Introduction The movie "Precious" is based on the adaptation of the book Push written by Sapphire. Though the story is a fiction based life of Claireece "Precious" Jones it is far from reality for many young women. Growing up in an environment that is filled with emotional, verbal, physical and sexual abuse along with crime infested neighborhoods and overcrowded public school and many other factors that pose a lot of challenges for a young girl in the inner city. Though the odd is against Precious she proves to possess a great deal of strength. Identifying Information Claireece "Precious" Jones is a 16-year-old African American female from Harlem New York. She has some developmental delays, she suffers from obesity. Precious has two …show more content…
Bringing people from outside home who have authority to interfere with the public assistance that is not acceptable. Family Functioning In the Jones household, the communication between Precious and her mother is unhealthy filled with a combination of derogatory language profanity and shouting. Mary Jones uses degrading language to communicate with Precious using variations of put-downs and name calling instead of calling Precious by her name her mother refers to her as "Stupid". Mary reinforced that precious is stupid by telling her that she is stupid and will not be anything but "stupid." There is a constant cycle of talking-at and not talking-to. The lack of knowing how to communicate effectively is a hindrance on the mother-daughter dynamic as well as their ability to This cycle of learned behavior, many have impacted how Mary's lack of ability to communicate in a positive and healthy manner is a pattern within the family. The is filled with anger, Mary always appears to be upset and angry faith Precious or the government and life in general. This frustration that she faces she tends to handle them with violence. Education is not encouraged and is seen as useless. Relying on the government is a norm within
Her parent’s have managed to never show her any affection, and leave her as sort of an empty shell who is left to create her own structure in the world. This is evident in the way Mary Katherine vocalizes her untrue perspective of a situation that involves herself in relation to her family. In this skewed perspective she states “Mary Katherine, we love you. You must never be punished. Lucy, you are to see to it that our most loved daughter Mary Katherine is never punished” ( Jackson 95). This desire to be fawned over by her parents shows that there was a true lack of affection in this family which can be quite draining on a young impressionable child. This lack of affection and care ends up being so life draining that she can only seem to keep order in her life by creating a structure completely her own as opposed to one normally placed on children by their
The move Precious (based on the novel “Push” written by Sapphire), depicts the life of a 16 year old girl named Claireece “Precious” Jones. The story is set in Harlem, NY in 1987. Precious has suffered severe abuse throughout her life by both of her parents. She has seemed to have slipped through the cracks of the system from family, the school system, child services, as well as the community as a whole. Her only saving grace is her strong will and her ability to disassociate herself and seek comfort in her own imaginary world.
When she enters the bedroom, her voice changes from present to past tense and she starts to reminisce and begins to talk about her mother and aunts. She seems happy to remember her mother’s room and introduces her aunts to the audiences. Mary delivers her dialogue saying that the dressing table and the small elephant statue figures are all same. When Mary gently touches her mother’s photo, she delivers a sad tone. Her performance conveys to the audiences that she misses her mother. The tone of her voice represents that she is a gentle, innocent and a loving child. Her verbal and non-verbal interactions conveyed the viewers with a message that she is an orphan.
Next, briefly introduced is the relationship with her grandmother Tootsie. Not much is known about Tootsie other than she cares for Precious’s daughter Mongo who suffers with down syndrome. Looking at the way Tootsie reacts to Mary one can say she does not agree with how she is raising Claireece. (Magness et al, 2009) Unfortunately, her grandmother never reported any abuse or lying that Mary had been doing. Although she tries to inconspicuously let the social worker know there is no food, Tootsie never says anything. This single act could have changed Precious’s life often by not saying anything, we allow problems to continue to happen.
Mary begins the story as a doting housewife going through her daily routine with her husband. She is content to sit in his company silently until he begins a conversation. Everything is going as usual until he goes “ slowly to get himself another drink” while telling Mary to “sit down” (Dahl 1). This shocks Mary as she is used to getting things for him. After downing his second drink, her husband coldly informs her that he is leaving her and the child. This brutal news prompts the first change in Mary, from loving wife to emotionless and detached from everything.
The movie Precious, is drama-based film that tells the story of a 16-year-old girl named Claireece Jones (Precious). Unfortunately, she is struggling with her family, the school system and with her own internal emotions. Her mother despises her due to Precious having two kids from her father. She was kicked out of her high school had to go to an alternative school to get her GED. Precious also is struggling with her internal emotions and capabilities, she has been raped, verbally and physically abused. Some of the main characters that influenced Precious’s life are Miss. Rain, her English teacher at the alternative school and her mother Mary.
