Benjamin Franklin and Robin, Hawthorne's main character, leave home for different reasons. Franklin, in his autobiography, explains how he journeys to Philadelphia in search of a job and to start life on his own. Franklin wants independence and he knows he will find what he seeks. Franklin states, "I took it upon me to assert my Freedom" (194). Robin leaves his home with the idea of depending on his second cousin, dependence not independence. Robin journeys from his family's country farm to the city in search of his kinsman, Major Molineux, with hopes that his kinsman will help him get started in life. Hawthorne writes, "The Ma

Benjamin Franklin's "Autobiography" and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" represent opposite feelings of leaving home. Benjamin Franklin, through his intelligence and belief in himself and his dreams, is able to bring himself out of a poor family and into a position of prestige and wealth. He makes it seem that he achieves success very easily, and that any hard working American can do the same. Hawthorne does not agree with Franklin. Hawthorne wrote his short story to give the public a more realistic view of leaving home and trying to make it in the world. Franklin's life represents the great American dream, but it is an unrealistic achievement. Hawthorne's story shows the more realistic cruel world that people face as they enter adulthood. Everyone goes through the transformation from youth and innocence to guilty adulthood; some just experience the change easier than others do.

Each author writes their story as a way of showing what they think it takes to get ahead in life. Franklin stresses throughout his autobiography that it is easy to achieve the American dream of being a self made man. He encounters hardly any set backs in his climb from, "Poverty and Obscurity," to the great man of American history he is now known as (185). Franklin believes that hard work, diligence, appearances, and connections will get a person everything out of life they desire. Hawthorne tells his readers that even with well designed plans and hopes life is hard. Hawthorne shows that to get ahead in life one must leave the innocence of youth behind and harden one's self against the ugliness of the world. He also shows that a person must know when to conform to the masses or be left behind. Robin knew, once he saw his kinsman, that he could not be seen as a sympathizer to the man the town had lynched. Robin decides to conform, "The contagion was spreading among the multitude, when all at once, it seized upon Robin, and he sent forth a shout of laughter that echoed through the

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Approximate Word count = 1339
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)