Literary Criticism: Emerson and Franklin

The Emersonian-Franklinian-American Dream?

Throughout early American literature, thinkers and scholars struggled to define a unique set of American values and traditions. It wasn’t until Emerson encouraged the American scholars to stop listening to “the courtly muses of Europe” that Americans began to define their own independent literary identity (Emerson, American). However, the framework and assembly of an important American theme began before the country was even officially established. Benjamin Franklin prescribed to his son, and many other early American readers, the foundation on which the American Dream would be based. Franklin authored his autobiography with the purpose of teaching Americans the value in the self-made man. It wasn’t until 70 years later that Emerson expanded these ideas and created a unique American tradition of self-reliance. The two thinkers profoundly influenced the set of beliefs that prevail through American literature and traditions, but their interpretation on individualism could not be further apart. In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Franklin explains and demonstrates, through memoirs, the social utility that individualism creates. His autobiography turns into a manual that teaches the importance of appearance to achieve a self actualization. Ralph Waldo Emerson reiterates the importance of individualism, but unlike Franklin, he describes a state of intrinsic self realization that is free of social mimicry. The two men detail two extensive plans on the attainment of the individual American Dream; the disparity between their ideals have constructed a blurred reality of the American Dream.

In his autobiography Franklin attempts to prescribe a new moral and ethical compass for the budding American nation that is free of religion. While seeking to live his life by a set of 13 virtues, he struggles to humble himself. In regard to humility, he writes “I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it” (Franklin). Internally Franklin knew he had issues with being humble, but on the outside he did everything he could to “appear” humble. This example provides a simplified look at Franklin’s overall approach to becoming successful. According to Franklin, the way to achieve a piece of the American Dream is to rely on yourself, mostly focused on how oneself appears. To Franklin, intrinsic virtue is important, but not as important as appearing virtuous and righteous. He says, “I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary” (Franklin). Not only did he work to be righteous, he never did anything in appearance that made his community think otherwise. He wrote, “One does not dress for private company as for a publick ball” (Franklin). Franklin never wanted to appear less than he wanted to be. In order to be successful, he argues that one must appear righteous even if he has not achieved that level of internal self actualization.

Opposingly, Emerson would argue the opposite. In his essay, “Self-Reliance,” Emerson stresses the importance of individualism through an internal attainment of the self. Franklin would argue that in order to attain a higher level of the American Dream, one needs to appear like others who have been successful, and mimic their success. Emerson starkly opposes the idea of conformity or mimicry. He declares, “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.... Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind....The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion” (Emerson, Self). For Emerson, the only way to better oneself is to introspectively find a level of morality and justice. Franklin adopts his list of virtues based upon his experience and observations in the world and Emerson says the only way to find virtue is to look at yourself, not society. Emerson says that the tradition mode of virtue is an apology. In Franklin’s case, his virtue of humility was an apology for being too prideful. Emerson says, “Their virtues are penances. I do not wish to expiate, but to live” (Emerson, Self). The fundamental difference between Emerson’s self and Franklin’s self is where the self is found and derived. Emerson asserts that the self can only be found intrinsically, “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think” (Emerson, Self). Franklin does meditate on his internal self, but his overall self utilization comes from how he appears to others; Emerson fully relies on himself and only himself to determine his identity.

In Franklin’s moral exploration in his autobiography, he limits his ethical code to it’s minimal utility provided to society. One of his virtues is chastity, and he states “Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation” (Franklin). In this case, he has eliminated any sense of pleasure, passion, or love from sexual intercourse. This virtue is a stripping sex of its emotions or artfulness and reducing it to its strict utilitarian function. Franklin does the same to other forms of art, such as poetry. Franklin writes, “I approv'd the amusing one's self with poetry now and then, so far as to improve one's language, but no farther” (Franklin). In this rigid definition of poetry there is no room for emotion, expression, or thought. Poetry only serves Franklin as a means to improve writing ability; the social importance of poetry is only the outward utility that it provides.

The Emersonian perspective on art does not detach it from its utility, only its consistency. In “Self-Reliance,” Emerson rails against blind acceptance of traditions, such as art, but he does not denounce it’s practicality for determining a level of self. He says, “The soul created the arts wherever they have flourished. It was in his own mind that the artist sought his model. It was an application of his own thought to the thing to be done and the conditions to be observed” (Emerson, Self). Unlike Franklin, Emerson believes that art has a purpose besides just improving an outward appearance. When an artist creates out of an inward observation, then he is refining his process of morality and virtue. Art as a product of the soul is more practical at becoming self-reliant than art as a product of practice. Emerson argues that the world doesn’t need artists that replicate past artists; the world needs new artists that “study with hope and love the precise thing to be done by him” (Emerson, Self). Understood by Emerson, innovation comes from within, and consistency comes from mimicry of outward appearances.

Franklin bases his entire interpretation of individualism on outward appearances, this is how he prescribes a path to being a self-made man. To achieve the American Dream, Franklin suggests that it is best to imitate those that have been most successful in history. He suggests, “Imitate Jesus and Socrates” (Franklin), and since his entire autobiography is like a manual, he also suggests readers to imitate Ben Franklin. He says that he has troubles accomplishing the reality of this goal, but he always makes sure to appear as if he is imitating these moral dignitaries. Emerson would strongly disagree, he would suggest that you should imitate no one. He proclaims, “There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide” (Emerson, Self). To Emerson, imitating what has come before is the quickest way to lose yourself. When you define any portion of your own identity from someone else’s, then you lose your true sense of self. The only way to fully realize one’s self is to rely solely on one’s intrinsic self. Emerson asserts that “Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus ...and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood” (Emerson, Self). Through self-reliance, Emerson argues that the only way to succeed, and achieve an American Dream, is to stop replicating others’ virtues. Franklin wants people to adopt the virtues that he deems acceptable; Emerson wants people to adopt their own set of ethics and justice that they deem acceptable based on introspection.

If it were necessary to practice both Franklinian and Emersonian modes of attaining the American Dream, then one would be traveling in a never ending hypocritical struggle to find themselves. As a Franklinian, one finds their self utility in the society surrounding them. In the Emersonian process, one finds self actualization through a full reliance on introspection. Both systems attain a level of virtue and moral weight, but they fundamentally employ different systems of being American. Emerson focuses solely on the individual, and how to rely on that singular structure. In a democracy, the individual carries a lot of weight, especially when they are able to prescribe their own sense of justice based on their self-reliance. Franklin puts a lot of emphasis on a person’s social utility to a community. He does not eliminate the element of individualism, but he contradicts it. The self relies upon a set of social norms, not upon actual self thought or introspection. Franklin suggests an imitation of what is already great to become a great utility to the communal whole. As Emerson contradicts, once someone imitates anything, they have lost the true nature of the self. The Franklinian dream is therefore centered around the community utility provided from an individual, rather than the individual’s unique, expressive self. This dream begins as the origins of the American Dream. Emerson merely reinvented the concept of individualism that places more importance on self-reliance than conformity. This new design reestablished the democratic model of the American dream, which includes a more diverse approach to attaining self-actualization and success.

Works Cited

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Self-Reliance.” 1841. Emersoncentral.com. Jone Johnson Lewis. Web.

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Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The American Scholar. An Oration Delivered before the Phi Beta

Kappa Society, at Cambridge, August 31, 1837." 1909-14. Essays and English Traits.

The Harvard Classics. Bartleby. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Champaign, Ill.: Project

Gutenberg, 1994. Print.