The Age of Enlightenment was a societal movement that began in the late 17th and 18th centuries in Europe, emphasizing that reason was the cause life events, rather than religion. , tradition or cultural beliefs. During this period, the society experienced a renaissance, exploring ideas that took away the authority of the Catholic Church, which until then had been seen by the people as the cause of everything in life. These ideas discovered during this period transformed the views of people in the so-called Western world on religion and life itself. Between 1714 and 1818, ideas from Europe crossed the Atlantic Ocean and the thirteen colonies themselves went through a period of Enlightenment. Thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin emphasized religious tolerance and believed in deistic ideals, which revolved around the idea that man's destiny was in his own hands and not those of others. God. Benjamin Franklin, in particular, advanced revolutionary ideas about how everyone should live their lives. These thoughts continued in society and directly affected later literary movements such as the Romanticism period. In Benjamin Franklin's The Way to Wealth, he explores and solidifies the idea that God will not determine how man succeeds, but depends on man's desire to succeed. success. He states in this article: “Laziness, by causing illness, absolutely shortens life. » By laziness, Franklin means laziness. This statement highlights that laziness brings no success and it basically becomes a disease once it becomes routine. This seems to shorten life because the lazy person has accomplished nothing and has spent their time doing something worthwhile. Franklin also points out that when... middle of paper ......gs in the universe, it is best to just accept and see the beauty. Although order puts things in perspective and organizes them as expressed by Benjamin Franklin, William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman in their respective poems question the idea of ​​reason and express how order negatively affects the human perspective of nature and the world. In this investigation, the Enlightenment clearly affected future literary movements and the mentality of authors during these periods. Although many processes used today to discover the meaning of nature, such as the scientific method, rose to prominence during the Enlightenment, they were immediately downgraded during the era of Romanticism, which reflected the way reason conflicted with communion and perception of nature. The Age of Enlightenment was a time of self-discovery, but it affected literature in many ways in the years to come..