Narcissism In Precious

PRECIOUS,Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, depicts a world of horror that fallsupon a girl that grows up in a dysfunctional family, gets impregnated by her own father,not once but twice. Claireece Precious Jones, 16 ,who can’t write or read and also obese,lives with her mean mother under constant abuse. an environment which allowsopportunists like her father who from time to time shows up to rape his own daughter.at the age of 12 bears the first baby who happens to be born with down syndrome named‘mongo’ who fortunately lives away from the violent, abusive and lazy mother ‘Mary’except the day that the social worker comes to check on the family so that they canmaintain the welfare check they receive because of the
poor child.This movie is a great cinematic experience in terms how it delivers a grim and horrificway of parenting and how the characters develop as a result subsequently.
the directorsucceeds in capturing the intense moments that portrays the mother in her absolutemonstrosity and degrading subhuman behavior. her insatiable narcissism comes in aform of her nagging, persistent conviction of not only precious but everyone around herwith wrongful deeds. she fails to acknowledge anybody’s needs but her own, maliciouslyenvious to why her boyfriend chooses to impregnate her daughter and give her morebabies than her. she fails to recognise the psychosocial boundary lines drawn blinded byher ignorant selfishness.Precious, the shy and introvert, struggling to survive her emotional and physical abusefinds a place where she feels safe; school where she escapes into her red carpetedfantasy world then for her fortune, she gets transferred to an alternative school. this willchange the world around herbas she learns how to move forward with her life and gainself-respect and most importantly, she is not the only victim of a dysfunctional familyand childhood sexual abuse. her peers made precious feel cared about by sharing theirstories and push her to not be afraid. this eventually made her open up to the socialwork ms. weiss.Thanks to her nurturing teacher , precious is able to successfully escape from her couchpotato mother ‘mary’ and starts the task of raising her kids and attain the
propereducation. according to erikson, precious had to deal with her identity and establish herself with society, become independent and begin to look at the future as an adult interms of her sexuality and occupational role,hence develop a virtue of fidelity.According to Freud, precious would best fit the personality 0f superego which involves aconflict within the mind that's mainly controlled by the morals and social rules asopposed to her mother mary who is instantly gratified by basic physical needs andurges.i.e the personality driven by the aggressive pleasure-seeking id.Precious’ dissociation proves effective in detaching herself from reality, a great defencemechanism in which she reacts by writing and creation of an alternate world to tonedown anxiety, emotions and impulses.the movie based on the novel ‘push’ by sapphire ; a title that is representative of preciouslife. yes it’s thought-provoking yet it sets about a journey of emotions that starts with apush to overcome her plight and turn her life around.
This movie catalogs a wealth of human ugliness. this dark themed tale takes us to anagonizing world filled with pain, abuse and horror. you come to grips with thoughts andfeelings. in all cases, the movie is more or less an examination of a social problemilluminated through an individual's struggle to self-realization or merely a story of awriter who try to get her voice heard.