This essay involves the examining of a personal testimony named A stolen life, written by Dugard herself in 2011. In the first section of the essay, a summary of the chosen testimony will be provided, followed by contesting the victim or survivor status of Dugard. The third section will be exploring the process of the criminal justice system in handling Dugard’s case and look at the additional assistance and professional help she receives. Fourth section includes the positioning of theoretical perspectives that would best explain Dugard’s experiences. The fifth section involves the utilising of the concept of trauma to understand Dugard’s experience and finally, the value of personal testimony to the discipline of criminology and victimology, …show more content…
It all happened in June 1991, where Dugard was on her way, walking up a hill to board her school bus as her stepdad Carl is not driving her to school (Dugard, 2011). Dugard was lost in her train of thoughts about the coming summer vacation until a car pull up beside her and she did not register the unusual of the driver behaviour when he started to ask her for directions (Dugard, 2011). In a flash, the driver paralysed her with a taser and when she reacted and tried to resist, she felt that she could not control her body anymore (Dugard, 2011). Dugard can only watch and drowned in fear as the driver pulls her up and dump her into the back floorboards of his car drives off before she loses conscious (Dugard, 2011). Dugard was abducted by two strangers, named Phillip who is a registered sex offender and his wife Nancy, where they kept her hidden in the backyard of their home, forbidding her to mention or even say her own name (Dugard, 2011). Dugard was conditioned to listen to Phillip in everything he says or do and was not given any chance to say no and threatened to sell her to someone more dangerous than him (Dugard, 2011). This leads to Dugard feeling sense of helplessness when
The novel ‘A Stolen Life’ written by Jaycee Dugard is a true story about how Jaycee, at age 11, got kidnapped by two adults called Phil and Nancy. Jaycee was missing for 18 years. During those years a lot of things happened to Jaycee. She was abused, raped and had two children at a very early age. Phil and Nancy's treatment had made Jaycee grow up very fast; she had to do whatever to survive.
What is in a story if you can’t take something out of it and relate to your everyday life? The book “Typical American” by Gish Jen, gave me something that I never fully, and I probably still don’t, comprehend: foreigners, and their struggles in making a new life in another country. I have been on my share of trips, both domestic and abroad, but was never in a distant land long enough to feel the effects of the unknowing these people felt every day. The manner in which this story was presented has given me a new insight into, not only foreign nationals, but more importantly, how one goes about presenting emotional feeling not just through words, but setting, characterization, point of view, conflict, and theme.
The fourth Chapter of Estella Blackburn’s non fiction novel Broken lives “A Fathers Influence”, exposes readers to Eric Edgar Cooke and John Button’s time of adolescence. The chapter juxtaposes the two main characters too provide the reader with character analyses so later they may make judgment on the verdict. The chapter includes accounts of the crimes and punishments that Cooke contended with from 1948 to 1958. Cooke’s psychiatric assessment that he received during one of his first convictions and his life after conviction, marring Sally Lavin. It also exposes John Button’s crime of truancy, and his move from the UK to Australia.
Rape is a hidden epidemic that affects many lives world wide. It is a problem that is so terrifying and uncomfortable that people do not talk about it. John Krakauer, author of Missoula, focuses on this issue of rape in the college town of Missoula, Montana. His focus is specifically on the case of Allison Huguet and Beau Donaldson. As the progression of Allison 's case continues we learn of more and more rape cases that happened to women on this same campus. A majority of women do not report these cases, we later learn as Krakauer continues through Allison 's case, because reporting and pursuing the case would be giving their life away. [4] Of course Allison decides to go through the trails of Beau Donaldson, however it is obvious that it is extremely difficult to convict someone with little evidence. As hard of a read as Missoula
There’s a point in many people’s lives where they cannot bear to live with the pain they suffer; doing anything to stop it. On the other hand, there are some people who take their decisions too far because of their suffering. Angelique Lyn Lavallee was a young woman in her early twenties who made a choice many women wouldn’t consider. Lavallee was in a relationship with her common law partner Kevin Rust, a twenty four year old male. Their relationship, instead of compassion, was filled with constant and various forms of abuse. The abuse of the relationship went on for a very long time. Lavallee was never able to defend herself. Rust was just way too strong for her to defeat, until the day she won. On October 31st, 1986, was the day Rust and
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Lee Dugard is an autobiography recounting the chilling memories that make up the author’s past. She abducted when she was eleven years old by a man named Phillip Garrido with the help of his wife Nancy. “I was kept in a backyard and not allowed to say my own name,” (Dugard ix). She began her life relatively normally. She had a wonderful loving mother, a beautiful baby sister,, and some really good friends at school. Her outlook on life was bright until June 10th, 1991, the day of her abduction. The story was published a little while after her liberation from the backyard nightmare. She attended multiple therapy sessions to help her cope before she had the courage to share her amazing story. For example she says, “My growth has not been an overnight phenomenon…it has slowly and surely come about,” (D 261). She finally began to put the pieces of her life back together and decided to go a leap further and reach out to other families in similar situations. She has founded the J A Y C Foundation or Just Ask Yourself to Care. One of her goals was, amazingly, to ensure that other families have the help that they need. Another motive for writing the book may have also been to become a concrete form of closure for Miss Dugard and her family. It shows her amazing recovery while also retelling of all of the hardships she had to endure and overcome. She also writes the memoir in a very powerful and curious way. She writes with very simple language and sentence structures. This becomes a constant reminder for the reader that she was a very young girl when she was taken. She was stripped of the knowledge many people take for granted. She writes for her last level of education. She also describes all of the even...
