Horrifying, heartbreaking, uplifting, and inspiring; it is hard to believe these four adjectives can all be used to describe Sapphire’s novel, Push and the 2009 movie based on it, Precious. Portraying, albeit differently, the harsh life of Claireece “everybody call me Precious” (6) Jones, both mediums deliver powerful messages of revulsion, sympathy, and hope in their representations of the realities the young African-American girl faced and struggled to overcome. Although, the overall story remains consistent in the transition from novel to film there are also notable differences, some large and others seemingly more trivial, which affect the observer’s emotional reactions. Changes in portrayal method, overall concept, and minor admissions work together, making the movie, although poignant, somewhat less effective. Written almost entirely involving Sapphire’s use of Precious’s perspective and inner voice, the …show more content…
book deals with more abstract aspects of thoughts and feelings. This technique, however, is potentially difficult to translate to film, therefore, the movie relies more heavily on concrete events to depict the horrors and triumphs of Precious’s life. While Sapphire brilliantly uses examples of Precious’s own writing to show academic improvements, the movie is only able to do so by directly referencing her winning the Literacy Award and raising her test score from a 2.8 to 7.8. Both methods ensure it is known exactly how considerably Precious progresses throughout her story, visually seeing her gradual writing improvement serves as more demonstrative evidence, and therefore, is more dramatic. Sapphire wrote a gritty, honest, and quite disturbing portrayal of the incestuous rape, abuse, poverty, and illiteracy affecting Precious’s life, conversely, the film depicted a more fairy-tale-like approach. Shifting to fantasy whenever facing reality brilliantly showed Precious’s preferred coping method, however, it resulted in a sugar-coated version of her life for viewers, denying the opportunity to “witness” the event. Additionally, while the novel focuses almost exclusively on Precious’s perspective, the Hollywoodized adaptation to the big screen appears to focus less on her, adding in the viewpoints of her mother, Mary, and teacher, Miz Rain. Without the ability to be completely aware of the horrors she struggled to overcome, as well as the dilution of Precious’s character, it is more difficult to accurately understand her life, and consequently, this diminishes the ability to cultivate an emotional connection and investment. This lesser connection drastically reduces the story’s influence. Although perhaps considered somewhat minor, some changes in the story itself seemed to also affect the heartrending and inspirational aspect of the story.
Throughout the book, Sapphire uses Precious’s love for her children, Mongo and Abdul, as well as her desire to do right by them to help assist in expressing the vulnerability and motivation deep in Precious’s heart, yet, in the movie they seem to serve more as props to move the story along, rarely referencing or showing them rather than giving them a deservedly prominent place in Precious’s mind and heart. Additionally, although seemingly insignificant, the points changed during the scene in the social worker’s office with Precious and her mother seemed to attempt to alter attitudes towards Mary. Sapphire makes it clearly evident that Mary is one of the monsters in Precious’s life. Yet by her bringing Mongo, saying she’s sorry, and declaring she wants no money in the film version, it appears the audience is expected to feel sympathy for her, which may have been successful had they not already read the
book. Analyzing them independently, both mediums do an excellent job of exposing realities surrounding aspects of society, poverty, incest, and illiteracy. However, in creating a comparison, as seems typical, the movie does not measure up to the moving, revealing, and potentially eye-opening effectiveness of the book. Lacking visual reinforcement, whitewashing pivotal events, and storyline changes minimize the effects of the story on those beholding it.
Have you ever read a book and watched its movie and thought that the movie was nothing like the book? The Giver’s story was not adapted well onto the big screen. There were many changes that were made, some of which completely altered the whole course of the storyline. For example, Fiona working at the Nurturing Center instead the House of the Old and the characters taking injections instead of pills also changed the way Jonas acted especially towards Fiona throughout the entire movie Some of the many trivial changes that were made did not affect the movie as much.
Diane Urban, for instance, was one of the many people who were trapped inside this horror. She “was comforting a woman propped against a wall, her legs virtually amputated” (96). Flynn and Dwyer appeal to the reader’s ethical conscience and emotions by providing a story of a victim who went through many tragedies. Causing readers to feel empathy for the victims. In addition, you began to put yourself in their shoes and wonder what you would do.
In Class we watched two movies based on a book we read called Of Mice and Men. Both of the movies were very similar to the book. In I was able to hear exact lines from the book in the two movies.
Movies based on books are not always accurate relative to the plot of the book. In Fahrenheit 451 it can be said, there are some particular contrasts between the book and the movie. Despite the fact that the film emphasizes the subjects and premise of the book, there are numerous distinctions to differentiate. The motion picture Fahrenheit 451 is not accurate, taking into account the book's plot.
The movie, Precious (Daniels, et al., 2009), named after its protagonist, tells a story of injustice, abuse, and ultimately resilience. Precious was sexually abused by her father, physically and emotionally abused by her mother, and suffered neglect by both parents (Daniels, et al, 2009). She had two children by her father, one of whom was diagnosed with Down Syndrome (Daniels, et al., 2009). She wasn’t encouraged to be successful in school, but Precious found a way to motivate herself despite this.
