Summary Of A Stolen Life By Jaycee Dugard

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard has been greatly recognized by the media, such as the New York Times and many news channels. It’s an incredible memoir of 11 year old Jaycee Gugard being kidnapped and having survived 18 years of captivity. She talks things like having to be locked away in a soundproof room that was in the backyard to having to give birth out in the open with the help of Nancy and Phil, her kidnappers. By the end of the book, she talks about her life now that she is free, adjusting to this new way of living and simply getting used to having a normal life. It starts to get very graphic mostly in the beginning of her book when Phil first kidnapped Jaycee and Jaycee starts talking about the many times she was raped and specifically

In the very first page of the book, she states how “we live in a world where we rarely speak out and when someone does, often nobody is there to listen” (Dugard). I see this book as her way of speaking out to others that may be going through any situation, similar or not, and give them hope no matter what the circumstance after letting us into those 18 shocking years of her life. I believe that this book should have no boundaries as to any certain age restrictions because by the end of the book, I’ve become a more hopeful person and see that there are greater things in life that I should be concerned about. Jaycee basically gives us her story to relieve us of any hardship and to give people that don’t speak up about things the courage to want to do so. I also believe she wrote as a way to cope with her situation. Its her own way of retaliation for Phil because she also states, “I believe that everyone should know exactly what he and his wife Nancy were doing all these years in their backyard. I believe I shouldn't be ashamed for what happened to me, and I want Phillip Garrido to know that I no longer have to keep his secret. And that he is most certainly responsible for stealing my life and the life I should have had with my family”(Dugard). Jaycee inspires me tremendously for all the courage and strength she exemplifies, along with many of the authors of some articles I have come

I wasn’t sure the material was even okay for me to read. A couple reasons I was interested in reading this book was because a couple years ago I had read a biography called Shattered Innocence, which was mainly focused on Phil, her abductor, and the court cases. Also, I remember seeing a story by Diane Sawyer air on ABC 7 and I was so intrigued because my mom sat there confused but I knew who she was. I felt as if I had created a connection with her as I watched the segment because I knew some of the backstory. After the segment, I was so happy telling my mom I had read the book and she was glad that I was so excited. I was 14 when I had read it and my mom was more that encouraging when I had told her reading books along this subject line motivate me to want to pursue a career in behavioral analysis. She never once thought it was material not suitable for kids my age. She actually encourages me to read books like this because I like to think of things logically and when I speak to her about it she sees how I make a connection of everything and she knows that I’ve learned and taken away positive information from the