Push is an inspirational story told from the point of view of Claireece Precious Jones, a sixteen-year-old illiterate African American girl and the countless obstacles she overcame while growing up in the ghetto of Harlem.
While enrolled in Women’s and Gender studies we have talked about many issues that surface in the book Push. The first issue that stood out to me was rape. Precious was sexual abused at a very early age. While at the interview with Ms. Weiss her mother confessed that her father had touched her at the age of three. “Precious’” own mother overlooked rape and denies responsibility when it came to verbally and physically abusing her. This issue stood out to me firstly because honestly it was so graphic. The act of being raped on a constant basis has done psychological damage to Precious. She tries to repress the image but at random times in the book she has flashbacks. “You jus’ like your mama—you die for it!” “He pull his dick out, the white cum stuff pour out of my hole wet up the sheets.” In my opinion this is by far the most powerful, yet graphic passage in the book. This is I recognized rape as the primary issue. The book uses this imagery to portray to the readers how tragic rape really is to women. Our book says, “Although violence can have direct health consequences, such as injury, being a victim of violence also increases a woman’s risk of future ill health.” It goes on to talk about the possibly health consequences such as; depression, anxiety, eating and sleeping disorders, feelings of shame and guilt, post-traumatic stress disorder, and poor self-esteem. It lists many others but these jumped out at me because they were very significant in the book Push. Precious suffered from every psychological and b...
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... that you are not the only person on this Earth. You are here for a short time and you need to leave behind your footprint for others by being kind and courteous to all.
Overall the novel Push was inspirational and eye opening. You really don’t realize how good you have it until you are exposed to what other people have to go through on a daily basis. I am very glad we were assigned this book because quite frankly I wouldn’t have read it otherwise, but after reading it I am disappointed I had not read it earlier. It can truly change your life. Precious grew up in a tough way but managed to overcome the toughness by pushing.
Works Cited
Sapphire. Push: a Novel. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 2009. Print.
Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. Print.
“Numerous studies have demonstrated that experiencing child abuse can lead to a range of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems” (Moylan, 2010). Precious’s internalization of depression and emotional numbing are all factors that contribute to her self-concept. Study shows that “childhood sexual abuse has been correlated with higher levels of depression, guilt, shame, self-blame, eating disorders, somatic concerns, anxiety, dissociative patterns, repression, denial, sexual problems, and relationship problems” (Hall, 2011). The implications of sexual abuse are often detrimental to the mental state of an adolescent. Psychiatric evaluations show that Precious suffers from symptoms of PTSD and Major Depression
The main character is a boy named Ledge. In the book when someone turns 13 they will receive a special power called a Savvy. When Ledge received his Savvy, he was hoping he could impress his father by gaining the power to run really fast. Later he found out he gained the power to build and destroy objects. He was really disappointed and only thought of his father. Later he learned that running isn’t what he wanted to do, and learned that he can use his Savvy for good. He found he is a great sculptor and he can create great works of art. Ledge didn’t discover he could build at first. He thought he could only break things. He discovered he could fix things when Ledge and his cousin took his cousin’s car
The Declaration of Independence. "All men are created equal." That's beautiful.)” (173). This shows that Push doesn’t fit the stereotype that all bullies are dumb and heartless. This quote shows that not only is Push insightful. For him to be able to understand the Declaration of Independence and even cry shows he is actually intelligent and insightful. He is also very smart in the way that he knows exactly how to control most of the people around him, of course until he meets John Williams. Push is very different from most other bullies in that he is a smaller and weaker kid, and he seems to be much more intelligent than most kids his age. He uses his intelligence and “sleight of mouth” to gain power and affluence from his classmates.
The book I chose to read was “Smile for the Camera” by Kelle James, Copyrighted in 2010. It starts off with chapter one. Kelle, the main character, is lying in bed when her dad walks in. he has a gun in his hand and hes crying, not a good combination according to her. Kelle pretends to be asleep. She decides she needs to leave home. That’s where chapter two begins. She climbs onto the enormous Greyhound bus with her suitcase in hand. She waves goodbye to her father but he only nods. Kelle’s father never really liked her. In fact he hated her. As the bus pulls away, her father waves to her. Kelle was on her way to New York City.
Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. Women's voices, feminist visions: classic and contemporary readings. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
Not only is she raped, but her mother does nothing about it and just wants her to live with what has happened and follow her footsteps. Precious however does not want to follow her mother’s footstep and instead wonders why she has not done anything to prevent her father from doing those things to her. She goes off to school with other girls who are in a similar situation as her, who all struggle with reading, writing, and almost everything academically. She struggles with all of this, even though she begins to like school. Periodically however she would remember moments from when her father would do things to her.
Joe and Bazil 's status as the immediate family members to a sexual assault survivor allows readers to see how sexual assault can impact an entire family unit; a frequent situation that many people find themselves in, but don 't know how to sensibly handle emotionally. Through Joe 's perspective as a child in this novel, Erdrich guides her audience into understanding how complex of a societal issue sexual assault is by displaying how far reaching its effects are on the victim, family, and community of a
Sara M. Evans, in her book, Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century’s End, chronicles feminist activities over several decades from just before the beginning of the women’s liberation movement in the 1960’s through the 1990’s. Doctor Evans was born in 1943 and currently teaches at the University of Minnesota in the history department after receiving both her B.A. and M.A. at Duke University and then later her PhD from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
Lugones, Maria C. and Elizabeth V. Spelman. Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory, Cultural Imperialism and the Demand for “The Woman’s Voice.” Women and Values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy. Edited by Marilyn Pearsall. Wadsworth Publishing Company: California. 1986. 19-31.
As previously stated, her father, Carl, sexually assaulted and raped her a copious amount of times and impregnated her not only once, but twice. The abuse began when she was only three years old and continued until she was fifteen; Precious was pregnant at twelve years old. Child rape occurs every two minutes in the United States and sadly one in three girls will be sexually molested before the age seventeen. Sexual abuse is an atrocious, disgusting and horrendous issue that happens every single day to an immense number of children. “Precious” acknowledges this topic and again, shows the negative effects it has on an individual. Although Precious was a victim of sexual abuse and incest; she wanted more for her and her children’s lives. A child who is the victim of prolonged sexual abuse usually develops low self-esteem, a feeling of worthlessness, an abnormal or distorted view of sex and has a higher risk of committing suicide. On the other hand, Precious did not let her destructive sexual abuse define who she is. “I cried the other day and I felt stupid, but f*ck that day. That’s why god made new days,” she says. Despite her rough past, she is strong enough to continue her life. The director and writer incorporated this issue to increase resilience in children subject to dysfunctional families and to sexual and physical abuse. In children who do not have to contend with those problems, the movie
Abrams 1604 - 1606. Peterson, Linda H. "What Is Feminist Criticism?" Wuthering Heights. Ed. Linda H. Peterson, Ph.D. Boston: Bedford Books, 1992.
In just a few decades The Women’s Liberation Movement has changed typical gender roles that once were never challenged or questioned. As women, those of us who identified as feminist have rebelled against the status quo and redefined what it means to be a strong and powerful woman. But at...
McAfee, Noëlle. "Feminist Political Philosophy." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. Winter 2011 Edition ed. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
that there are others in this world who are not so wealthy as you and who are in need of