Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Essay Example

This is a clear indication that his theme of self-improvement emanates to as early as that tender age of twelve (Franklin 1899). Later on, it happened that he quarreled with his brother and he left for Philadelphia, where he got a job as a printer. This was not to last long and he left for London, where he met no fulfilling promises and then went back to Philadelphia, where he worked for a business (Leo 1986). Upon the death of the business owner, he left to establish his own printing firm, where his journal, the “Pennsylvania Gazette” when he stopped writing for the journal, he embarked on printing on it “Father Abraham’s sermon” the greatest of his works that rose him to the hall of fame, he belongs to till today (Franklin 1899).

All this are illustrations of his theme of self- improvement, in that from the point he quarreled with his brother, he proceeded to seek ways to earn a living, working under different people in different fields. He emerges as a positive minded personality who struggled to make ends meet with a dream that never died to excel in the writing and publishing field (Stuber 1790). By stating, that he emerged from a state of poverty to that of affluence and fame in his autobiography further indicates the strength of the theme of self-improvement in his life (Leo 1986).

He describes through his reference to personal pride that he upheld, which for some reasons created a room for change and improvements that enabled him achieve the success that he did achieved during his life time (Franklin 1899). According to him, self-pride is not evil, since it is the seed planted to reap improvements and advances in personal character traits, which are Congruent with the achievement of success. During his years at grammar school at a tender age of eight, he proved to be an excellent student.

Through self-improvement, he managed to rise his position from that at the middle of the class performance to be the head of the class. This saw him moved to the next class, before his duration for the first class was over. Unfortunately, this was not long lasting and he was moved out of school to support his father’s business at the age of ten (Franklin 1899). In recounting his events, he had a liking for seafarer that his father so much opposed. However, he did all he could in his means to become an excellent one, leading the other boys.

All this demonstrates the spirit of self-improvement that developed at a very tender age. Worth noting is the fact that in his family, inheritance was passed on to the first son, and thus being the last one, the hopes of any good life were extinguished by such default (Stuber 1790). More of his self-improvement theme is discovered when he states that he had not a good access to books while working under his brother, but he could borrow one in the evening, read it the whole night and return it early morning to avoid the book being noticed missing (Leo 1986).

His self-improvement theme, as advanced by his autobiography, he came up with a scheme to leave a legacy. This he did by setting up an academy, which later translated to a university. This alone was not enough, so he went on to founding the “American Philosophical Society.” The intentions of this was to provide the other scientific