Benjamin Franklin's "The Way To Wealth" signifies the change from the "puritan plain" writing style to the "protestant work ethic" style. In fact, it wasn't just the writing style that changed, it was American values, traditions, nationalism, and culture that changed during this time as well. The popularity of The Way To Wealth showed that more and more Americans were concerned with higher levels of intellectual knowledge, than they did for futile religious dogma and rhetoric. Furthermore, Americans didn't love with being a colony of the British Empire, so this area in time also represented a gradual change in the American value of British nationalism, to American nationalism. Therefore, besides the fact that Americans were switching from the puritan faith to the protestant doctrine, they were also beginning to change their values in regards to education and British nationalism. The reason being, they no longer wanted education for the rich, but they wanted it for everyone and they weren't fond of being taxed a lot by Great Britain.
The story is based in the future, where everyone is hooked on TV and staying inside. The Pedestrian is walking in the street in the dark and a robot police car takes him away, so this is supposed to show us that the setting of the story is in the future, and that's what Ray Bradbury thinks the future will look like.
