In my memoir, a stolen life by Jaycee Dugard, a young girl is taken hostage for 18 years. This memoir tells the story of what it’s like to be a sex slave. Before reading a stolen life, my knowledge on memoirs was slim to none. After reading a stolen life, I had a better understanding of how to write a memoir and what kind of writing styles to use. A stolen life influenced me to use deep details and showed me to look for the good in people.
Jaycee Dugard goes into deep detail of every situation in the book. It’s quite obvious that Jaycee wants the reader to feel like he/she is there: “I fall to the ground and start to push back on my hands and butt toward the safety of the bushes. Scooting as fast as I can is my only goal- to make it to the bushes away from the man that is coming to grab me” (Dugard 20). In my memoir I talk about very detailed parts of the cancer that my best friends mom has. The memoir I read talks about how Jaycee Dugard feels it is important to go so detailed because she doesn’t want to be embarrassed of anything anymore, but she also tells how difficult it really is writing (Dugard 270). Although I wasn’t embarrassed of anything that I wrote about, it still was very …show more content…
She even found the good in Philip, her kidnapper. Although that is a terrible situation where she does not have to find the good, she did. I used Jaycee’s ability to write that Mrs. Kim was always such a happy person even in her terrible situation. Jaycee shows how grateful she is to Philip multiple times throughout the book: “I was so happy that Philip came back to see me” (Dugard 268). In my memoir I try to portray Mrs. Kim as a happy person and I try to remember the good times. Reading a stolen life really helped me understand how memoirs are written and how to write mine. Using extreme details and writing the good about people, Jaycee Dugard influenced me to use her writing