39 pages • 1 hour read
Robert LawsonBen and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1992A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “Electricity”
Ben forgives Amos’s printing errors, so Amos relaxes his criticism of Ben’s maxims. However, he hates Ben’s enthusiasm for electricity. When Amos asks him to stop his experiments, Ben accuses Amos of lacking “vision.” Ben buys a machine that produces electrical currents and decides to give an exhibition. On the day of the exhibition, he goes to have his hair curled, and while he’s gone, Amos notices several “grave mistakes” in Ben’s setup. He “correct[s]” them but has leftover wires and copper plates, which he deposits on one of the chairs. When Ben demonstrates electricity’s power, he turns the machine’s knob, and the governor leaps into the air. His movement shifts one of the copper plates into his wife’s lap. She is shocked, as is the fire chief. Though Amos calls the day a failure, Ben is pleased with what he learned.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Lightning Rod”
Ben wonders if lightning and electricity are the same thing, and he aims to harness it. He believes most people lack a scientific mind with which to observe such phenomena calmly, and he resolves to investigate the nature of lightning, installing metal rods on his house. Amos wants no part of this. During one nasty storm, the shock from a lightning strike throws Amos into a glass jar, protecting him from harm, and he watches as Ben cowers in fear. Amos teases the so-called calm, scientific “Dr. Franklin” for hiding under the bedclothes.
Chapter 8 Summary: “That Kite”
Next, Amos narrates the deception responsible for the only fight he and Ben have. Ben loves to fly kites, and he alters one so Amos can ride it. He also builds a small vehicle so Amos can ascend and descend the kite’s string at will. Ben suggests that Amos could remain aloft during a storm and help him to determine lightning’s nature, but Amos refuses. One day, however, Amos is riding the kite when a storm develops; he searches for his vehicle and realizes Ben removed it, forcing him to stay aloft. Amos endures a terrifying half hour, in which he again confirms that lightning is electrical, though he refuses to share this with Ben. Amos abandons Ben, returning to his family.
After sleeping for two days, Amos awakens to find Ben there. Ben says Amos broke their “Agreement,” but Amos refuses to return unless Ben stops his experiments. Ben agrees and explains that he can easily give them up because he must travel to England to negotiate peace between the king and the colonies. He invites Amos to go too. However, when Amos arrives at the ship and finds its rats leaving, they point out the lightning rods Ben affixed to the ship’s masts. Amos leaves him to travel to England alone.
Chapter 9 Summary: “War!”
The war begins, and Amos is eager to help the colonists. He and Ben work together on a committee tasked with writing the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson arrives from Virginia, bringing a mouse called Red. Amos admires Red’s eloquence and leadership. Red shows Amos a “Manifesto” he wrote containing a list of mice grievances against humankind. Amos is so impressed that he shares it with Ben, and Ben loves the wording so much that he steals it. Though Red is furious, Congress signs and shares the Declaration on July 4. In the celebration that follows, Ben gets overzealous with some firecrackers, and Amos threatens to reveal who really wrote the document.
Chapter 10 Summary: “La Belle France”
One day, George Washington visits Ben to discuss the colonies’ desperation for funds, suggesting they ask a foreign power for aid. The general considers Spain, Russia, and more, but Amos prompts Ben to insist upon France, which Ben does when Amos reminds him of French pastries, wines, and beautiful women. Washington asks Ben to ask France for aid, and Amos accompanies him.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
Amos’s representation of Ben, who is characterized by dishonesty, pride, vanity, and even hedonism, further supports the text’s demonstration of The Humanity of Heroes. Ben is dishonest when he appears to accept Amos’s refusal to participate in his kite-flying experiment but later acts without Amos’s consent, stranding the mouse on the kite during the storm. Amos finds this action reprehensible. He opines, “But alas for my trust in human honor!” (56). In this instance, Ben’s desire for knowledge outpaces his concern for the life of a friend, and his deception is extreme. Perhaps this is because of the intense pride he will feel when he “tear[s] the lightning from the skies” (40), a goal that is rife with the kind of hubris that usually gets characters killed. He thinks of himself as “a person of vision” (39) and even feels proud of shocking the governor and his wife because it shows the effects of electricity on the human body. He has no concern for the physical well-being of these individuals, just as he feels no concern for Amos’s safety onboard the kite.
Rather than spend the morning of the exhibition rechecking his machine and ensuring it will function as intended, he chooses to “have his hair curled” (42) for the occasion. Surely, double- or triple-checking his apparatus would have been a better use of his time, but Ben cares more about looking good. Finally, when Washington asks Ben from which country the colonies should request aid, Ben doesn’t consider any of the options Washington suggests and repeatedly suggests France because Amos whispers in his ear, saying, “French pastry […]. […] French wines […]. […] Beautiful ladies” (71). In short, Ben doesn’t make an appropriate diplomatic choice, one based on shared values or political policies, but rather, he suggests the country whose resources he most enjoys. Thus, contrary to common ideas about Franklin, the founding father, Ben’s lack of concern for others, willingness to deceive a friend, egotism, vanity, and depravity draw attention to the way in which we often think of our cultural heroes as ideals rather than flawed, erring humans.
Likewise, the humorous images Amos employs continue to highlight Ben’s flawed humanity instead of reinforcing his status as a revered cultural icon. Though Ben espouses calm, scientific observation, after the lightning strike, Amos can see only his feet emerging from beneath his covers, “The rest was covered by the bedclothes, while two pillows completely muffled his head” (51). When Ben claims the shock knocked the glasses off his face, Amos teases him for replacing them with cushions. Later, when Amos shares Red’s “Manifesto” with Ben after a day during which his committee “accomplished nothing […,] Ben showed increasing signs of excitement. At its close he burst out with pleasure” (68). Thus, Ben grows giddy over the rhetoric of a mouse and plagiarizes it in the founding document of the United States. To celebrate its ratification, he cavorts in the streets, “noisier than any of the youths. He managed to burn most of his fingers” (69) and singe Amos’s tail with firecrackers. It is only when Amos threatens to reveal the real writer behind the Declaration that Ben “quiet[s] down” and begins to act less childishly. These visual and auditory images make Ben appear cowardly, immoral, and immature, presenting a man who is much more human than heroic.
Ben and Amos’s opposing interpretations of the public exhibition and their disagreements over the necessity of electrical experimentation also demonstrate The Benefits of Collaboration, just as Ben’s “success” highlights The Importance of Innovation. Although Ben’s involvement of the unwilling Amos in his kite-flying experiment is a selfish deception, he correctly hypothesizes what Amos twice observes: that lightning is, indeed, electricity. In fact, Amos is in no doubt of this fact after Ben’s first experiment with the soon-to-be-named Lightning Rods and, had he shared this knowledge with Ben, it might have eliminated Ben’s need to conduct further experiments. Here, collaboration between Amos and Ben would’ve been quite useful, but instead of communicating his observations, Amos chose to tease Ben for being scared. Amos doesn’t like it, but their work together does lead to a scientific writer crediting Ben with his invention of Lightning Rods, a simple but effective technology for diverting lightning’s force and mitigating its destructiveness. Further, due to Ben’s experiments with the rods, Amos learns that glass is a poor conductor of electricity and, thus, offers some protection from it. Amos may be an unwitting collaborator, but he is a collaborator nonetheless, and his and Ben’s scientific knowledge increases as a result. This knowledge allows Ben to be more innovative, creating new technologies that benefit people by making them a bit safer.
