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Nikole McGee

Mrs. Stanford

AP Language and Composition A108

8 January 2019

A Life Recovered

Adolescence is a time period in which a person is extremely vulnerable. It is important to

note that a person’s childhood tends to shape and create that same person’s future. While most

people have generally “normal” childhood experiences, it is evident that some do not. Jaycee

Dugard can attest to this, as her childhood was far from normal. While she was born into a loving

family, she became a victim of circumstance and never got to grow up in the home that was

meant for her. At age eleven, Jaycee was kidnapped as she walked to her bus stop just like she

did every other day. Nothing about Jaycee’s life was out of the ordinary until that fateful

Monday, June 10, 1991 that she was taken. After eighteen years of being held in captivity and

repeatedly abused, Ms. Dugard finally made her escape. In her book titled “A Stolen Life”,

Jaycee Dugard recounts her traumatic experience of being held captive, exposes her abusers, and

inspires her readers to “speak out when they see something that is not quite right around them.”

(Dugard x)

After June 10, 1991, Jaycee Dugard would never endure another day in public education.

This is evident throughout her book because her use of language is very simple and her ideas are

sometimes hard to follow. This, however, does not take away from her credibility, nor does it

take away from the impact of her story. In fact, this almost makes the story more impactful

because it is a constant reminder that her right to learn, along with many others, was forcibly

taken from her. When Jaycee was kidnapped, she made it clear that she was very confused and
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frightened as she recalls the thoughts and feelings she had in the moment by saying, “My brain

feels fuzzy. I don’t understand what’s happening. I want to go home.” (Dugard 10). Kidnappers

Phillip and Nancy Garrido successfully hid Jaycee in their backyard for eighteen years while

practicing child abuse, rape, and drug abuse as well as participating in many other illegal actions.

By the age of fourteen, Jaycee found that she was pregnant and had her first child, a baby girl, on

August 18, 1994. Over the course of the next fifteen years she would give birth to another girl

and both daughters would also live in captivity until their escape in 2009. Phillip and his wife

were so delusional that they did not believe they were committing any sort of crime, that this

situation was purely humane. Phillip had been on parole for many years due to other criminal

activities in which he had been involved. This would eventually lead to his downfall, as some

parole officers finally became aware of what he had done. Officers began to visit his home more

often and Jaycee states, “More and more frequent visits are occurring at the house, and Phillip is

becoming more and more frustrated and paranoid. In his mind he is doing nothing wrong. It’s

preventing him from doing this [criminal activity] effectively with all the monitoring. He wants

to get a lawyer and get off of parole.” (Dugard 198). These frequent visits were warnings that the

officers sensed some illegal activity may have been occurring. This suspicion finally uncovered

his ultimate crime: the kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard.

It is important to understand that this book is an argument and not simply a story. In

recounting the abuse that she endured in captivity, Dugard effectively argues that Phillip Garrido

is guilty and should be held accountable for his actions despite his contradiction of the facts. The

success of this argument can be determined through Dugard’s use of rhetorical devices. Her use

of “pathos” is represented through graphic details because they invoke pity and sympathy within

the reader. The average person cannot imagine surviving these types of experiences and they
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may begin to have respect for the author simply based on the fact that she did just that. In

addition to this, these graphic details prove the unethical nature of the actions taken by Phillip

and his wife Nancy Garrido. No person with morals would willingly uproot a child from their

home, sexually assault them, deprive them of their rights, and imprison them. Logically

kidnapping and holding someone against their will for any duration of time is malicious, but

doing this for eighteen years with the addition of extreme mental and physical abuse is

unconscionable. This is a perfect example of the use of “logos” to justify an argument. The

cohesive use of all three rhetorical devices provides a stable argument and, despite her narrative

writing style, Dugard convinces her reader with ease. Not only does she hope to finally expose

her abusers in order to receive validation, by bringing her trials and tribulations to light she

inspires her readers to be confident enough to confront their own demons.

The last few chapters of “A Stolen Life” prove to be the most impactful. Dugard does not

end her book after explaining her escape, because those awful eighteen years of her life do not

describe her. What describes her is her endurance and her willingness to overcome years of

oppression and abuse. Recovery is a slow and painstaking process, but it is worth the time it

takes. Jaycee herself had a lot of growing to do, as she was seemingly stuck in the mindset of a

young girl. Trust was also a struggle for Jaycee, because she was constantly worried about the

safety of her children. Overcoming this meant lots of therapy, but she would never truly

overcome it until she confronted her abusers. Dugard includes her healing process in order to

show her readers that no matter what they are going through, they can take measures to combat

abuse and learn from it. Instead of viewing her situation as a burden, Dugard treats it as a

learning experience not only for herself but for others struggling with abuse of any kind. For this

very reason Dugard began an “interactive school group” titled JAYC or “Just Ask Yourself to
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Care”. The program is intended to teach young children about diversity and leadership skills.

Evidently, the book has been a successful source of advertisement for the group as Dugard states:

Since my book came out, the foundation has been contacted by numerous
individuals with stories, many of which have the common factor that terrible
things have been happening or were happening and no one took the time to help.
These families are struggling sometimes many years later to make sense of
situations where people in power or organizations around them did nothing when
they knew something was terribly wrong. We may not be able to change the very
structures that support such evil, but I am committed to continuing my message of
“Just Ask Yourself to Care”. There is no reason for such laziness in our society.
No child, animal, or adult on this planet should be made to feel unsafe in this
world we all share. (Dugard 273)

The ultimate goal is to inspire children and adults to speak up when a situation feels wrong,

because in some cases, that could be the one deciding factor of someone’s fate. Dugard can

personally verify this because she had encountered many individuals who could have helped

save her and her children years earlier, but no one spoke up. Even she had the opportunity to

speak up, and didn’t. Had she not been afraid to try and escape and had she told one of Philip’s

parole officers the kind of man that he was, she may have prevented more criminal activity from

occurring. Now, Jaycee is using her experience to combat cruelty and her book can, and has,

inspired her readers to do the same.

Children are often naive and unaware of the dangers in society, so they are unable to

prepare themselves to combat this danger. Once a child has been calloused by abuse, it is

difficult for them to recover, but it is not impossible. When analyzed, Jaycee Dugard’s story is

much more than a catalogue of abuse, it is an account of endurance, struggle and perseverance.

Dugard shows the world that men like Phillip Garrido exist and are responsible for every act of

indecency that they commit. By exposing her abusers, Dugard is able to finally move on and heal

from this distressing situation and is able to help others do the same. In addition to this, even

people who have not had to suffer such atrocities can read this and feel confident that they too
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can survive any negative situation. Overall, Dugard’s use of rhetorical tools makes for a

captivating read, affirms her argument, and touches the lives of her audience.
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Works Cited

Dugard, Jaycee Lee. A Stolen Life a Memoir. Simon & Schuster, 2011.