Book Project #2 Independent Reading Analysis and Response

List the KEY EVENTS in the story and describe their effects on the main character(s). Use a chart for these notes.

Key Events	Effects on Character
Charity gets kidnapped. Albert is “killed”. Albert is the “kidnapper”. Her Dad is “killed”. She escapes and Dessi helps her. Her Dad is the kidnapper and offers her a new life.	Charity is scared but calm when she’s kidnapped. Charity is upset and depressed when she thinks Albert is dead. Charity is horrified when she watches her father “die”. Charity is scared but determined when she escapes and tries to run. Dessi helps her and Charity is thankful. Charity is betrayed and confused when her Dad is revealed as the real kidnapper and offers her a new life and new look.

    In the fiction “Taken” by Edward Bloor we learn that you need to live your life.  In the story the main character, Charity was living a life with no meaning. Then Charity’s father offers her a new way of life, to actually have a chance to actually live, and she takes it. “Then, for the rest of that bright and sunny afternoon, under the watchful eyes of my father at one end and Victoria at the other, I started living my life.” (page 247).  Before Charity had been  locked up in the Highlands. A safe place, but a place with no meaning for anything. “Yes. A princess  locked in a tower. And that wasn’t going to change, ever. Except maybe change for the worse. You wouldn’t be the princess going to the ball, would you? You’d be the princess going to the guillotine.” (page 211.) This shows in Charity’s old life as Charity, she wasn’t living her life to the fullest. In her new life as Caridad she lives and enjoys her life. There are good and bad characters in the story. There are those characters that are selfish and have no meaning in life and those who want more. The author shows in his story that there are people who are ignorant and selfish and there are people who are good and content with life. Though even the people who are free to live life can still be bad. “Poor doesn’t equal good,  believe me.” (page 220).  The story “Taken” also shows that you can control your life. Charity’s father did that by becoming Dr. Reyes. This shows that life is full of opportunities, you just have to take them. “You get as many chances as want, as many as you dare to make for yourself.” (page 216). Society can hurt people in this story. The people in the Highlands were locked up and protected, just spending their money and becoming more self obsessed. And the people in Mangrove were poor and not getting much help. Charity’s dad become some person he wasn’t and slowly became more selfish. He hated the Highland society for it. Thats why he wanted to escape and he wanted to escape with Charity because he couldn’t leave her behind. The society is flawed because even though it is protected it is a selfish society with people who only care about money and silly things like that. Charity has a tough decision in the end. She thinks about living with her dad the way they used to again, or going back to a life with her stepmother in the Highlands.  However, in the end she makes the right choice. She chooses to live her life and be free with her father instead of being locked up in the Highlands. We learn through Charity in the book “Taken” you need to live your life.