TitleThe key to success is within. It could be in yourself or in a book. Ben Franklin built his own future by making the best of every situation and working hard. Frederick Douglass changed history by discovering the difference between African Americans and whites. Ben Franklin and Frederick Douglass found success within themselves; although they took completely different approaches, they continually worked with what was available to move from who they are to what they can become. The distinction between Franklin and Douglass in self-education was radical. Ben Franklin was the ideal autodidact, but he was the product of self-education. Learning, for Franklin, was difficult, but he had resources to use. One of his resources was "his father's small library, [which] consisted mainly of books" that interested him (81). To gain wisdom, he maximized the library to learn everything it could offer. Being born into a family that has a library shows the intelligence that surrounds one's family. A library in a house symbolizes how much importance a family places on education in the house. With this library, Franklin had become an intelligent man. Not only did he have family resources, but he also used public libraries. Franklin writes that he learned even more in public libraries, because they “gave him the means to improve himself by constant study” (143). Franklin, growing up around a library in his home, allowed him to find solace in other libraries and a place where he could grasp all the knowledge available. The libraries did much to gradually improve Franklin's education. The third edition of the Spectator helped Franklin write very well. The Spectator appears to be a newspaper that Fran...... middle of paper ......s, Douglass understood the conditions in which slaves were held and "envious [his] fellow slaves for their stupidity" ( 268 ) because Douglass found it distressing to know what the problem was. Educating themselves lit a fuse to create a self-made man. Although different in Franklin wanting to succeed and Douglass wanting to become free, they both used this theme of self-education to become self-taught. Franklin is known for being the face of the "American dream" or for having the "American spirit", but Douglass put his place in history and would have been even more well known if not for the way he was born during this time. Douglass changed what some thought impossible. People say that history repeats itself, but Douglass demonstrated that this is not the case. In fact, history does not repeat itself because circumstances are never the same..