FREE ESSAY ON THE INNOVATORS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

THE INNOVATORS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

From their critical assessments on how to improve themselves and to the American public
that they influenced by their writings, Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin illustrate
American themes in their personal narratives that quintessentially make part of American
Literature. Although they lived in different times during the early development of the
United States of America and wrote for different purposes, they share common themes.
Their influence by their environment, individualism, proposals for a better society, and
events that affected their society generate from their writings. By analyzing Jonathan
Edwards' Personal Narrative, Resolutions, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and
selections from Benjamin Franklin's The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin found in The
Heath Anthology of American Literature: Third Edition Volume One edited by Paul Lauter,
the fundamental themes in American literature are evident and their individual ideas are
distinctive.
These personal narratives reveal the influences of their environment that gave them
epiphanies to their closer perfection of themselves. Jonathan Edwards' Personal Narrative
shows his journey towards a closer relationship to God. His family was followers of the
Congregationalist Church, and from early childhood, he followed a Christian life (Lauter
569). In the beginning of his autobiography, Personal Narrative, he says I had a variety
of concerns and exercise about my soul from my childhood; but had two more remarkable
seasons of 
awakening, before I met with that change, by which I was brought to those new
dispositions, and that new sense of things, that I have had (Lauter 581). Edwards endures
a rite of passage, which brings him closer to God. These epiphanies assisted on his
assessment of becoming a better man in the eyes of God and minister to his community.
Benjamin Franklin did not hold his family beliefs of Christianity, but from his early
environment, he drew his relationship to God as a Deist. Franklin believed there is a
Supreme Being and it is our job to discover our own reality by reasoning. In his
autobiography, he notes several epiphanies that changed his lifestyle. For example, he
regretted his leaving Miss Read for England without pursuing their relationship further.
He calls these regrets or wrongdoings Erratum (Lauter 788). 
The spirituality of Franklin and Edwards is distinctive, and their writings reflect their
experiences and growth of improvement. Franklin as a Deist felt that he created his
destiny by the decisions he made. His autobiography illustrates his faults and
accomplishments. This openness aims to the audience, the American, in order for them to
reevaluate themselves and improve from their weaknesses. Franklin wanted Americans to
become better Americans. With Edwards' beliefs, he felt that god predestined every man,
and only the elect entered in the afterlife to heaven. He focuses his writing to the
Christian audience. His goal is to prepare them to become candidates to be elect and show
how the elect can set an example for the rest of the congregation. These men felt the
responsibility to live a better life and set the example for every man in their
community.
As individuals, they constantly contemplate and self-evaluate there position in life and

community. In Early American Literature: A Collection of Critical Essays, the editor
Michael T. Gilmore writes in the introduction, [the Puritans] in their minds the Bible
was the book of history, and typology revealed the developmental pattern of events by
finding correspondences between the Old and New Testaments (2). Edwards constantly places
his life according to the bible. He believed like Winthrop, that his community needs to
prepare and become a city upon a hill (Gilmore 2). Through his contemplation and goals
seen in Resolutions, he constantly seeks to improve himself, so he can fulfill God's plan
for a new Holy Land, which is his congregation in New England. His sole concentration was
interpreting the Bible and living by its words. He recorded his goals to improve himself
and set an example to his community.
Benjamin Franklin seeks the same goals as an individual, but he desires to improve the
American man. In Soundings: Some Early American Writers, Lewis Leary writes Franklin was
the true American...[he] constantly redefines himself...none better represented the
simple, noble men...who lived close to nature faithful to her laws uncontaminated by
artificialities of court or town (9, 11). Franklin lists virtues that he intended his
audience to try to follow when they chose to improve themselves. By explaining that no
one can change overnight and work on one vice until successively conquered, such as
chastity, every man can find self-improvement and further contribute to their community
(Lauter 810-11).
With a diary and documenting each vice, Edward sought to overcome his sins, be closer to
God, and teach from his experience the necessity to set the best example as one of the
elect. With Franklin's table of conquering vices, he wanted to be closer to being
virtuous. These men documented their progress of their self-defined resolutions in hopes
of their community to follow by their example. They desire to be influential by their own
sacrifices and catch attention and esteem by their community.
Edwards' and Franklin's writings reflect the political and social separations in their
society. While Franklin teaches through writing the events to all Americans for the need
for a closer society after the Revolutionary War, Edward preaches to his congregation the
need to bind together and seek salvation during the time when America redefined religion.
In, Sinners of an Angry God, Edwards reacts with anger and fierceness to his congregation
in the reaction to the Great Awakening. In his sermon to his church, Edwards' theme is to
plea the many not saved and doomed to damnation. He preaches, now you have an
extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open
(Lauter 602). He pleas to divert the influence of uncertified preachers and stay close to
the community and save themselves. His idea of holding a community is by threat of
damnation. As Ursula Brumm explains in her essay Jonathan Edwards and Typology, in Early
American Literature: A Collection of Critical Essays, Edwards took part heart and soul in
the events of the Great Awakening. He regarded this movement with overwhelming
expectations in the belief that it marked the beginning of the millennium (71). Edwards
felt that the temptations of Satan was the cause of this event, and by force in this
sermon, he attempted to hold his congregation during this test by God who wanted to see
who was faithful.
Franklin was not as forceful in his attempt to influence man to become more patriotic. He
simply wanted some to follow the path that he paved. He discusses that the application of
his list of virtues and how they make man a good citizen. He says it's every one's
interest to be virtuous, who wish'd to be happy even in this world (Lauter 818). His aim
is to show men, thatliterature, like his autobiography, helps men analyze their own
errors and correct (Leary 15). The theme of rags to riches dominates Franklin
autobiography and it is a common theme used by many American writers. At the time after
America won its independence, the nation struggled for the identification of a model
citizen. Franklin's true account of his success from moving from the lower class to the
upper class influenced many of his fellow American in a needful time.
Franklin and Edwards were innovators to their communities when people needed a model to
live their lives. By their constant self-evaluation, self-improvement, publication of
their personal narratives, and their acknowledgement of a need to bind society together,
they represent American Literature.
Bibliography
Works Cited
Brumm, Ursula. Jonathan Edwards and Typology. Early American Literature: A Collection of

Critical Essays. Ed. Michael T. Gilmore. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1980.
Lauter, Paul., ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York:

Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.
Leary, Lewis. Soundings: Some Early American Writers. Athens: University of Georgia
Press, 
1975.