Characteristics The movie takes place in 1987, when Harlem was in economic turmoil. As an insight as to the conditions that Precious and her family live in, the movie depicts Precious having a fantasy of herself as a movie star. However, Precious’ life was far from this. Her neighborhood was drug-stricken, as it had a crack cocaine epidemic and high unemployment rates. Precious’ family had a very-low socioeconomic status (Halyard, 2009). Precious is overweight and illiterate. She has been abused, both physically and mentally, by her mother. On top of this, Precious fell victim to her father, who raped her numerous times. When she was only fourteen, she had her first child, who was a product of her father’s rape. The child, Mongo, She is able to walk, but her weight prevents her from doing much else. From observing her flashbacks, Precious has been over weight for a while (Daniels, Siegel- Magness, & Daniels, 2009). The book talks about the importance of nutritional education and physical activity for proper physical development. In the area the Precious and her family lives, there is not many programs available to students that teach them the value of nutrition. Based on the movie, it is hard enough for teachers to teach a mandatory subject like math. Nutrition is one of the things that Precious struggled with the most, proven by her weight and uncontrollable eating. The book states that the biggest barrier to healthy eating is the lack of healthy food ( Berk & Meyers, 2016). Precious’ mother did not provide Precious or herself the food to stay healthy. Though all not her mother’s fault, Precious needed more guidance in her nutritional choices to keep her from where she is at in the movie regarding her weight. This can be seen in the part of the movie where Precious’ mother would not respond to her when she was saying she needed to eat. In turn, Precious went to a fast food joint and ordered a large basket of fried chicken, which she stole. This was an unhealthy choice, and possibly could have been prevented if she were raised learning about healthy food choices (Daniels, Siegel-Magness, & Daniels, Trust vs. mistrust is the first stage. In infancy, babies are unsure of their surroundings, and it is on the parents to make them feel safe and secure. If successful, the infant will develop the virtue of hope, which will give them hope to overcome challenges in the future. Precious may not have felt safe and secure as an infant, so the hope that she can make it through is not there. The second stage occurs in early childhood, and it is autonomy vs. shame. Criticism from parents and caregivers can interrupt the child’s feelings of independence. If this happens, the child ends up with a low self-esteem, is dependent upon others, and doubts and feels shame about his or her own abilities. Precious was and still is criticized for nearly everything, which explains her self-esteem issues. The third stage, initiative vs. guilt, happens during the ages of three to five. In this stage, a sense of pride as a leader can be built and there will be more initiative from the child. However, caregivers cannot make the child feel guilty for being this way. Industry vs. inferiority is the fourth stage, around the ages of five to twelve years old. Peer groups become important in this stage, as children long to feel like they are useful as a part of the group. If a child is unable to overcome this crisis, there will be feelings of inferiority. Precious did not complete this stage correctly, as it is clear she feels inferior to others. She did not have many friends,
This would be unwise in the case of Precious until some firm ground rules were set, and probably not even then. A family systems practitioner would do well to look at the multigenerational genogram with Precious, in order to see the patterns of abuses throughout previous generations. This could help highlight to Precious the importance of the abuse stopping with her and her children. An eco-map would also be helpful, so that Precious could make a map of the people who are the most important to her, those who support her, and have them available as supports. It would be beneficial to support Precious in achieving some emotional distance, possibly differentiation, or feeling family ties without being constrained by them. However, I wonder if that would be sufficient. I feel as though her mother would never be a positive influence in her life, and I certainly don 't think her father would. In this case, though it is pathologized for family systems theory, it may be the most beneficial to the client to promote emotional
Lee Daniel’s Precious is a movie centered around Precious Jones, a 16-year-old overweight black girl living in Harlem, New York. The movie begins when she is in public school pregnant with her second child by her father. Because Precious is pregnant, the principle recommends an alternative school for her. At home, Precious is a servant to her mother, Mary, who is physically, emotionally, verbally, and sexually abusing her. Mary constantly tells Precious that she is not good enough and that no one will ever want her. At times of distress, Precious tends to dissociate and fantasize about another life where she is a blonde white girl. She wants to be famous and loved by all. Precious arrives at the alternative school hardly knowing how to read or write. She gets placed in a class of girls with a dedicated teacher, Ms. Rain. Ms. Rain asks each student to write in a journal every day, and she will write back to their letters. This is the first time in the movie when Precious feels very
This book shows the struggles that the main character, Precious Jones, has to go through after she was raped by her father twice. Not only is she raped, but her mother does nothing about it and just wants her to live with what ha...
