The quill pen and the printing press were two means of composing available to early American authors. They have different qualities; the pen is a more romantic and stylized, while the press is a practical and efficient industrial tool for the spread of knowledge. However, both the pen and the press must write with ink. These tools make great emblems for two early American writers: Anne Bradstreet(1612-62), and Benjamin Franklin(1706-90), respectively. It would be challenging to find authors with less common matter; Bradstreet and Franklin come from distinct backgrounds and centuries, espouse different philosophies, and wrote in different genres. However, their rhetorical minds used similar circuitous tactics of argument stemming from a common classical tradition
[...] Bradstreet obviously places her stock in the promise of a Christian afterlife rather than in a world that robs her instantly of her children and belongings. The Bible was no such inspiration for Franklin, who wrote in his Autobiography, “Revelation had indeed no weight with (841). In his renegade youth, Franklin wrote a pamphlet entitled A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain which actually denying the existence of virtue and vice. He later subscribed to Deism and invented his own humanistic code of ethics, effectively scrapping Ten Commandments as he did the commands of the British Government. [...]
[...] Rather than waiting for his works to be published at the insistence of friends, Franklin snuck his own works into newsletters and showed them to friends (Lauter 817). The saucy flavor of his social critiques earned Franklin, according to the Autobiography, the respect (and suspicion) of several people who later offered him positions. Franklin lived and wrote with his wit, urging social progress and new thought. When he was not satirizing religion Witch Trial at Mount Holly,” Speech of Polly Baker”) or government Edict by the King of Prussia”), he issued practical advice for living(Poor Richard's Almanac), challenged accepted perspectives the Slave and wrote of his worldly experience (Autobiography). [...]
[...] In his Autobiography, Franklin recalls reading works on Socrates which inspired him to assume the manner of “humble enquirer” whenever he entered an argument (Lauter 814). He found that approaching the argument circuitously, from the perspective of a questioner (and a menial bricklayer), he could make his most incisive points. Although Franklin claims to have given up this form of arguing, in several of his works, Frankin assumes the voice of another persona, generally someone of humble station, like poor Richard in the Almanac. [...]
[...] Bradstreet also inherited the philosophy and religion of her parents, which stands out in her poetry. Her poem, Flesh and the Spirit” figuratively enacts the battle between Platonic opposites. In it, a righteous subdues the with speeches like: hidden manna I do eat,/ The word of life it is my meat” (392). Note the use of language from the King James Bible. Similar passages appear in her “Upon the Burning of Our House,” in which she reflects on the temporal nature of her lost earthly possessions, then decides hope and treasure lies above” (398). [...]
[...] The theme is classical, and Bradstreet narrates from the perspective of a passer-by, as Franklin does: secret place where once I stood/ Close by the banks of Lacrim flood,/ I heard two sisters reason on (391). The argument sits in the mouths of two fictitious sisters, and rather than one person's psyche. This figure of speech, also known as a conceit, broadens the issue to apply it to mankind while concealing the author who wishes to remain invisible. Franklin and Bradstreet share disappearing tricks. [...]
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