Push by Sapphire "Precious' Character"

Precious was a character created by Sapphire in order to relay life stories from many other women to the public. Within the book Precious' character goes from an insecure, helpless, and self-proclaimed worthless woman to a strong, empowered, and intelligent person. At the beginning of the book Precious does not care about her education and seems to just get by off of her teacher's uncaring nature for her entire life. When she becomes pregnant with her second child from her father, her guidance counselor at the school suspends her, which only furthers her self-hate. I feel like the first few major events in this novel really shape who Precious is going to become. By being kicked out of school she is directed to the Each One Teach One program in which she is given a sense of community and a sense that someone cares about her and wants her to succeed. Ms. Rain does make it perfectly clear that the only way the class will succeed is if they want to succeed. She never babies her students, which causes Precious to begin to feel responsible for her own like, and then begins to turn on her mother in a more real way. After going to Each One Teach One Precious' mother starts to treat her like she shouldn't care about her education and tells Precious she is worthless and cannot be taught. Precious no longer listens to this and believes it like she always did, and after having her child and a huge blow out with her mother, Precious finally takes her life into her own hands. Also, through out the novel Sapphire writes Precious to be a dreamer. Precious often has fantasies or day dreams about being a different person or in a different situation. She dreams of marrying a light-skinned man who loves her, or being a white, blonde, beautiful girl. These fantasies shows how damaging the effects of abuse are on a person's self esteem. She doesn't think she can or ever will be good enough to have a man who loves her, and although she throws all that love she has to give into her baby Abdul, she still dreams of finding a man who will take care of her.