Imagery

In this section of the study guide, we will outline the way Ruperake Petaia creates imagery and how metaphors, allusions, and symbols, contribute to giving “Kidnapped” deeper meanings.

Each stanza in the poem conveys a different image—the speaker going to school, the teachers, the lessons, the parents, the graduation. However, the stanzas that convey most vivid mental images and are examples of imagery are two, three, and seven.

In stanzas two and three, the poet helps us imagine both the teachers and the classroom with pictures of different historical characters:

armed with glossy-pictured
textbooks and registered reputations (p. 60, ll. 10-11)
I was held
in a classroom
guarded by Churchill and Garibaldi
pinned up on one wall (p. 60, ll. 15-17)

The last stanza helps us visualise the speaker graduating under the applause of his schoolmates:

I was handed
(among loud applause
from fellow victims)
a piece of paper (p. 61, ll. 14-17…

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Metaphors

The whole poem is an extended metaphor of the western-influenced educational system in Samoa as a kidnapping process. In this extended metaphor, the speaker is “kidnapped” (p. 60, l. 7) by teachers described as “Western Philosophers” (p. 60 l. 8). These metaphors suggest that Wester…

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Allusions

Stanza three includes several allusions to historical figures. These allusions are meant to be symbolic of a typical Western education. Winston Churchill was a British politician known for his contri…

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Symbols

Apart from the symbolism of the allusions to historical figures that we discussed above, the walls of the classroom mentioned in the poem can …