Summary:
Precious
is a movie that touches heavily on the serious notes of life and how the sever
traumas that some suffer can really effect one’s mental state. The main
character of the movie, Precious, is a 16-year-old girl who has lived through a
life of abuse and suffering starting at a very young age from both her mother
and her father. In the beginning of the movie the viewer finds Precious living
with her mother in a run-down apartment in a precarious part of town pregnant
with her second child. The viewer soon finds that Precious is disregarded by
her mother as trash and used only for a welfare check along with Precious’
first child Mongo who actually lives with their Grandmother.
Upon
becoming pregnant with her second child from her father, Precious’ school
decides to move her to an alternative school where she would have the support
she needs. During this period she has brief interactions with a social worker
that files the case for the welfare checks. Moving to this new school and
having people to support her Precious starts to develop a world of her own in
which she has a sense of belonging and people who care about her. In this
world, an escape from the physical and mental abuse she has endured, she finds
a way to move past it and focus on improving herself. At the alternative school
Precious beings to improver herself, learning to read and write because of her
newfound inspiration, which happens to be her teacher Miss Rain. While
attending the alternative school Precious has her baby, and everyone from her
class joins her at the hospital like a family, surrounding her and the new baby
Abdul.
But
despite all of these new improvements at school, Precious still has huge
problems at home with her mother. One night Precious has a fight with her
mother, after her mother purposefully dropped the new baby Abdul. Precious runs
out with the baby and decides to break into the alternative school for shelter,
where the teacher Miss Rain finds her in the morning. After discovering
Precious taking shelter at the school, Miss Rain finds assistance for Precious
and moves her into a halfway house. Because her mother needs Precious and her
babies for the welfare checks her mother tries to get her back, even going as
far as contacting the social worker and forcing Precious into the office. When
they all meet at the office the social worker learns of the extreme abuse the
has been endured by Precious and her children, and refuses to move them. The
end of the movie leaves the viewer with Precious, who has a new outlook on life
with her child Abdul, planning her GED and a better life for herself and her
family.
Psychological
Perspective:
From
a psychological perspective, this movie touches on all sorts of abuse and
things that can seriously affect someone making them do certain things. The
main character Precious is a beacon for many things that reflect the extreme
abuse she went through, acting as a sort of warning to avoid doing these things
to someone.
The
first thing the main character Precious has that is extremely noticeable is
extra weight. She is a very overweight teenage girl who expresses some extreme
eating disorders mostly likely caused from rejection and being told she can’t
eat, and also from the physically abuses she endured from her father. At one
point in the movie Precious steals an entire bucket of chicken and eats it on
the way to school. This is definitely a sign of one of the problems she has
from the abuse, turning to food for comfort and gaining the weight as a sort of
protection from further abuse.
Precious’
mother, although the main source of abuse for Precious also suffers from
extreme problems from the suffering her husband caused her. Treating her
daughter like nothing and completely disregarding her, making her do things and
hurting her. Precious’ mother hates her so much because her father chose to
rape Precious instead of choosing her, making her jealous and extremely bitter.
This leads to a disorder in the mother called Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
These
characters in the movie are definitely showing cases of emotional, mental, and
physical abuse that affects their lives dramatically. This movie is definitely
worth watching from a psychological perspective because it gives a lot of
insight as to how people can develop these disorders and become the way they
are, but also how they can overcome these things.
Overall
Impression:
Precious
is a very serious movie, which takes long consideration to fully understand and
a strong stomach to deal with some of the horrible things that happen to this
child. It’s definitely a movie worth watching, giving us all an important
lesson of you have it good, and don’t judge where other people come from. While
certain parts of this movie aren’t the greatest, such as how the plot just
leaves us with nothing at the end, there are parts the make the entire thing
worth watching. Some scenes leave you with a horrible gut feeling and others
leave you with a sense of hope.
Overall
for a point-of-view or an eye-opening movie it does a great job in moving the
viewers. It fully submerges you into a new world that some never experience, a
world that is dramatically grim but somehow has a positive outlook. Definitely
worth watching, if not for a life lesson just for some good acting and extremely
gripping scenes.
Antagonist
Mary
Jones is the main antagonist from the 1996 book Push by Sapphire and the 2009
film Precious, based on the book. She is also briefly mentioned in the 2011
sequel The Kid. She is the mother of the protagonist, Claireece
"Precious" Jones. In the film, Mary is portrayed by actress Mo'Nique,
who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the role.
Mary
is an obese, impoverished African-American woman living in Harlem during the
1980s. She lives with her daughter Precious, who was the product of a
relationship with Carl, a married man. She also has an unnamed mother who lives
nearby. Mary is cruel, selfish, loud, and aggressive. She makes heavy use of
profanity. She abuses Precious and berates her grandchildren - especially the
older one, a girl with Down syndrome called "Mongo". Much of her time
is spent watching TV. Mary is also very lazy and would rather live off the
welfare system than get a job and make money. This is because she is secretly
scamming the welfare system for her own benefit.
