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Thoughts and Ideas on Saphire's "Push" Essay

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The book entitled "Push", written by Sapphire, is one of the most shocking books that I have ever read. The story revolves around the life of one Precious Jones. Her life is scarred with rape, molestation, pregnancy, poverty, the HIV virus, illiteracy, and countless other instances which could be classified as unfortunate. My initial reaction to this novel was that I couldn't believe that all of these bad things can happen to one person. It seemed that as the text progressed, we found out more troubling details of Precious' life. At the begging in it was tough to fully comprehend what was being said, as Precious' writing included allot of misspelled words, unnecessary words, repetitiveness, and often times words used in an incorrect …show more content…

Another factor in her perseverance was her friend from the alternative school by the name of Jermaine. Precious was inspred by Jermaine in many ways. Jermaine was a good friend and also was one of the best writers in the Each One, Teach One classes.

Also, when thinking about the determination of Precious, I remember a small detail that changed from the beginning of the novel. Early on in the story, Precious says "Reeboks, white! Better than Nikes? No, next shits I get be Nikes!." Towards the end of the novel Precious then says "I look up from my shoes, Nikes; girls got they hand up.." Now I know, that something as small as a pair of shoes shouldn't really be important in a story full of all of many achievements, however, I feel that these statements were really important. Its was something that was significant of Precious coming up through the world, even if her circumstances were far more sever than many other human beings.

Another theme that I noticed throughout the book, was the idea of people being brainwashed by their society. This idea will also be present in the readings for next week as I will be reading "The Shawl." In that book, the people being brainwashed are the citizens of nazi Germany, while in this present novel, the people being brainwashed are the people of Harlem, a ghetto in New York. The people of the

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