Summary:
he book entitled "Push", written by Sapphire, is one of the most shocking books that I have ever read. The story revolves around the life of one Precious Jones. Her life is scarred with rape, molestation, pregnancy, poverty, the HIV virus, illiteracy, and countless other instances which could be classified as unfortunate.
The book entitled "Push", written by Sapphire, is one of the most shocking books that I have ever read. The story revolves around the life of one Precious Jones. Her life is scarred with rape, molestation, pregnancy, poverty, the HIV virus, illiteracy, and countless other instances which could be classified as unfortunate. My initial reaction to this novel was that I couldn't believe that all of these bad things can happen to one person. It seemed that as the text progressed, we found out more troubling details of Precious' life. At the begging in it was tough to fully comprehend what was being said, as Precious' writing included allot of misspelled words, unnecessary words, repetitiveness, and often times words used in an incorrect tense. However, once I became accustomed to all of the imperfections, they became less visible and allowed for me to fully engage in the text. Overall, this was a good book, not because of the severity of misfortune, actually making me sad, but that it was so blunt that it was actually very interesting and made me want to read more.
A theme that really strung a cord with me throughout this story was the idea of perseverance. Precious faced more hardships and misfortunes in 16 years of her life than 20 people deserved to fell in their entire lives. It seemed that no matter what she did, things just kept getting worse. Just to put this into perspective, she was raped throughout her early childhood by her father, beginning in at the time when she was still in diapers. She then had a child, from her father, that had down syndrome. That, in itself is unbelievable. However, even though her life was hard, she ended up doing the best that she could do for a person who had been through so much and wasn't even twenty years old yet. I first felt that she was inspired to do something with her life when she began to collect posters of strong-willed African Americans such as Farrakhan, and read numerous books about black oppression and civil rights. Another factor in her perseverance was her friend from the alternative school by the name of Jermaine. Precious was inspred by Jermaine in many ways. Jermaine was a good friend and also was one of the best writers in the Each One, Teach One classes.
Also, when thinking about the determination of Precious, I remember a small detail that changed from the beginning of the novel. Early on in the story, Precious says "Reeboks, white! Better than Nikes? No, next shits I get be Nikes!." Towards the end of the novel Precious then says "I look up from my shoes, Nikes; girls got they hand up.." Now I know, that something as small as a pair of shoes shouldn't really be important in a story full of all of many achievements, however, I feel that these statements were really important. Its was something that was significant of Precious coming up through the world, even if her circumstances were far more sever than many other human beings.
Another theme that I noticed throughout the book, was the idea of people being brainwashed by their society. This idea will also be present in the readings for next week as I will be reading "The Shawl." In that book, the people being brainwashed are the citizens of nazi Germany, while in this present novel, the people being brainwashed are the people of Harlem, a ghetto in New York. The people of the ghetto are being brainwashed by the idea of the welfare system making everything ok and allowing them to be lazy and incompetent. I feel that this is a real-world problem and is depicted in a perfect light by Precious' mother. Precious' mother weighs somewhere near 400 pounds, can't fit in the shower, is abusive, and doesn't have a job. She makes a living off of the government and honest hard-working peoples tax money. I feel that this isn't fair to the people who made this country, not the ones who are trying to bring it down.
The awareness of homosexuality and the HIV virus is severely neglected throughout this book as well. Early on in the book when Precious meets Mrs. Rain, Blue says that her girlfriend is the one that got her the job she is currently occupying. When I first heard this, I knew right away that she was a homosexual. With this, I also assumed that Precious also knew. That's why it was very surprising to me, later in the novel, when Precious says that she is surprised that Mrs. Rain was homosexual. This is, obviously due to a lack of education on that particular subject.
There is a great saying that the apple never falls to far away from the tree. This is true when, towards the end of the novel, Precious' mother refuses to take an HIV test because she already knows that she doesn't have the virus. She claims that she "didn't do it like no faggots" meaning that she believed that only gay men could catch the virus. The lack of education in this inner-city community has led to the generation of the Jones family to have many issues. These issues could have been prevented if there were more awareness. I know that this is just a novel, however, I feel that many of these problems are real and this book could serve to inspire many to make a change.
This is the complete article, containing 915 words
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