Literary Techniques In The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin

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Recommended: Benjamin Franklin's autobiography analysis

In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin reminisces for his son. Throughout this novel, Benjamin Franklin addresses many issues with anecdotes and wise sayings to his son, which have universal application. Franklin employs diction, sentence structure, and tone to produce a colloquial style. These literary techniques help construct a fascinating autobiography, which is quite unusual for his time. First, Benjamin Franklin constructs a tone that is, at times, extremely humorous. This humorous tone creates laughter and enjoyment. For example, Franklin creates a calendar of a “typical day.” This produces humor as Franklin addresses “foppery in morals:” And I believe this may have been the case with many who, having, for want …show more content…

In this quote, Franklin seeks to attain moral perfection but fails. Thus, Franklin produces an extremely interesting, and well developed autobiography through hilarious humor. Secondly, Benjamin Franklin fashions an intriguing, interesting autobiography through an extremely simple sentence structure. By utilizing a simple structure, Franklin entices and completely captures the reader. For example, this occurs a Franklin reflects on his childhood: I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea, but my father declared against it; however, living near the water, I was much in and about it, learnt early to swim well, and to manage boats; and when in a boat or canoe with other boys, I was commonly allowed to govern, especially in any case of difficulty; and upon other occasions I was generally a leader among the boys, and sometimes led them into scrapes, of which I will mention one instance, as it shows an early projecting public spirit, tho' not then justly

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