Benedict Arnold: A Story of Betrayal

Throughout many different times in the world’s history, there have been various different leaders, groups, and highly-respected people that have partaken in certain actions that go against other people’s beliefs or loyalty. These people have done many things to keep their actions secretive and discreet from the rest of the people living around them. People show signs of betrayal and deception through their interactions with each other. Benedict Arnold was a very famous example of a person who betrayed his country. Once he left his country he had wrote a letter back to America explaining his actions and his reasons for betrayal including many uses of rhetoric. In the end, his actions don’t justify the means. His actions overall were not the right thing to do.

Betrayal’s actual meaning is “to deliver or expose to an enemy by treachery or disloyalty.’ (Dictionary 1) When people betray someone they are not trustworthy or loyal to that person and they usually go and side with someone else. Deception ties into betrayal greatly. Deception’s actual meaning is “to mislead by a false appearance or statement; delude”. (Dictionary 2) When someone becomes deceptive they lead a person to thinking that they could be trusted or that they are loyal to them. This ties to betrayal because once the person is deceived they cause easily become manipulated or betrayed later on.

There are many good human examples throughout history that can represent these traits. One of the most famous was Benedict Arnold. Benedict Arnold was born in 1741 into a poor family life. (Historic 1) Throughout his younger years he had many troubles with family and schooling. (Historic 2) He had an apprenticeship at his relations apothecary shop even though he had went in...

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...and people and their betrayal has caused major indents in the course of history. Benedict Arnold was a man that was not satisfied with his home country so he decided to betray it and join the British forces. This was not the right thing to do and it supports the fact that the end doesn’t justify the means. His actions support this statement because even though he got money and got away from his “misery” in the American army, he wasn’t liked even by the British and he had died without being known. In the end he didn’t make much of a so called “profit” from his actions. The main theme to learn is that betraying someone is not the correct thing to do.

Bibliography

Dictionary. Dictionary.com. n.d. 14th May 2014.

Historic. UShistory.org. n.d. 13th May 2014.

History. history.com. n.d. 13th May 2014.

Speech, Arnold's. Archiving Early America . n.d. 13th May 2014.