A literary analysis of Taken

A book titled Taken, by Edward Bloor is a fascinating story of adventure and kidnapping that is set in the year 2035. In this futuristic book, kidnapping is a rather common practice. Children that are raised by very rich families were often the ones that are kidnapped, or "taken" because the parents could provide more ransom money. For this reason, all rich children would move in highly secured neighborhoods, and hire butlers that doubled as security guards. The children were then required to take classes on what to do if they are taken. In the story the protagonist, Charity Meyers wakes up in an ambulance and discovers that she has been taken. She follows all of her training and does exactly what she is told to do by her kidnappers. There are several kidnappers who are named Dr. Reyes, Dr. Lanyon, and another person who does not reveal himself until later in the book. Naturally, the reader is very angry at the kidnappers for doing such a horrible thing to a child. The author then takes the story to a place in which no one ever expected him to. Edward Bloor attempts to make the reader empathize with the antagonists. The ways in which he does this are very interesting. He uses three particular methods to achieve the goal of causing the reader to empathize with the "bad guys". These methods include having the antagonists reveal themselves as someone else, having the antagonists tell about all of the hardships that they have endured, and having the antagonists explain why they did something evil (such as kidnapping).

Edward Bloor takes on a challenge when he attempts to make the reader empathize with people that he had intentionally tried to make the reader dislike earlier in the story. This is a challenge because i...

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...elieve that the kidnappers are good people. The reader remembers all of the bad things that the antagonists did, and realizes why they did them. The reader feels pity for the kidnappers too. With these things in mind, the author has the "bad guys" apologize, and they really turn into "good guys".

The reader starts out with a real hatred for the antagonists, but eventually comes to like them. The author does a wonderful job at convincing the reader to empathize with the kidnappers. Using the three methods that I have talked about, he makes the reader feel completely opposite than what the reader would expect to feel. Combining excellent writing skills, a great plot, and an interesting technique, the author accomplishes a great story while making the reader empathize with the "bad guys", who might not be so bad after all.

Works Cited

Taken by Edward Bloor