It is interesting to always read about how people live their lives and how they happen to think of themselves. In reading literary texts there are two people who come to mind when speaking about autobiographies and their portrayals of self, and they are Benjamin Franklin and Oludah Equiano. Here are two men who added new processes of thought and ways of looking at things that many people see as a constructive way of viewing literature and people. However, as similar as they are, they are both phenomenally different from their backgrounds and where they come from.
Both Ben Franklin and Equiano are men who made themselves popular and had their ideas published for the world to see. And more importantly, they are self-made men who looked upon themselves for the achievement of their goals.
Equiano was a slave whose place of birth is still questioned but the fact remains that he made someone of himself even though he was a slave. He was a sailor for years saving money to buy his own freedom, during this time he saw many things that affected him very dearly and made his thinking about freedom nearly vanish at times. Yet, here was a man who had to prove he was a man and not a piece of property to the world so that they could understand him. When he wrote his autobiography it was more than just a story of his life it was also a spiritual autobiography. There are times within it when he speaks of theology and compares Christianity to Judaism and both to his own culture and religion in Africa.
Equiano is someone who even though he was on a ship working as a sailor he took the time to learn the ways of the world and helped make himself stronger. Through his travels he shows that he is a cosmopolitan or citizen of the world thus showing the readers and the outside world that he is not an ignorant savage or a piece of property as the times may have defined him.
In such a person you must feel a sense of respect for how far they managed to make it in the world. As a writer of not only a spiritual but also an anti-slavery oration he uses a sense of inequality in his speech. While he knows and wants people to see him as equal he has to use a sense of humility and perform a character than the public sees him as. These stereotypical viewing of slaves were typical of people who based an entire culture on racism and for someone who was nothing in their eyes to be writing something and have it published is a step Equiano uses to prove his humanity.
In terms of cultural expectations, Equiano has stepped out of his confines into a world where his racial identity makes him a piece of property that may be used and discarded when not needed anymore. Equiano himself shows the reader of how unfair the society in which he is trying to progress is. In one instance he uses the example of a free mulatto who was taken back into slavery because some slavers could not stand the sight to see and free Negro. In such an environment where a free man could not move forward or make a life for themselves unless the color of his skin is the same as a white person, Equiano progressed with strives for his freedom. Yet, there are times when he questions if his freedom would be real or if it would matter after such a scene where a free man is not accepted in the world. A world where freedom is a matter of the public acceptance of a person as a human being first and then given rights somewhere later on the line.
Benjamin Franklin however, was not a colored person, he was Caucasian moving ahead in a society he wanted and one that only had obstacles that were created by others in the social and political arena. While his physical struggles may not be comparable to Equiano, he did have a yearn for learning, reading, and the printing press. These were the tools that he used to further educate himself and create an identity that helped mould a nation and a culture.
Ben Franklin was someone who was enterprising and dared to be different. He sought for ways to have his ideas heard and known even though the first part of his autobiography was never intended for public eyes. In everything he did he sought gain and a way to increase his stature building not only a name but a popular as well as social identity for himself in educated as well as other circles. His ambition seemed to be to make something of himself, a goal that he succeeded in achieving. In the process he became very concerned about his image, and keeping up appearances. One of the appearances he managed to keep is that he is a case of someone who came from rags to riches; he was someone who became a self-made American man. He also managed to give the impression that this is who I am and this is how I did it, you may want to try and do something similar for yourself. Through his enterprises, Franklin does something interesting, he made a combination that many would not have done; he combined his sacred Puritan background with that of his secular one to get himself forward and for the world to know him as a person.
