Film Review
In the movie “Precious” there are a lot of examples of abuse. The two main kinds of abuse are Physical and Sexual child abuse. Precious’ mother physically abused her throughout the movie and her own father sexually abused her resulting in two children, one who was diagnosed with downs syndrome. From the reading in the book Family Violence across the Lifespan I have also discovered that there a few more types of neglect depicted in this movie.
The three main types that bothered me the most were Emotional, Educational, and Health Care neglect. First off it was clear that Precious’ mother really only cared for her and her child because she was collecting Welfare benefits for having custody. Throughout the movie we see the mother throwing objects like frying pans and an ash tray at Precious. Along with the physical abuse there was a large amount of Emotional, the mother at one point told Precious that she wishes she would have aborted her because she was nothing to her, countless times during the movie I heard her tell Precious how useless she was. Also the mother didn’t make Precious’ education seem important; all she seemed to care about was getting down to Welfare to collect the checks. She told Precious there was no point in her going to school because she would never amount to anything and that instead of going to school she should make it a point to go to Welfare and talk to them about still receiving assistance. Even though Precious seemed like she was getting good grades in school, when she began at the alternative school Each One Teach One it was clear that she couldn’t read and had a hard time understanding things that were being taught. That is a clear sign that at 16 years old her mother did not make education a priority in her life. At last the thing that bothered me the most is that already having one child and being pregnant with another, Precious had never been to the doctors until her second child. Which means through her first pregnancy she never
The three main types that bothered me the most were Emotional, Educational, and Health Care neglect. First off it was clear that Precious’ mother really only cared for her and her child because she was collecting Welfare benefits for having custody. Throughout the movie we see the mother throwing objects like frying pans and an ash tray at Precious. Along with the physical abuse there was a large amount of Emotional, the mother at one point told Precious that she wishes she would have aborted her because she was nothing to her, countless times during the movie I heard her tell Precious how useless she was. Also the mother didn’t make Precious’ education seem important; all she seemed to care about was getting down to Welfare to collect the checks. She told Precious there was no point in her going to school because she would never amount to anything and that instead of going to school she should make it a point to go to Welfare and talk to them about still receiving assistance. Even though Precious seemed like she was getting good grades in school, when she began at the alternative school Each One Teach One it was clear that she couldn’t read and had a hard time understanding things that were being taught. That is a clear sign that at 16 years old her mother did not make education a priority in her life. At last the thing that bothered me the most is that already having one child and being pregnant with another, Precious had never been to the doctors until her second child. Which means through her first pregnancy she never