Prompt Test Readiness: Discuss what images appear in your mind as you read or how the author helped create those images.
Introduction to The Notorious Benedict Arnold
This book is more like an informational piece instead of an actual biography mostly because this book is filled with a bunch of adventure. It starts off with the author describing how a local hero turned into the most infamous villain of American history. The author first mentions that their is actually six Benedict Arnolds. The first one was a sailor from England, the second a fool who lost all of the family's money, the third one a barrel maker, the fourth a successful merchant, the fifth a baby who died after just ten months of being born, and the worst of all the villain Benedict Arnold born on January 14, 1741. At age ten Benedict used to cause a bunch of a pranks and he was known as being very patient throughout the town. The early childhood and teenage years of Benedict talk about how a dirty apprentice turned out to be the most famous hero in the Colonies of America. George Washington once quoted "The Merit of this gentlemen is certainly great. I heartily wish that fortune may distinguish him as one of her favorites".
The Dark Times of the Revolution and the Horrifying Images of War
After the author finished up with the teenage years of Benedict he starts to mention the many battles that Benedict fought in. I imagined that they were going to give a brief description of the battles but they actually mention many horrifying specific details. In the Battle of Quebec Benedict and his men are planning to attack the British in order to take over Canada. The British surprise Benedict by blasting cannons at the men's faces. When I read this part of the book I had an image of men losing their limbs dying in the battle ground while I was also picturing the greediness of King George III. The author mentions in the book that "these men were not able to pour out imagination neither by breathing element 8". When I thought about this the element with the number 8 is oxygen so it popped into my head that these men where dead. The imagination part created a picture in my mind that the soldier's limbs were shot off in front of everyone.
The Disappointed Images of Benedict's betrayal
The last chapter was very suspending because I wanted to find out the true cause of Benedict betraying his country. You see Congress and the Board of Philadelphia never appreciated Arnold for the hard work he did to help his country. Later on George started to lose faith in Benedict which also cost Arnold to become a traitor. When I thought of this chapter images of a river by location near a house that looked like Jefferson's Monticello. I also had an image of Benedict shooting back to the many officers that tried to catch him before he escaped by boat. The last image I had was off Benedict living a poor life and even the British rejecting of his failure to conquer West Point. The author made me think this because he mentions in the book that even King George III didn't want anything to do with Arnold. This helped me create the image because of the kind doesn't like Arnold it obviously means that no one in England will hire Arnold as a chief officer for the British Army.
This images shows a memorial in Philadelphia depicting the location of where Benedict Arnold injured his knee while escaping from the British. If you can see there is nowhere near the image the name Benedict Arnold. In the last pages of the book the author mentions that National Parks and Memorials agreed never to put the name Benedict Arnold in a memorial. This is kind of representing the hatred we have for Arnold even after hundreds of years have passed since his betrayal .
This week I will comment on Jenna, Bela, and Gabe's Blogs
This book sounds interesting I usually don't like to read informational but in this case it sound very interesting.
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