Literary Criticism

The literary criticism that is found on Facts on File written by J.E. Leo Lemay is a very thorough and thoughtful piece of information. Lemay is very clear with his words and with what he thinks of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. Throughout the whole criticism we read of how Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is his best work and he is a much better literary author than anything else. I would have to argue a point that Benjamin Franklin's greatest work of art was nothing to do with any of his writing. In the essay Lemay says Benjamin Franklin was well known throughout the world and in Europe (Lemay). Europe was basically the center of the world at this time in history so he is comparable to the Pope or St. Theresa of the present day. Everyone knew him, but how many people read his Autobiography? No one because not very many people were literate. The people in this time period knew him for his inventions not for his writing! Think of the genius things he invented, one of them he found. But still, no one else found it. It is not like electricity is one of the greatest findings of all time. It is not like nearly everything that we in this present day use throughout the day. Electricity is Benjamin Franklin's greatest work of art.

Benjamin Franklin also invented the furnace. This improved greatly the wooden stove that only could warm one room of the house. Franklin made this furnace warm the whole house. Most of all the people I know have furnaces in their house so that is a pretty credible work of art. It allows us to sleep in comfort in the brutal winters of central Illinois. Then Franklin invented the bifocals. These were pretty nifty indeed for they allowed people with poor eyesight to not wear those ridiculous looking eyepieces they had before. They have developed into a common thing of fashion and style now and they help poor vision. Let us not also forget that Franklin came up with the concept of daylight savings time, as I have learned in the movie National Treasure. Daylight savings is something we Americans use all of the time. It is in the fall, and I can not recall the date but we fall back one hour and in the spring we go forward one hour. This allows us to have more hours of daylight to perform all of the activities of which we wish to perform in the daylight. This was pretty helpful before the lights we have now, which use electricity by the way.

Another one of Franklin's works that I would have to put ahead of his Autobiography would be his invention of a postal service. Before the days of emails and phones or texts, we had one way of communication and that would be the mail. This was all because of Benjamin Franklin. This helped us immensely when we did have have the technology that we do today. We can attribute basically all ways of communication to Benjamin Franklin since he invented electricity.

While J.E. Leo Lemay makes a very valid point that Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography was a great work of art, it was by far not his greatest. We have to think of all of the great things Benjamin did for this nation and the world. He has made many things easier because of his various works. But no way no how is his Autobiography his greatest work of art.


Franklin, Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. [S.I.]: General, 2009. Print.

Lemay, J.A. Leo. "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." InThe Renaissance Man in the Eighteenth Century. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1978. Quoted as "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." in Bloom, Harold, ed. The American Dream, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. October 11, 2010.