Analysis of the movie precious
I have attempted to carry out this analysis using the movies running story as reference, as I feel it would bring out the best depiction of how precious evolves through the movie.
Lets start with the opening scene. As the whole movie is a narration of the main character, it almost forces the viewer to see things from her perspective. The opening words, where precious shares her dreams and fantasies about having a boyfriend and being someone famous, is a very interesting insight into the newly seen character on the screen. It clearly shows how she wants to feel like a normal person by allowing herself to have these fantasies. Being in a teenage school environment, it almost becomes a personal battle to feel like a part of her immediate surroundings. This is substantiated by the fact that throughout the movie, she keeps playing these various fantasies in her head whenever something really bad happens or is said to her. She becomes completely oblivious to her surroundings and placates the situation by living that fantasy, if only for a few moments.
Another beautiful scene where she is getting ready for her school, trying to put her hair band in the right manner, shows the reflection in the mirror as what she imagines herself to be to feel normal and live with her problems. She always sits at the back of the class, which she despises about herself. She feels as if the whole world would be judging her if she takes the front seat. The back part of the classroom is like her adobe which allows her to be lost on her own world, and fantasizing about her math teacher. Another interesting suggestion which the movie offer is the fact that maybe she is good at math because she really likes her math teacher and wants him to like her as well. She chooses math as a way to grab his attention, as she knows the usual ways wont work.
Her bullying attitude is a kind of refuge she seeks in coping up with what she thinks of her appearance. Plus, its a way to vent out her frustration from the physical abuse she faces at home by her mother.
Precious faces a multitude of abuses at home which play a huge impact on her personality. She is carrying the second child from her father, and is expelled due to this reason from school. Her mothers accuses precious of stealing her man, which as the viewer later comes to realize, is a guilt-driven retort to come to terms with what she went through when she faced rejection from preciouss father and knowing that she was unable to protect her daughter from sexual abuse. This phenomenon can be well explained considering the psychodynamic theory as explained in the later part of the essay.
The helplessness of her situation is increased as she is unable to share the abuses occurring to her to the welfare department as that would result in stoppage of checks. This vicious cycle has continued for way too long in her life for anyone to expect her to have any hope, but she relentlessly continues to have hope that her life will change, and waits for that moment to happen in her life.
In reference to the attachment theory, it is not difficult to see how the sexual abuses which she has to endure form a very early age (since the age of three) from her father, and the subsequent jealous outbursts of hatred from her mother have left her complete detached from her own parents, and hence resulted in a very tormented childhood growth. One particular scene in the movie, where she starts living with her alternate school teacher Ms. Rain, says it all to confirm her confusion originating due to this detachment. She says Why people that barely know me should nicer to me than my own father and mother She experiences a feeling of home and warmth like she had never experienced before.
Moving on with the story, we see some very clear milestones in the movie which shape her character for the rest of the story. She decides to bring about some change in her life by making small steps like sitting on the front desk in the class, and mustering up the courage to talk about herself. A new classroom offers a new lease to life, with new group and people and a very friendly atmosphere for her to learn. She realizes that everyone is good at something and as we see later on in the movie, she chooses to be a good mother to her child which gives a new meaning to her life.
Jean Piagets Cognitive-Development Theory and Lev Vygotskys Sociohistorical Theory of Psychological Development are depicted in the movie to illustrate the learning theory. Piagets theory says that children need to construct or reconstruct knowledge in order to learn and that they also need rich opportunities to interact with the physical world and with their peers. Ms. Rain symbolizes the perfect teacher as she completely understands the learning theory and how to implement it on her students, who have grown past the age of unmolded impressions of learning and now have a much harder time in learning language from the basics. She diligently makes them write and read so that the students can understand the all so familiar sounds of the everyday language.
The small but decisive role of Lenny Kravitz as the male nurse depicts what is maybe the happiest moment for precious in the entire movie. Everything about the moment is what precious always wanted, that little glimpse of happiness which finally makes her forget her miserable life of the past. The scene where the nurse kisses precious forehead is particularly powerful, as one can clearly see how special precious feels when her friends from school tease her about this. From environmental theory point of view, her obvious change in attitude can be definitely attributed a positive change in her classroom environment.
Her determination to give a better childhood to her newborn is evidently a result of the importance of having a healthy childhood attachment which she realizes after her own traumatic childhood. Even after repeated attempts by Ms. Rain to convince her otherwise, she decides against putting her son for adoption. As it is evident in the movie that Precious struggles in an apparently non middle class house with quite low earnings ( She steals from the restaurant as her mother does not give her any money), its a very bold decision on her part. Also considering her age and all the abuse she has gone through, the fact that she has this urge to be a loving and caring mother at the age of sixteen is truly unique and commendable. It is not hard to see that her tough childhood has given her increased maturity towards dealing with the new born.
