite traits. Keimer is a role model for Franklin, and for the reader, of what not to become.
As Franklin is reminded, “Keimer was in debt for all he possess’d, that his Creditors began to be uneasy, that he kept his Shop miserably, sold often without Profit for ready Money, and often trusted without keeping Account. That he must therefore fail; which would make a Vacancy I might profit of” (BFA 44). Thus Keimer, though a minor character, is of great importance to the reader, for without him, Franklin would not get his points of morality across as clearly or as precisely.
Gordon S. Wood delves into Benjamin Franklin’s philosophical, political, and personal legacies in the biography, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. The book travels through Franklin’s experiments, his travels in Europe, and his role in the American revolution. The book begins when Franklin retires from business and becomes a gentleman. It was when he became a gentleman, it allowed him to analyze the world around him. “Indeed, he could not drink a cup of tea without wondering why the tea leaves at the bottom gathered in way rather than another,” a quote from Edmund S. Morgan’s book, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin spent a great deal of time in Britain before returning to America. When he returned, he threw himself into the American revolution, which sent him to France. After he accomplished his duties in France, he returned back home to America where he ran for public office.
Franklin was remembered for stating "the longer I live, the more convincing proof I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men." Franklin 's ideas that contributed to the Enlightenment is found in his Autobiography. His idea of a perfect person has 13 virtues and claims that a practical and scientific man is based on combining their values and economic values. Franklin preferred voluntarily societies over government control, all his thoughts can lead back to free opinion. In his, Almanac is reflected on his scientific interests and was popular within the
Thinking about your own life using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, can you draw a picture of the various layers of context in which you grew up?6
Individual. Bronfenbrenner 's model envisions the developing individual with attributes such as age, sex, abilities, and temperament as the center of the model. (Berger, page 18) These characteristics will cause the interaction with the next level of the model in particular ways that evolve over time.
“My intentions were to acquire the Habitude of all these virtues, I judg’d it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it one of them at a time, and when I should be master of that, then proceed to another, and so on till I should have gone thro’ the thirteen” (Franklin 93). He believes that if he masters all of these virtues that he will become the perfect individual. If humility is the thirteenth one, than it must be the most important one in his life, or at least a closure to a perfect lifestyle. He made a book in which he allotte...
Bronfenbrenner’s theory explains five distinct but related environmental settings in a child’s life that could be influential in promoting the best outcomes and he explains how individual and their family systems are influenced in their development, how relationships function, and how interactions take place. Bronfenbrenner’s five systems: ”(Bigner & Gerhardt, 2008).
This paper also seeks to compare the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and Fredrick Douglas. In an e...
Benjamin Franklin has been without a doubt one of the most relevant individuals in US history. His autobiography gives us a brief but detailed summary of what his life was like and how society worked in the eighteen century. This autobiography gives us many details of how the colonies where and offers and an overall image of the development of British North America which later turned into the United States. Due to the fact that this book was originally written for Franklin's son, the book concentrates in personal information and has very little information about other topics. However, there are some topics that can be extracted from his writings; one of them is gender. Even though, Franklin never talks openly about gender, we can observe how in his writing these roles are clearly assigned. In this paper, we will analyze how Benjamin's Franklin autobiography showcases the importance of gender in the early eighteenth century. Gender can be analyzed in Franklins book by looking at different topics. This given to men and women by society can be seen in the workspace, in the education of each individual, and in the family and family structure.
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory will be applied throughout this essay to delve into the reasoning behind particular behavioural issues. According to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory, an individual has multiple environments known as their ecological systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). Bronfenbrenner (1994) suggests that a developing child is influenced by the relationships surrounding them and the best way to understand a child’s behaviour is to look at the numerous aspects of the child’s environment and how they interact with each other. The relationships and environments that the child interacts with have been separated into layers known as the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and the overarching chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The microsystem is the environment where the child has direct face-to-face relationships such as at home, day care and school (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The relationships formed within the microsystem directly impact the development of a child (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). It is through the processes of repeated interactions with people, objects and symbols that the human develops (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The second layer in the ecological model is the mesosystem, which is the interaction between two of the microsystems such as the relationship between a parent and a teacher (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The exosystem is an external environment, with which the
...learly that Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Van Gogh and Bouyeri had indeed highly divergent understandings of several issues including the relation between Church and government and gender equality. Bouyeri, for instance, a Muslim immigrant unable to assimilate to a western, secular nation seemed to fail to identify either with his original or with his host culture. His fanaticism, therefore, was apparently more a remedy to his feeling of isolation than real identification. Ironically, the country that is supposed to host the most tolerant civilization of the entire world was home of a prime example of intolerance – Van Gogh’s murder. Clearly, the three characters’ clashing perceptions, added to the effects of globalization pointed out by Huntington (economic modernization and social change) made them – even if Bouyeri more visibly – fall into the “trap” of civilizations’ clash.
Sociological theories are usually constructed from ideas of early sociologist through scientific research in regards to developing a better understanding of how our social world operates. By gaining this type of knowledge, sociologist can better explain (to those who are interested) the social world that we have grown accustom to, as well as make predictions of how the social world will develop and function in the future. Three are three major categories that are classified under sociological theories: functionalist theory, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction theory. All three of these theories are known to have an impact on social institutions such as families, healthcare, religion, education, mass-media, politics, and economics. The primary focus of this research paper is to assess how the three major sociological theories have influence on religion.
Benjamin Franklin is one of the most influential and famous figures of all time. Ben Franklin if often referred to as the "self-made man," and his philosophies and principles in the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Louis P. Masur, has served as a self-help book for millions around the world. Franklin's Autobiography is a prime example of the American dream, a rag to riches story that has inspired many people to think of themselves and the community in a different light. Franklin's moral and social philosophies are packed deeply into his Autobiography. Franklin believed that improving ones self was the key to success. Self-improvement, self-education, and self-discipline are the main factors of a self-made man. Improving yourself will ultimately improve the society as a whole. Franklin speaks of principality and inclination. His idea was to produce the principle man with the awareness of man's natural inclination. Throughout the text Franklin provides examples from his own life that contradicts his moral and social philosophies. These contradictions are mostly caused by natural inclinations. Franklin uses these contradictions to educate people to be aware of their natural inclinations and to try and overcome them. Franklin's realizes that improving oneself is a road with many imperfections. Not even the "self-made man" was completely perfect.
approach it from a middle age perspective and, in one form or another, build on what the
Bronfenbrenner’s model involved how a person responded to their surroundings. It was all separated into four different systems. Growing up as a child, my family was always together and happy. Nothing ever seemed to put us down, not even the roughest times that impacted our lives. My family was together through ups and downs and they showed me that families should stay united no matter what circumstances occur. As a child, school always had a positive environment and it helped me learn so many things in life. My teachers were caring and a big help when it came to helping us learn. My teachers became like a family to me and school was like a second home. My peer group wasn’t too large, but they were a huge part of my life. My peer group was
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological, system’s theory describes how the child and their immediate surroundings are in an innermost layer surrounded, embedded and influenced by layers from the larger environment all impacting upon the child (Ministry of Education, 1996; Paquette, & Ryan, 2001). Of particular interest are the effects to the child of two way relationships towards and away from the child, as defined by Bronfenbrenner as bi-directional influences, these are particularly influential in the child’s inner layer. For instance: the impact to the child of attentive or non-attentive parents affects how the child reacts to a given situation, which in turn affects how the parent behaves. Notwithstanding, the impact of bi-directional influences on the child’s world continues into the outer layers, as in the example of a parent’s workplace demanding more input into the workplace, which means...