Blog 2

             Benjamin Franklin is a multitalented man. I would have to say Franklin is the most interesting historical figure to me since he is so well known for such a verity of things. His autobiography is the most intriguing to me of the books on our reading list. He was a respected businessman, philosopher, statesman, writer and scientist. I normally hate reading biographies because they tend to have way more information on the given person then I need or want to know. Generally, when I have to read a biography I only need to know about one-time period so I could only read a few chapters to get all that I need out of it. Typically, I dread first few chapters that are talking about parents and childhood but this time I found these chapters pretty useful. For the topic of this class I find these chapters more important and interesting than normal since we are studying the characteristics of these people rather than what they’ve achieved. I think the way you grow up plays the biggest part in making you who you are so it was interesting to see how random things from Franklins childhood shaped him into a great scientist.

Just a few of the things that I pulled out of these first eight chapters that I believe helped shaped him was curious, determined, good leader, and good friend. I think it all starts with him being pushed into being a scholar by his father uncle from a young age. Franklin also loved to be a leader when on the canoes with the other young boys. He had his junto club meetings that show he was curious and wanted to learn in a way a philosopher worked. This club was mostly debates with no victory, Franklin also said he liked when he argued with anther apprentice as long as no one’s feelings got hurt. I don’t really know if this is a good or bad characteristic but he seems to give friends second changes and support them long then most would. He kept helping the drunk friend Collins and his friend Ralph owed him about $30 when he left back to America. It says he’s a good friend and a trusting person but at the same time he wasn’t thinking alike a good businessman, but that could also just be because he was young. The last thing I feel the need to wright about is the fact Franklin ate a “vegetable diet”. He doesn’t talk much about why he is and I don’t know if that’s normal for the time period but I would be curious to know if he has a similar thought process to his of beer. He logically thought out how beer doesn’t in fact make you a stronger man so I would like to know what he saw as the benefits of not eating meat.

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