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Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

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BECOMING AMERICA<br />

REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE<br />

2. What stylistic elements does Edwards use? How aware <strong>of</strong> his audience is<br />

Edwards? What means, if any, does Edwards use <strong>to</strong> engage his audience?<br />

How do you know?<br />

3. How does Edwards’ narrative serve as a model <strong>to</strong> his audience? How, if<br />

at all, does it confer his potential authority over its audience? Why? How<br />

do you know?<br />

4. What religious conicts, fears, or uncertainties does this narrative<br />

address? How universal do you think these were among Edwards’<br />

audience? How does he resolve these conicts, fears, and uncertainties?<br />

How convincing (<strong>to</strong> you as a reader and <strong>to</strong> Edwards’ contemporaries) are<br />

his resolutions?<br />

5. How appealing does Edwards make his faith and understanding <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Christian God? Why?<br />

3.4 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN<br />

(1706–1790)<br />

Born in Bos<strong>to</strong>n, Benjamin Franklin<br />

was the youngest son <strong>of</strong> the youngest<br />

son ve generations back. His father,<br />

Josiah Franklin, left Northamp<strong>to</strong>nshire,<br />

England for <strong>America</strong> in reaction against<br />

the Church <strong>of</strong> England. Though he tried<br />

<strong>to</strong> have his son educated formally by<br />

enrolling him in the Bos<strong>to</strong>n Grammar<br />

School, Josiah was forced by nancial<br />

circumstances <strong>to</strong> bring Benjamin in<strong>to</strong><br />

his tallow chandler and soap boiling<br />

business. Franklin hated the business,<br />

particularly the smell, so he was eventually<br />

apprenticed <strong>to</strong> his brother James,<br />

who had learned the printing trade in<br />

England and started a newspaper, The<br />

New England Courant.<br />

Image 3.3 | Benjamin Franklin<br />

Franklin <strong>to</strong>ok <strong>to</strong> printing and the Artist | Joseph Duplessis<br />

Source | Wikimedia Commons<br />

printed word, reading voraciously not<br />

License | Public Domain<br />

only the business’s publications but also<br />

the books loaned <strong>to</strong> him by its patrons and friends. Through reading and using<br />

texts as models, Franklin acquired great facility in writing. <strong>An</strong> edi<strong>to</strong>rial he wrote<br />

under the pseudonym <strong>of</strong> “Silence Dogood” was published by his brother, who had<br />

no idea <strong>of</strong> the piece’s true authorship. James was imprisoned after quarreling with<br />

Page | 299

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