The children range in age from 12-15 and their issues from simple obesity to needing gastric-bypass surgery. The children are fed fast food in school cafeterias, with government labeling of pizza, fries and tomato paste as vegetables. Stores have candies and snacks at children’s eye level, and at home they eat the standard offerings of processed foods. One of the other things this film shows is the complete lack of support for these families in the area of proper diet education. A couple of the parents talked about the doctors encouraging them to seek help with nutrition, the doctors did not have any useful advice on where to get this
Precious is a 16-year-old African American who is morbidly obese. She suffered sexual abuse from her father, and physical and emotional abuse from her mother. As a result of the sexual abuse she incurred from her father, she contracted human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). She has two children, a daughter and son, both conceived from her father. Likely a result of incest, her daughter has Down
She suffered long-term physical, emotional, sexual, and verbal abuse from her parents; symptoms from her personal oppression were depressive and withdrawn attitude. Often she was very quiet and appeared unengaged and inattentive in class. The family lives in a public housing subsidy tenement and received public assistance from the State. Her first child, who she called "Mongo", because she was born with a disease called Down syndrome, lived with her grandmother, but on days the social worker would visit the grandmother would bring the child by to visit. Though the grandmother was very aware of the abuse that was taking place in the home, she turned a blind eye.
The crisis event in the movie precious is rather obscure at first. At first look you think that the crisis event is that precious is kicked out of school sent to an alternative school because she's pregnant, however I disagree. I believe the true crisis event occurred after precious had her child and went home to her mother’s apartment. Up to that point, precious had never asked for help from anyone regarding her home life or the abuse that was taking place. When precious’s returned home from the hospital with her baby and was attacked by her mother, she ran away to the only place she knew to go that was safe, her school.
This stage takes place during childhood (6 to 12 years); during this period the child seeks to settle crisis of industriousness versus inferiority. According to this theory, these behaviors might have an explanation that goes back to my childhood. Erikson points out that at stage four, children need to be reinforced positively for activities at school, in sports, or artistic fields in order to cultivate a high self-concept and a sense of industriousness. If the child’s efforts are perceived as inadequate, feelings of social and mental inferiority can move stealthily into adulthood, (Maitland, 2011).
The first stage is infancy and it covers the first year of life. The issue in this stage is trust versus mistrust. This is a stage where an infant is completely dependent on their caregiver. Trust is built by the actions of the caregiver taking care of the child by feeding, bathing, changing diapers, showing affection, etc. If a child is not well taken care of then that child will not learn to trust others. New parents struggle with this stage a lot because of the loss of freedom and the diversion of some attention from spouse to newborn child. It is known as the oral-sensory stage because infants use their mouth to explore their new world. Parents must meet the
Autonomy vs. shame and doubt is Erikson's second stage of development occurs between the first and third years in life. During this stage children learn to be independent by mastering tasks such as feeding a dressing themselves. If children do not develop autonomy during this stage they will doubt their ability and develop a sense of shame. I lived in one foster home from the time I was one and a half to the time my parents adopted me at age three. I believe that I developed during this stage just as well if not better than children who are biological or who are adopte...
Precious is a teen who is suffering from obesity and also has other disorders. The movie Precious is a different type of film. She was pregnant with her father's child for the second time at the age of 16 years old and suffers from abuse from her mother. Precious was being abused physically, mentally and emotionally. Although some knew these things were occurring it took a while for anyone to help her. Precious soon sees a change to be able to head in the right direction in her life. When her second pregnancy occur it caused her school to send her to an alternative school. Where she then there learns how to read and write for the first time. Also her mother would not give her money to eat knowing she was pregnant that she needed to eat more and health for the baby.
In Erickson’s Stage development there are eight stage theory of identity and psychosocial development. The first stage is Infancy, which is from birth to eighteen months old. Here is where we learn basic trust vs mistrust, in my personality I would say that the nurturing of my grandmother taught me how to be optimistic and confident in the world around me. As well as developed a sense of trust, in which it gave me hope when a new crisis arises in my next challenge. The second stage is Toddler/Early childhood years, which is from eighteen months to three years old. Here is where we learned Autonomy vs shame, in my personality I would say I am very independent and I pride on how much I accomplish, I was very rebellious as a toddler and always
.... Precious was finally proud of herself for doing well in school. In addition, her friends, her teacher, and her social worker were recognizing her efforts–these were some of her external esteem needs. Finally, at the very end of the movie, it is arguable that that she was self-actualized, even though this stage is never able to be satisfied because as one grows psychologically there are always new opportunities to continue to grow. However, for the time being, she was happy and free from her mother.
The basic virtue at this stage is hope. The second stage of this theory is autonomy vs. shame and doubt, which happens between 18 months and 3 years. During this stage, there is an increase in mobility and independence. Erikson explains that it is critical to allow the child to explore their limits and allow failure. The basic virtue at this stage is will.
Before learning about early childhood in this class I never realized all the way children at such a young age are developing. From the second part of this course I learned how much children are developing at the early childhood stage. I never realized children learn how about their emotions, having empathy, and self-concept at such a young age. I thought children had it easy. They play with friends, start school, and just be kids. One important thing that stood out to me in this chapter is that children’s self-esteem starts at this stage. According to Berk (2012), “self-esteem is the judgments we make about our own worth and the feelings associated with those judgments (p. 366)”. Self-esteem is very important for a child to have and it can