I want to start my think piece with this quote from the book. “Franklin is best known as prophet of the American dream: if you work hard and play by the rules, then you will succeed. Power and privilege are the fruit of industry and effort, not birth and ascriptive social roles. The American dream is closely associated with some of Poor Richard’s most famous phrases: ‘A penny saved is a penny earned,’ ‘There are no gains without pains,’ and ‘Early to bed and early to rise/Make a man healthy wealthy and wise.’ Proof of these maxims is provided by Franklin’s own life, which affirms the power of individuals to shape their own destiny” (xiv).
Benjamin Franklin is the embodiment of American Dream. He instructed his countrymen as a printer, but not…show more content… He set a schedule that encouraged himself to follow these virtues, because he believed that living with these virtues is more important than other things. Franklin stated in his biography that he spent a whole week on one of the Virtues and once he is confident with that week’s Virtue, then he will move on to the next Virtue. However, if he is not comfortable and believed that he completed his task, he would have to start from the beginning again. The reason that Benjamin Franklin’s American dream comes true was because that he wished to do everything perfectly. Due to this behavior, Franklin became a hardworking individual who accomplished his own goals and invented many useful resources (electricity). Franklin had a belief that every American must achieve the thirteen virtues perfectly in order to achieve their American…show more content… He wrote, “…my Father in the meantime, from a view of the [expense] of a College Education which, having so large a Family, he could not well afford…” (7). Instead of sending Franklin to a college, his father “send [him] to a school for writing and arithmetic” (7). Even though that Franklin did not receive the highest education, he was not afraid to try and continue to achieve his American dream. Benjamin Franklin was also known as the man who invented the American Dream. The concept of the American Dream is familiar throughout the world. How people choose to interpret that concept and what it means to them, will often depend on their own living condition and social