Birth of a Nation

Benjamin Franklin and Washington Irving, despite being two radically different men in terms of writing style and in their manner of thinking, nevertheless were both writers who contributed significantly to early America’s literary history. At a time when America was attempting to refigure her place in the world, uprooting her roots from a crumbling society to bury them in the soil of a new-born nation, Franklin and Irving were indispensable in helping the country find her voice and, ultimately, in determining what it meant to be an American. Both men were gifted in their ability at creating a façade in their writings from which to elucidate their points; it is interesting to contrast the two differing personas. In his autobiography to his son, Franklin depicts himself as the acme of perfection, the epitome of what it means to be a man. Highly successful, he presents himself as the quintessence of a father figure who has achieved all of his life’s goals and wants nothing more than to elaborate on his achievements so that his descendants, too, can soar to the heights he has attained. His expository style of writing takes the form of a friendly manual in enumerating points which one should follow in order to better oneself. That is one of the major premises of Franklin’s writing: the self-improvement of man. At a time when the Puritan’s belief of pre-destination was the general consensus, Franklin introduced this revolutionary concept that has melded into one of our nation’s fundamental ideals. Franklin believed that anyone could rise from the position they were born in, and that one should always question pre-existing orders and take nothing at face value. This ability to question is also inherent in American society. Irving’s approach was wholly different from Franklin’s. Irving cloaked himself beneath the form of Diedrich Knickerbocker, a purveyor of the whimsical traditions and superstitions that pervaded the Dutch culture in early America. His style of writing did not intend to educate the reader in any particular manner; rather, it was simply a way of keeping the folklore of a dying people alive and a salute to how these people contributed to the nation’s first beginnings. Irving writes of the quaint, simple lifestyle of the Dutch, and how magic is a daily part of their lives. This magic is unlike that of the Puritans, who believed all magic stemmed from the evil of the Devil. That is what makes Irving so unique; most of his contemporaries believed magic to be malignant, with no redeeming qualities. He brought alive a magic that appealed to everyone in that it held no malice or conscious hatred, and he made people want to read about something that previously they had held an extreme aversion towards. These fantasy tales relate the dream-like nature of an America that no longer exists, of an America that would be lost forever if someone did not write down her legacies. If Franklin was the author of the first self-help book, then Irving was the first pop-culture writer.