pursuit of american dream
HIST101A
David Brooks
TA:
Essay #1
The pursuit of happiness is the American dream that every person in this country is driven to achieve. To succeed, this dream may take a few years of luck, or a lifetime of hard work. No matter what happens in this journey, the learning experience of gaining that happiness is what will be remembered the most.
Benjamin Franklin once said,
“Happiness consists more in the small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.”
Franklin meant, Happiness is achieved with the small things you enjoy in life. For example, one of Franklin’s small pleasures in life was to read. In his autobiography, Franklin talks about remembering always having a book in his hands. He also recalls his father, Josiah Franklin reading him passages from the bible and other “life lesson” books he had in his possession. From a passage in his book Franklin said,
“From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.”
With the truth in that Franklin started small, slowly building his first collection of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress books. After completing this collection, Franklin sold Bunyan’s collection to purchase another author, R. Burton’s Historical Collections series. Franklin said he only bought the books because they were 40 or 50 pence in all. Also in the book, Franklin talks about his father’s small collections in his library. Franklin said when he had his thirst of knowledge, he regretted reading his father’s clergyman books. This ultimately led to Franklin deciding to forego on become a clergyman and to go in a new direction. However, Franklin fell upon Dr. Mather’s Essay’s to Do Good, which gave him the influence on some of the important future events in his life. Once Franklin started working as an apprentice in his brother’s printing press, Franklin met and befriended a man
David Brooks
TA:
Essay #1
The pursuit of happiness is the American dream that every person in this country is driven to achieve. To succeed, this dream may take a few years of luck, or a lifetime of hard work. No matter what happens in this journey, the learning experience of gaining that happiness is what will be remembered the most.
Benjamin Franklin once said,
“Happiness consists more in the small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.”
Franklin meant, Happiness is achieved with the small things you enjoy in life. For example, one of Franklin’s small pleasures in life was to read. In his autobiography, Franklin talks about remembering always having a book in his hands. He also recalls his father, Josiah Franklin reading him passages from the bible and other “life lesson” books he had in his possession. From a passage in his book Franklin said,
“From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.”
With the truth in that Franklin started small, slowly building his first collection of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress books. After completing this collection, Franklin sold Bunyan’s collection to purchase another author, R. Burton’s Historical Collections series. Franklin said he only bought the books because they were 40 or 50 pence in all. Also in the book, Franklin talks about his father’s small collections in his library. Franklin said when he had his thirst of knowledge, he regretted reading his father’s clergyman books. This ultimately led to Franklin deciding to forego on become a clergyman and to go in a new direction. However, Franklin fell upon Dr. Mather’s Essay’s to Do Good, which gave him the influence on some of the important future events in his life. Once Franklin started working as an apprentice in his brother’s printing press, Franklin met and befriended a man