This paper seeks to discuss and further explore Susan Brison’s argument on the self and how violence can have an impact on us and change how we see ourselves, interpret our identity, and, in some cases how the self can be so altered as to no longer be the same. Brison explains when the trauma is of human origin and is intentionally inflicted, it not only shatters one’s view of the world, one’s safety in it, but it also severs the sustaining connection between the self and the rest of humanity, destroying the belief that one can be oneself in relation to other people (p. 14). This paper will attempt to explore further the traumatized self. That said, when we are speaking for others there is a concern that in doing so it would be unethical, arrogant, and politically illegitimate (Alcoff, p. 6). Nevertheless, if I spoke from a personal position, would this be anymore ethical with respects to this paper? I would be speaking authentically, but would this be inappropriate? Yes, it would be unethical and inappropriate. It is considered unacceptable to talk personally in a classroom. Then I
“A Stolen Life” is a book written by Jaycee Dugard discussing her experience when she spent several years in abduction. She tells her story when she is 30 years old talking about the time she was seized to her present day and how she has not forgotten those feelings she had when she was abducted. She was kidnapped at a bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, waiting to get picked up from school. She was only 11 years old when a stranger quickly grabbed her. She ends up in captivity for more than eighteen years and stayed in a tent behind Phillip Craig and Nancy Garrido’s home. She remembers her first few weeks of being kept naked and handcuffed in a shed. She mentions being abused sexually over and over again. She had her first daughter when she was 13 years old while she was held captive. The sexual harassment did not stop even after having her second child. She said it was to the point that going for a month without molestation was surprising.
A grotesque character is one who is abnormal and twisted through intense obsession, and these grotesque characteristics are shown through hidden characterization and only seen in the character’s action or emotions. A writer might include a grotesque character in a story to offset a good-natured hero, but few authors will create a story consisting entirely of grotesque characters. That is what Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) did in her short story The Life You Save May Be Your Own. To boil the story to the bear bones, the story details how a con-man, Tom Shiftlet, tricks a mother, Lucynell Crater, into marrying her disabled daughter, also named Lucynell Crater, to him, taking off with the car, and leaving the disabled girl in a dinner by the road. However, on a deeper level, the story explores the obsessions which cause character’s actions and the guilt which pounces once the actions are completed. The title of The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Flannery O’Connor, gives insights to the the characters’ endings and the meaning of the story.
“The Life You Save May Be Your Own” was written by Flannery O’ Connor, published on May 12, 1955. The symbolism used by Flannery O’ Connor described a sense of mystery for the story. With color imagery, O’ Connor foreshadowed the plot of the story, and O’ Connor plotted a series of situational irony throughout the whole story, making contrast between the characters at the beginning and at the end of the story.
There are many policy issues that affect families in today’s society. Hunger is a hidden epidemic and one major issue that American’s still face. It is hard to believe that in this vast, ever growing country, families are still starving. As stated in the book Growing Up Empty, hunger is running wild through urban, rural, and even suburban communities. This paper will explore the differing perspectives of the concerned camp, sanguine camp, and impatient camp. In addition, each camps view, policy agenda, and values that underlie their argument on hunger will be discussed.
What would you do if you did not have a place you called home anymore? What if you were not able to see your mom or the rest of your family for 18 years? You would not enjoy that. No one one wants to go through life being scared and uncomfortable. That is exactly what Jaycee Dugard went through. The plot and theme of this book is important because it shows toughness and endurance. It shows that every bad situation it worth a fight. A Stolen Life, by Jaycee Dugard, is a heart wrenching book. Jaycee gets abducted at age eleven, on her way to school, by a man she does not know. She was held captive and raped for eighteen years and in that time she had two baby girls. She finally was reunited with her mom and little sister at
Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.
Whose Life Is It Anyway? by Brian Clark Whose life is it anyway? is about Ken Harrison, a paralysed patient. hospital, and his battle to end his own life.
The question this essay addresses is the difficulty, in convicting rapists and understanding why the conviction level for rape is so low. Proving a rape happened is easier said than done, there are many factors that are critical to contributing to a conviction. Why is the conviction level for rape as low as 6.5%? To comprehend the underlying levels of conviction there are unfortunate factors from the police, the criminal justice system, the probability of evidence and issue of consent that make convictions immensely difficult to prove. This essay will investigate those measures showing the contrasts of rape and why it is tricky to prove rape occurred without consent, without any corroborative evidence, attitudes of police towards rape victims, the victims withdrawing their report due to personal circumstances and the handling of victims in court, that lead to many offenders having an non-custodial sentence or being acquitted of a rape charge.