Journal #21

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Benjamin Franklin both had theories for making themselves better people. Emerson made a whole essay, Self-Reliance, about how much better off a person would be if they were more self-reliant and not dependent. He also believed that an individual should believe in themselves and be who they want to be. He thought that an individual should not conform to society, they should be their own person. He believed that the world was conforming too much and everyone was becoming too similar to everyone else. Emerson believed in being independent and self-confident, which is not exactly what Benjamin Franklin was thinking about in his autobiography. Benjamin Franklin believed that his Thirteen virtues would slowly help him become a better person over the course of his life. Many of his virtues were about bettering himself and helping others. Franklin was more dependent on others than Emerson, I think. Franklin stuck to his virtues for a long time, but eventually he gave in and slowly began to fail to conform to his virtues. This is where I believe that Emerson and Franklin differ. Emerson was very pro-independence, and he believed that people should be different and non-conforming. Franklin's views are almost the exact opposite. He created his thirteen virtues to help him conform to society, I think. He wanted to fit in and be known as the "friendly man" whom everyone could depend on. Well maybe not that last part. But either way, Emerson was definitely more opposed to conformity than Franklin.

I think that their writing style is very similar. Both Emerson and Franklin's writing style is very direct and to the point. Even though Franklin was an author during the rationalism time period, and Emerson was an author during the Romanticism literary period their writing is similar. Romanticism and rationalism are pretty much opposites but in this case, I find them to be very much the same. I think I like Emerson better than Franklin, I found his Self-Reliance essay to be more easy to relate to than Franklin's thirteen virtues.