If Precious' had not been a victim of incest, sexual, mental, emotional, and physical abuse would Sapphire's audience even be interested in Precious' story, sad thing is probably not. Nobody is interested in reading books that the protagonist doesn't have some kind of struggle. I strongly believe that Sapphire's main point of the novel was to critique social instituitons of large cities.
The novel also leaves the reader inquiring about if whether they turned a blind eye to someone in their time of need. Because you never know if you let someone down by not asking the right questions or not following through on something you turned over to the officials. But this critique alone thickens the plot.
Nobody is soley interested in reading the internal thoughts of someone while they are being raped by their father. Nobody is quite in love with the fact that your body may physically be pleasured by something while your also in utter disgust. But without this the novel would be dry.
I don't know, maybe the rambles have me questioning myself as a part of the audience. Why was the plot so interesting??
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Learned Helplessness
I am a psychology major. I initially started out my high school career with the intentions of being an education major. But that surely changed through my experience at my first real job. I worked at LEAP. It was a program in which under privileged children could receive an enriched academic program that was sited in the empowerment zones of new haven. After working with these children and their parents so closely I decided that education was not the field for me. Because I have seen that these children have such struggles in their lives due to their environment. Like in Push, the main theme was overcoming a sense of learned helplessness.
Precious had been sexually, emotionally, and physically abused. I have worked with kids who have been through similar circumstances. But what had Precious stronger was her ability to understand that the life from which she came from did not have to paint the same portrait of her future. I learned that working with these in the manner in which I could that I would never be able to get my message across if I do not get to the source and it is their parents.
My goal is open up parenting facilities, drug rehabilitation program for men and women. I intend on being able to reach the source in order for them to instill a stronger foundation for children like Precious and others that I have worked with in the past. To break the curse of the learned helplessness that has been all they know.
Precious had been sexually, emotionally, and physically abused. I have worked with kids who have been through similar circumstances. But what had Precious stronger was her ability to understand that the life from which she came from did not have to paint the same portrait of her future. I learned that working with these in the manner in which I could that I would never be able to get my message across if I do not get to the source and it is their parents.
My goal is open up parenting facilities, drug rehabilitation program for men and women. I intend on being able to reach the source in order for them to instill a stronger foundation for children like Precious and others that I have worked with in the past. To break the curse of the learned helplessness that has been all they know.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Push-ed
I haven't gotten to find a free copy of PUSH by Sapphire, but I have seen a few youtube videos displaying her reading excerpts of the novel. I have tried to watch the movie Precious, whose plot is based primarily from the novel written by Sapphire but directed by Lee Daniels. But the movie itself was way too much to bear witness to without shedding tears.
The novel is the story of a 16 year old girl named Clarece Precious Jones, raised in Harlem, who is pregnant, a victim of insect, illierate, who is abused. That was already hard to stomach. The novel is told from inside the head of the protagonist.
All the excerpt readings that I have heard have all opened with the part of the novel where Precious is being disruptive in her Math class due to her being unable to figure out how to identify the page that her teacher wanted her to turn to. She lands herself in the principles office due to her cursing her teacher out. From there the excerpt jumps to her mother beating her senselessly in the kitchen in which is the place she births her child. Then she reveals to the nurses that she is a victim of incest because she did not know any better.
Isn't that weird how people who have been mistreated all their lives never knew they were being mistreated? Even after someone from the outside may point it out, it still may be something that the victim is unaware of or able to believe.
When I tried to watch Precious when it came out, I couldn't. It was too painful. The point in which I stopped watching it was during the 'beat down' in the kitchen. It reminded me of a scene in my own life. Everything about the setting seemed to come alive for me. Even down to the thought process from within. It all came together for me.
Wathcing these except readings made me search for more. I learned that the novel wasn't based upon the life of one person its a compliation of stories from people. That was deep. Sapphire touched me.
The novel is the story of a 16 year old girl named Clarece Precious Jones, raised in Harlem, who is pregnant, a victim of insect, illierate, who is abused. That was already hard to stomach. The novel is told from inside the head of the protagonist.
All the excerpt readings that I have heard have all opened with the part of the novel where Precious is being disruptive in her Math class due to her being unable to figure out how to identify the page that her teacher wanted her to turn to. She lands herself in the principles office due to her cursing her teacher out. From there the excerpt jumps to her mother beating her senselessly in the kitchen in which is the place she births her child. Then she reveals to the nurses that she is a victim of incest because she did not know any better.
Isn't that weird how people who have been mistreated all their lives never knew they were being mistreated? Even after someone from the outside may point it out, it still may be something that the victim is unaware of or able to believe.
When I tried to watch Precious when it came out, I couldn't. It was too painful. The point in which I stopped watching it was during the 'beat down' in the kitchen. It reminded me of a scene in my own life. Everything about the setting seemed to come alive for me. Even down to the thought process from within. It all came together for me.
Wathcing these except readings made me search for more. I learned that the novel wasn't based upon the life of one person its a compliation of stories from people. That was deep. Sapphire touched me.
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