The process of maturing begins with emerging from the bubble of ignorance, thus seeing life through a wider scope, as well as taking into consideration people besides oneself. Such a mindset can be achieved by understanding Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues covered in his book, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Although Franklin did not attain the moral perfection he wrote of himself, his ideas are legitimized by the fact that he did become a greater man. Similarly, the titular protagonist Tom Sawyer of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer becomes a better, less self-indulgent person, because he matures with said virtues. To convey this transition into adulthood, the paper will state what the 13 virtues comprise of and how they contribute to an improved character. The paper will discuss how Tom Sawyer was an obnoxious boy and by subconsciously practicing the virtues, such as temperance and cleanliness, he transitions from a child into a man.
One thought on “A Better Man Introduction”
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What’s good:
Your introduction makes all the right move.
You identify a theory and a literary text.
You give us a road map for your thesis.
Concerns:
Your hook would be more solid if you attributed it to Kant or someone else. Because what’s happening right now is that your hook is in-and-of-itself a claim that needs to be depended so it’s hard for it to prime me to accept another not yet illustrated claim.
Your thesis I think is too broad. To be clear, its text based, so it’s not broad in that way. However your project is that you’re going to illustrate all 13 of Franklin’s virtues not only at work but achieved in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This project is enormous. It requires so much. It won’t be enough for you to give a quote to say oh look there’s him learning temperance. You ultimately have to show for every virtue that Tom didn’t have the virtue, that he then overcame his vice and acquired the virtue, and then also that the narrative concludes by suggesting that ultimately Tom acquires all these virtues, has no vice, and is at that point now mature. I am not sure that this argument would hold with Twain, but more importantly I don’t think you will have time in this paper to do this argument justice. You are likely to be skimming barely over the text, making generalizations, and putting claims onto the text.
My suggestion is that you narrow down both the part of Franklin you want to focus on and the part of Tom Sawyer you want to focus on. Give yourself time to really examine the texts of both.