40 pages • 1 hour read
Jaycee DugardA Stolen Life: A Memoir
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Jaycee Lee Dugard
Jaycee was a happy 11-year-old with blond hair and blue eyes, living with her mother, stepfather, and new baby stepsister when she was kidnapped by a sex offender and held captive for 18 years. When she went missing, she was four feet seven inches tall and weighed about 80 pounds. On her way to catch the school bus, she was abducted by Phillip and Nancy Garrido and subjected to years of sexual abuse by Phillip.
During her years as a captive imprisoned in a shed at the back of the Garrido property, Jaycee displays an interest in writing and begins keeping a journal. She is also emotionally attached to the many pets that come and go over the years, particularly cats. These represent the only positive emotional ties available to her.
After the birth of her two daughters by Garrido, Jaycee becomes a fiercely devoted mother and will do anything to protect them. This includes cooperating with her abductor, who has persuaded her that she is helpless to escape and couldn’t survive on her own in the world. Although Jaycee’s nature is somewhat fearful, she is eventually freed from Garrido’s clutches and restored to her birth family. In the years after her liberation, she founds an organization called the JAYC Foundation, whose purpose is to help survivors of abuse overcome their own trauma. She has also written two books about her experiences and her growth since her ordeal ended.
Phillip Garrido
Phillip was a known sex offender long before he encountered Jaycee. At the time he abducted her, he was 40 years old and had served time in prison for previous incidents of abduction and rape. He was out on parole when he planned Jaycee’s kidnapping. Garrido is six feet four inches tall, which makes him a physically overpowering figure to the tiny Jaycee. He has been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and manic depression by various psychiatrists, but these are not his only problems.
Jaycee herself describes him as a “pedophile, narcissistic, pervert” (108). His behavior also suggests sociopathic tendencies along with an addiction to methamphetamine and sex.
Garrido enjoys exerting complete control over Jaycee and renders her entirely dependent on him. He oscillates between periods of sexual abuse and contrition for his behavior toward the girl. During the later years of Jaycee’s captivity, Garrido exhibits signs of schizophrenia and believes he hears demonic angel voices talking to him. He develops a belief system based on these voices and attributes his schizophrenia to them. When he approaches the FBI with his theory about how to combat these unseen forces, he is finally taken into custody, and Jaycee is freed from his abuse.
Nancy Garrido
Nancy is Phillip’s wife and his accomplice in Jaycee’s abduction. Jaycee describes her as having a sad face. Although she suffers from drug addiction and depression herself, Nancy enables Phillip’s bad behavior. It is she who targets Jaycee for her husband’s benefit. She also helps him secretly videotape little girls at public playgrounds. While the book doesn’t explicitly describe Nancy’s emotional problems, she seems to function as a co-dependent in the Garrido family dynamic. Nancy is completely under Phillip’s control and is incapable of making a decision without him. She obeys him without question.
Nancy first meets and marries Phillip while he is serving time in prison for a previous abduction and rape conviction. Although she seems sympathetic to Jaycee’s plight, she never allows the girl to escape, even though multiple opportunities present themselves. After her arrest, she explains to Jaycee that all her actions can be explained by her love for Phillip. Jaycee says, “To me that is not love. You do not follow someone blindly as they lead you over a cliff” (173).
