Comparing the narratives

in all of the narratives religion gets brought up. It becomes clear that during their life time faith played an important part. For Edwards his life waws nothing but religion, the reader doesnt get a good sense of what his life was like outside of religion. Here he clearly implies that life is all about religion and nothing else. He wants to show how religion plays the ultimate factor in ones life, and being close to Dod in is opinion is the only way to get to Heaven. Ashbridge is different to Edwards because while she believes in God, her narratives tells us about other aspects of her life. It shows the hard times she faced and the seperation between her and her family. the first part of her life wasnt as religious as the latter. Even so, i get a better image about her life and its events and not just her thoughts. At some times she even heres voices in her head and she thinks it is God talking to her. This isnt the first time that we have read about people hearing voices in their heads. I get the image like Wieland, Ashbridge could possibly be menally disturbed. I feel she wrote her narrative to express why she went through all the trials and tribulations she did and the importance Quakerism played in her life. Her narrative is extremely pro Quakerism. For equiano, he has a difficult childood, with the fact that he was taken from his home and brought across the ocean to work for whiteslae owners (if that really happened to him). His narratives tells me what a strong individual he was to stick through the kdnapping, the ship ride, and even being raded numerous times.He tells in his narratives about the horrible condictions on the ship for example, and how people couldnt even breathe. these images were put in his narratives so people would now the horrible conditions that occured and hopefully stop them in the future. he wanted to stop the slave trade by righting his narrative. Franklin discusses the success he has in his life and also the hard times he has to go though to get to his success. While i feel he is extremely arrogant in his writtings, it is clear that people looked up to him and thought he was a intellegent man. His writings were supposed to impower people to become successful just like he has done. People started to believe if they followed his examples then they would be successful too. I also feel his writting was for his fame. He was a smart man. He wanted people to praise him and he also wanted money. i think this biography was a good way for him to have both.

Virtuous

Franklin was a Presbyterian. it states in the second part of his biography that he even used to help out a minister. it didnt last long because he found the priest uniteresting or bland. after that he decided he wanted to reach moral perfection by going through one virtue and week and then moving down through the list. i find it interesting that he didnt master humility. i feel that speaks volumes about his personality. Throughout the entire biography, i felt Franklin thought himself superior to the people around him. That personality trait doesnt mesh well with religion because people are supposed to be humble. Also, it is interesting that although Franklin is a presbyterian, he doesnt believe in all of the teachings of the church. He does think there is one God, but he never discusses or brings about the idea of God guiding him in his journey through life. That imagewas presented in many of the other readings done in class. Some of those included Jonathon Edwards and Elizabeth Ashbridge; both people that lived during Franklin's life.

franklin and his ancestors

Franklin does discuss his ancestors quite abit in the beginning of his autobiography. i feel he talks about them because he wants the readers to understand his background and where he came from. He states that his family lived in poverty, but Franklin clearly respects his family members and speaks highly of them all. by him doing so, it speack volumes about his personality. I also feel he talks about his ancestors to show how far he has come in life. His family is a big part of that. Growing up he worked with different family members and learned about many different jobs.
i think he wanted the readers to see his families determination and pride in what they do as a living and their family. By him talking in great detail about many people in his family, it showed their love to help one another out, im talking about working for one another, and how they helped one another learn. One of the people he mostly talks about is his father. His father raised him and even takes the inniciative to show his son different job opportunities since he didnt like the candle shop. His father even helps him with some of his writtings. One day he found out that Benjamin was writting back and forth with a friend and told him to open up his mind more and express himself better.
His family clearly means a lot to him, and he wanted to show that in his writting. if gives the reader a better understanding of the type of person he is.