Claireece Jones, the Harlem teenager who goes by the name of Precious, gets by everyday by narrowly missing the fatal strikes that her abusive mother deals her. Encouraged by a lesbian recreational school teacher, that was the only role model she ever had, and constantly envisioning fantasy like delusions, she slowly manages find her way through the abuse and horror that is her life.
In many fairy tales there is that abusive parent that looks down on their child, or stepchild, and blames them for every bad thing that has happened in their lives. They constantly talk down on the kid and treat them as though they are no better than any other street trash out there.This one is no different. Except for instead of being just a fairy tale, this is a Grimm Fairy Tale in almost every way. It involves all the classic, non-magical, story lines. The delusional main character, who escapes her own painful reality through fantasies. And don’t forget the verbally and physically abusive mother with also an innuendo of sexual abuse as well.
Precious deals with/and gets through with her life by envisioning fantasies, of what she wishes her life was like, through times of abuse and hardship. One recurring factor on each of the visions was that there was usually a boy or man of some kind with her. And then there was Precious, luring them in happily. And if it's not a man, its holds instead those who care for her and cheer her on. She is typically jolted awake from each vision by someone/something else or is the one to walk away from it back to her harsh reality.
Children sometimes look up to their parents as a role model of what they want to be in the future. Other times parents have high expectations of what they want their child to be like from birth. Precious's abusive mother is of the latter. She does have expectations of Precious, but none of them are high. Precious and her mother survive on welfare check that they get mostly because of Precious and her child with Downs Syndrome. Precious’s mother has no desire to live a life without the welfare checks and constantly gets on Precious's back about continuing to get them. Her mother desires for Precious to be less than her. Uneducated, broken, dependent (on others), and oversized, as we can tell by her constantly forcing Precious to eat.
Even though its she’s a Debbie Downer, the movie would be almost nothing without the violently abusive mother. Sure you’d still have your mumbling teen who can barely speak for herself and encouraging recreational school, but you wouldn’t have the anchor who constantly desires to sink Precious. The character Precious wouldn’t be miserable enough to be cared for, You’d also miss the whole irony of the name ‘Precious’. Honestly the hated mother makes the movie.
Precious does a great job to draw its audience in and leave it enraptured by its relatability. It does this by its use of themes;( Abuse, desired to be cherished/loved, the desire to be rich, sex, race, dream vs reality and poverty etc), as well as its use of unusually normal characters;( ‘Lesbi-honest’ teacher, poverty stricken families, lower class:(African Americans), miserable main character and disgraceful parent(-ing)). At the same time this film manages to push away viewers and almost bore them because of the cliches of the, previous listed, themes and characters.
In many fairy tales there is that abusive parent that looks down on their child, or stepchild, and blames them for every bad thing that has happened in their lives. They constantly talk down on the kid and treat them as though they are no better than any other street trash out there.This one is no different. Except for instead of being just a fairy tale, this is a Grimm Fairy Tale in almost every way. It involves all the classic, non-magical, story lines. The delusional main character, who escapes her own painful reality through fantasies. And don’t forget the verbally and physically abusive mother with also an innuendo of sexual abuse as well.
Precious deals with/and gets through with her life by envisioning fantasies, of what she wishes her life was like, through times of abuse and hardship. One recurring factor on each of the visions was that there was usually a boy or man of some kind with her. And then there was Precious, luring them in happily. And if it's not a man, its holds instead those who care for her and cheer her on. She is typically jolted awake from each vision by someone/something else or is the one to walk away from it back to her harsh reality.
Children sometimes look up to their parents as a role model of what they want to be in the future. Other times parents have high expectations of what they want their child to be like from birth. Precious's abusive mother is of the latter. She does have expectations of Precious, but none of them are high. Precious and her mother survive on welfare check that they get mostly because of Precious and her child with Downs Syndrome. Precious’s mother has no desire to live a life without the welfare checks and constantly gets on Precious's back about continuing to get them. Her mother desires for Precious to be less than her. Uneducated, broken, dependent (on others), and oversized, as we can tell by her constantly forcing Precious to eat.
Even though its she’s a Debbie Downer, the movie would be almost nothing without the violently abusive mother. Sure you’d still have your mumbling teen who can barely speak for herself and encouraging recreational school, but you wouldn’t have the anchor who constantly desires to sink Precious. The character Precious wouldn’t be miserable enough to be cared for, You’d also miss the whole irony of the name ‘Precious’. Honestly the hated mother makes the movie.
Precious does a great job to draw its audience in and leave it enraptured by its relatability. It does this by its use of themes;( Abuse, desired to be cherished/loved, the desire to be rich, sex, race, dream vs reality and poverty etc), as well as its use of unusually normal characters;( ‘Lesbi-honest’ teacher, poverty stricken families, lower class:(African Americans), miserable main character and disgraceful parent(-ing)). At the same time this film manages to push away viewers and almost bore them because of the cliches of the, previous listed, themes and characters.