Claireece Precious Jones lives in an impoverished part of New York City with her mother, Mary and her daughter, Mongo. Mary stays in the apartment, smoking cigarettes and watching television while barking orders for Precious to tend to her needs. Their relationship is a deeply troubled one. It is evident that Precious has been physically, emotionally and sexually abused since she was a toddler. It appears that Mary may have experienced similar abuse and is simply repeating all that she has ever known. Mary seems incapable of defending her daughter from being repeatedly
In the movie Precious, a 16-year old girl named Claireece Jones also known as Precious is physically, sexually, and verbally abused by her parents. Precious has one child and is now pregnant with her second child which causes her to be kicked out of school. She transfers to an alternative school. Precious is illiterate; however, she learns to read, write, and to gain self-respect from her teacher at the alternative school. In the end, she becomes a woman, learning to stand up for herself and she raises two healthy children. There are three different types of abuse Precious faced from her parents. An example of how Precious mother physically abused would be when her mother would get out the chair and beat her daughter by throwing things at her, because she did something minor or nothing at all. Precious mother verbally abused her daughter by calling her “stupid, fat, and she will amount to nothing”. An example of how Precious father sexually abused her would be he raped ever since she was three years old, impregnated her with two children, and he also gave her HIV. The movie faced several biological and environmental issues in the family. One example of a biological issue faced in the movie would be when Precious was hungry, needed water, and sleep. She needed to have this because she was pregnant with her second child. In the movie, it shows Precious goes into a restaurant, to order some food, and runs out without paying. She stole the food because she was starving and her mom did not give her any money. An environmental issue would be Precious was from Harlem, New York. During that time, Harlem was a city in poverty, so she grew up with hardly any money. The income her mother got from her welfare check, she did not give Precious anything.
Precious, a movie based on the book Push written by Sapphire, is an interesting movie directed by Lee Daniels. Precious can be easily analyzed using basic motivation and emotion theories in psychology. The movie is about Claireece "Precious" Jones and how she becomes a strong, independent woman after breaking through her curse of physical and sexual abuse which she has endured since she was three months old. At the beginning, Precious is physically and verbally abused by her mother. In addition, Precious was raped by her father multiple times and impregnated twice. After being kicked out of her school because she was pregnant, Precious willingly joins the Each One Teach One alternative school so she can improve her reading and writing
1. Identify and describe the parenting style of Precious’ mother? How did this parent style impact Precious in terms of her physical, cognitive, social and moral development? Provide very specific examples.
(Bowen, 2000.) Although not much insight is given into the awful relationship Mary had with her late husband, there’s is evident that she resents her daughter. Precious became the target of neglect and abuse due to the fact that, her father raped her and her mother instead of protecting her became jealous of her own daughter. Mary intentionally tries to impair her daughter Precious by constantly demoralizing her by telling her that she is ugly, fat and stupid. Mary is fixed on the idea of hurting her physically, emotionally and psychologically. Mary is a constant remind to Precious of how she will be nothing without her. As a result, she internalizes this tension and many aspects of her life suffers. Precious is performing poorly at school, her physical health is bad as she is overly obese and she is a loner in the sense that she makes no effort to befriend anyone. She is constantly worried about what her mother is going to do to her for the day or she is constantly on edge with her mother, not knowing what to
The third image is that of the welfare mother… the new version that sees the welfare mother as breeding animals who have no desire to work, but are content to live off the state (Woodard Mastin, 273). This character is typically not a major or supporting character within the story. This stereotypical black woman is part of a protagonist’s hardship that they must overcome in some way. One example of this character in popular culture is from the film Precious, which was released in 2009. In this film, the protagonist, Precious has been impregnated by her father twice and if forced to live with her abusive mother. Both women in these film represent this stereotype of the welfare mother but her mother is the one who depends on the government’s help to support herself. In one scene, the mother tells Precious that she needs to quit school and go to welfare to get the help she needs to support her family. In reality her mother only wants the food stamps and other government help for herself. She still receives some welfare from Precious but wants more now that precious has two children. In another scene, she explains through a voice over that her mother collects the welfare for her children as well as herself. A social worker then enters the scene to ask about the child and the mother’s work finding status, she tells her that she has tried finding work but has not been successful (Precious). But in other scenes during the film she is just sitting in the house
The ecosystem perspective can be defined as using a person’s family, social conditions, living situations, and even culture to help intervene and impact there life in a positive way. The subject that I want to focus on is the movie Precious. This movie is based the story of a sixteen year old girl Claireece Jones. She was continually raped by her biological father and has birthed two children fathered by him. This movie goes through the struggle to raise her daughter, (who suffers from down syndrome), and make her life better. She has trouble overcoming the struggles of her daily life, such as poverty and the neglectfulness of her parents. In an environment that is nothing but struggles and socioeconomic downfalls, she wants to overcome it all. She has help from a teacher and a social worker who really want to help her change her life for the better.
The film Precious directed by Lee Daniels is a solemn movie dealing with the unfortunate truths of everyday life for some individuals. The film staring Gabourey Sidibe who plays the main character Clarice “Precious” Jones along with co-stars Mariah Carey and Leni Kravitz is based in the Ghetto of Harlem in the year of 1987. Precious is a sixteen year-old illiterate morbidly obese teenager whom has grown up in the Ghetto of Harlem in a dysfunctional family. Her mother Mary verbally and physically abuses her and uses her as her personal servant while her father Carl also abuses her and has impregnated her twice. Early in the movie it is stated that Precious’s first child is named “Mongo” short for Mongoloid and suffers from
This then caused a shift in their family structure, because Mary started blaming Precious for ‘stealing her husband’. Mary had difficulty bonding with precious because she wanted affection form her husband which he was instead giving to Precious.