The violence that ensues when she comes back to her mother makes her leave the house for good, to start a new life. The interesting part is that she is able to take this decision due to her love for her son Abdul and not for herself per-se. She was tolerating years of abuse without ever mustering up the courage to leave the house.
Her discovery that Ms. Rain is a homosexual initially confuses her a lot as she finds it hard to comprehend how homosexual people can be so nice. This scene also symbolizes her fight against her preconceived notions bestowed upon by her abusive parents. Her sexual abuses complicate her sexuality as she copes with her physical appearance. She has leaned to shut off her mind to sexuality and her fantasies revolve around love, fame and happiness things she could never receive in real life.
The movie speaks volumes about the education system in the US and how students progress from grade to grade without actually learning anything (precious doesnt know how to read or write and she was already in eighth grade). Also, it depicts how people take advantage of the welfare system in the country at the cost of their children.
I think the most important lesson that the movie has to give through the character of precious is that the undying spirit of hope is a universal phenomenon and everyone has a right to feel hopeful about the future no matter what the condition of your life is right now. As precious rightly says in the movie ..Thats why God or whoever makes new days , a perspective can make one go on with life, irrespective of the hardships.
The story is true despite being a work of fiction.
Sapphire deals with ignorance, HYPERLINK httpbigsole.blogspot.com200906blue-eyed-black-people-colorism-and-our.html colorism, black self-hate, complexities of embracing pride in blackness (Precious wishing she were white and thin, her fear that she may be like her mother--stuck, dumb, and ugly--her questions to the universe asking why couldnt she have had normal parents, a father that didnt rape her and make her HIV positive), the prejudice we cultivate to feel superior to others like gays, the neglect of illiteracy and poverty, sexual orientation, and definitions of manhood.
Precious is one who lives a life of someone she is not. She doesnt want to be subservient she doesnt want to be fat, hurt, ugly and surrender to what her life is. She is someone who constantly contemplates change, whether its sitting on the last bench and dreaming of being literate or the fantasy of a precious life. Her reality is so far away from her reach that she can do nothing in her present situation except give in. On many levels, precious feels manly (the instances wherein she beats up the classmate and pusheshits her classmate at alternate for mocking her) because it is a way of her dealing with her vulnerabilities at the mercy of her parents. So though she is in love with the idea of being a beautiful white woman (when she looks in the mirror) and have the man of her dreams adore her, in her reality, she mimics not who she wants to be, but who she needs to be.
Now, even though, the story comes across as this one girl exhibiting a diverse inferiority complex in her psyche due to gender, greed, race, incest etc. her attachment to her life and mother can only be explained on a psychodynamic level.
When briefly explained, psychodynamic theory is the theory of the psychological forces (mostly linked to experiences or bonds established in early years of childhood), that explain intricate human behavior, highlighting the interaction between unconscious and conscious motivation and reason. Psychoanalysis in itself emphasizes the belief that all adult problems are directly related to events in ones childhood.
The salient features of psychodynamics (according to Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung) include the existence of self, composed of the ego, personal unconscious and the collective unconscious, which manifest differently in different individuals, the underlying spiritual dimension of the human psyche, the role of images which spontaneously arise in the human psyche, leading to instinct and basal links, to communicate the dynamic processes taking place in the personal and collective unconscious. The multiplicity of the psyche allows for the existence of conflicting beliefs and justifications in life. A self tries to preserve and defend fundamental features like the ego, the bond with the mother, the idea of security in family, etc. Each individual is perceived to be made up from a dynamic that begins in early childhood and continually progresses throughout life.
When talking of Precious, her childhood had primarily been subjected to, having her nipples bitten, being slapped on the butt as a sexual playmate, having orgasms beneath her big, foul-smelling father or being felt up on the sofa by her mother. Yet she chose on to endure it because it seemed important and safer to her. The certainty of her parents atrocities was a constant that she had learned to deal with using her imagination and passions. The link between a mother and a child is so strong that even though it might be appalling, if the child learns to deal or cope, it will stick on.
So, in the course of this movie, I wept for precious, I empathized with her pain and applauded her strength. In the course of reading up these (psychological) theories, I found her torment somehow justified as a disease or condition or a disorder. Her life became a Freidan principle. To conclude, certain theories exist only because certain facts do. Did my analyzing the story on a theoretical level allow me to understand her anguish more No. All it did was proving to me that just because a theory exists, its application in reality does not stand justified.
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