Stolen Life: The Journey Of A Cree Woman

The book Stolen Life, The Journey of a Cree Woman was written by Rudy Wiebe based on the story of Yvonne Johnson, based on the communication between them, of the 17 notebooks she wrote while in prison, letters that Yvonne sent to Rudy, official documents, statements given to the police, visits, talks and other few sources of information. The book begins telling how Yvonne contacted Rudy while intertwines facts of Yvonne’s life, like her childhood when relates that she was born with a cleft palate which had a big influence in her life as she could not speak until she had surgery when Judge Olsen granted her surgery. Not a positive influence if not rather negative as she was the victim of bullying, making her very unhappy in her life and also she had problems in the development of her speech due to her cleft palate, and this led her to have a very good ability to express herself in writing. It also includes facts of her predecessors like her grandfather was the Cree leader Big Bear and her father, how her family was raised in the midst of poverty, violence, abuse, addiction, and racism, among many other problems. Narrates that she was raped when she was very young, what we see as an example of crime funnel with the level of reported crimes, and she never reported this. Also her brother died while in jail, and that her parents were separated. It is evident that all these factors that affected her life, leads to conclude that they determine the fact that she was involved in a murder. This murder took place on September 14, 1989 where the victim was Leonard Skwarok. Yvonne’s sentence was the longest and most severe of all involved in the murder, 25 years while the others received 10 years. It is unclear if Yvonne had the intension (mens rea) of murder this gentleman, which seemed like her was involved in acts of molestation with kids, but ultimately ended in a tragic history, he being murdered (actus reus). This essay will aim to try to understand how the aforementioned factors: race, class, ethnicity and gender, influenced the situation of Yvonne and all what is mentioned supports and is a perfect example for the Conflict Theory.

Throughout the story written in this book by Rudy Wiebe about Yvonne Johnson we can see that there are different factors that determine and are always present in the history. These are that she is a Native woman, a cree woman (ethnicity) , who was born with cleft palate and a woman (gender), in addition to this also the social class from which it comes is not the highest , nor the one with more possibilities or privileges (class). From what Petey Bonesaw said on Monday November 11th, all or at least most women who are in jail have in common and problematic past and come from poverty. While the book has made it clear that belonging to the first Nations meant to have a stigma because they have been victims of discrimination through history. We might as well say that this falls under the labeling theory which is

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