In
1987, Precious is 16 years old, illiterate, pregnant for the second time, and
still attending junior high. The principal, Mrs. Lichtenstein, is concerned
about Precious' poor performance in school. She wants to move Precious to an alernative
school. Mrs. Lichtenstein wants to meet with Mary, but Precious doesn't want
her to.
Precious
is seen at home, washing dishes for her mother. Mary asks Precious if she is
going to start cooking. Mary then responds by throwing a heavy pan at Precious,
knocking her out. Precious has a fantasy sequence of being at a movie premiere,
where it starts to rain. The rain is actually Mary throwing water on Precious'
face.
Precious
is cooking dinner when Mrs. Lichtenstein comes to visit. Mrs. Lichtenstein
tells Mary about the alternative school she wants to place Precious in. When
the principal leaves, Mary gives in to rage and starts verbally abusing
Precious, blaming her for bringing "that white bitch" over. She
claims that visitors will interfere with her welfare checks. As Mary gets
angrier, her complaints get worse. Mary screams that school is useless for
Precious, makes fun of Precious' weight problem (despite being quite heavy
herself), and even states that Precious should have been aborted. Precious
angrily throws a shoe downstairs, landing near Mary. Mary responds by chasing
Precious to her room and beating her.
Precious
attends the alternative school with her teacher. She has her ups and downs
there. (One "down" involves a flashback of Mary calling Precious
"a dumb bitch".)
But
this does not please Mary. Mary opposes the idea of Precious attending the
alternative school. Then she demands that her daughter cook for her. Precious
cooks a meal of pigs' feet. However, she forgot to make collard greens. Mary is
furious, and she forces Precious to eat the meal, claiming Precious
"fucked it up". Precious is not hungry, but she ends up eating the
meal.
Soon
after, Precious goes the welfare office. She meets a social worker named Mrs.
Weiss. Precious tells her about her daughter Mongo. This involves a scene with
Mary pretending to be nice to Mongo, only to be mean to her afterwards.
Precious then reveals that her father impregnated her twice. She also reveals
that she delivered Mongo while lying on the floor as Mary was kicking her on
the head. There are also implications that Mary herself had molested Precious.
The
alternative school is having a good effect on Precious. On a class trip to the
museum, Precious realizes that she wants to teach her babies, and that she will
keep the undelivered baby. Eventually, Precious goes into labor and delivers her
second child, Abdul.
Precious
brings Abdul home to Mary. This time Mary has had it with Precious. Mary asks
to hold Abdul, but then throws him on the floor and throws a glass at Precious.
Because Precious exposed her wrongdoing, resulting in her welfare being cut
off, Mary claims that Precious ruined her life, and the two fight. Precious
decides to run away with Abdul. In the process, Mary throws a TV set at them,
which the two avoid. Once Precious and Abdul are gone, Mary collects the TV and
brings it back upstairs. When she tries to turn the TV on, it does not respond
- Mary had destroyed her own TV. Not long afterwards, Mary tears up Precious'
room.
Precious
ends up in a halfway house. Her literacy has improved dramatically and she is
rewarded for it. One day, Mary visits Precious and tells her that Carl has died
of AIDS. Precious fears that she and Abdul might have come down with the HIV
virus. Precious gets tested for the virus. While Abdul is fine, Precious finds
out she is HIV positive.
Mary
and Precious meet one last time with Mrs. Weiss. Mary reveals that Carl
molested Precious and that she blames Precious for him leaving. Mary expresses
interest in reuniting the family, including Mongo. Precious refuses, and
decides to take her kids and leave Mary forever. Once Precious leaves, Mary
never sees her again.
Mary
appears one last time in The Kid. Precious has died of AIDS several years after
being diagnosed. Not long after Precious' funeral, Mary dies as well.
Moral values
Here
are some quick observations of PREVIOUS and the film's moral premise. Only a
little story stuff here, mostly analysis. To give you a hook to hang my
observations on here is what I think the moral premise is. Actually, I think
there are three interleaved and interrelated moral premises for this film. That
these values, themes, and consequences are all interrelated, and yet stand on
their own is one reason the film is so rich. The statements might be stated
this way as if leaning the early lessons open the awareness and opportunity to
learn the second and third lesson.
- Blaming others for our circumstances leads to selfish abuse; but empowering ourselves to change our circumstances leads to protection.
- Accepting ignorance leads to lack of opportunity; but pursuing knowledge leads to vision
- Relying on the resources and decisions of others (government) leads to dependency; but becoming self-reliant leads to independence.