The story of “Precious” provides an excellent example of how a person can become lost in the system, and also how one can begin to turn things around by utilizing available resources. Precious’s mother, Mary, has been taking advantage of Precious to help her manipulate the system so Mary can continue to receive welfare benefits. Precious ultimately meets with the social worker, Mrs. Weiss, who begins to help her move forward in life. It is my understanding that Precious initially met with Mrs. Weiss for welfare benefits, but this relationship seemed to change as the movie progressed. I was admittedly taken aback by the conditions of the office in which Mrs. Weiss worked, how she interacted with Precious initially,
The movie Precious is a movie about a sixteen year old girl nicknamed Precious. The movie shows her difficult life as she lives with her mother. Precious is a teen mother expecting her second child, who is also her father’s child due to him raping her. She is verbally and physically abused constantly by her mother and lives in a very unhealthy environment overall. She takes care of herself and her mother and is told what to do everyday. In the movie she begins to turn her life around when a teacher has faith in her and she begins to get an education, and learns she is not what her mother thinks she is.
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 2009 film directed by Lee Daniels, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, tells a story about the life of a 16-year-old, Claireece “Precious” Jones, who grew up in Harlem during the late 1980s. Precious lives a life that includes many sociological issues that have unarguably caused her great pain throughout her young life. Having endured poverty, sexual abuse, and verbal abuse her life has been far from perfect, but she realizes the need to defeat these negative sociological factors to achieve a life that seems to her as only a fantasy. Daniels effectively portrays the source of Precious’s problems, as well as the way in which she deals with them; thus, achieving his goal in allowing the audience to see the effects of negative social culture, specifically oppression, on victims.
The 2009 film “Precious”, based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire, tells the tragic story of sixteen-year-old Claireece Precious Jones; an overweight, illiterate who is now pregnant with her second child. Her life at home is a complete nightmare; her mother, Mary, verbally, emotionally and physically abuses her daily. Her father, Carl, molested her on multiple occasions and impregnated her twice then disappeared. Precious was kicked out of public school and took an offer to attend an alternative school where she meets her inspirational teacher Miss Blu Rain. Precious begins to believe in herself and prepares herself for her future. She becomes engaged in class and learns how to read and write; she was called stupid and dummy all her life and
Precious is an African-American female who is currently impregnated by her biological father for the second time. She is sixteen years of age and can neither read nor write. She constantly suffers pitfalls at her young age. She is heavily obsessed and is subjected to abuse at the hands of her vicious, dysfunctional, abusive, and unemployed mother. With the proper support from an engaged principal, teacher, and social worker, Precious’s life turns into the positive.
Precious, a movie based on the book Push written by Sapphire, is an interesting movie directed by Lee Daniels. Precious can be easily analyzed using basic motivation and emotion theories in psychology. The movie is about Claireece "Precious" Jones and how she becomes a strong, independent woman after breaking through her curse of physical and sexual abuse which she has endured since she was three months old. At the beginning, Precious is physically and verbally abused by her mother. In addition, Precious was raped by her father multiple times and impregnated twice. After being kicked out of her school because she was pregnant, Precious willingly joins the Each One Teach One alternative school so she can improve her reading and writing skills while, eventually, taking care of her two children. After some guidance from her teacher, Ms. Blu Rain, Precious starts feeling safe and starts to love herself and others around her. A lot of the behaviors in the movie can be easily explained by biological needs, psycho-social needs, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Precious is, in every sense, a film that pushes this country to eschew self-congratulation and forces us to really take inventory of how we live and function as a society. The final moments in which Precious escapes from her wrecked home to begin her life on her own, is the best part of the entire film; the hope that is rebirth and new possibilities spring forth like a Phoenix from her ashes. Those Marco systems that failed her as a child will now be her primary sources of support as an adult.
The film that is being used for the movie analysis is “Enough”, this movie was chosen due to the fact that it is based on domestic violence towards women. The movie begins with in Los Angeles diner were a waitress named slim works with her best friend Ginny (Kazan, 2002). While working her shift slim has a customer that starts harassing her over the name she has, but the companion of the annoying customer defends slim, which in turn starts a romance, later to become a marriage between the two (Kazan, 2002). The couple is later blessed with a daughter they name Gracie, and at the beginning the marriage seems to be a fairy tale out of a story book (Kazan, 2002). The fairy tale becomes a nightmare as time moves forwards for the couple,
The novel “Push” by Sapphire, is a very detailed and rather unpleasant novel taking about many taboo subjects. It revolves around the life of Claireece Precious Jones; a 16-year-old, a mother, “dumb”, and abused girl. Throughout her life, she was abused sexually, physically, and mentally by both her mother and father. Her life has been a struggle to deal with her own life. For the matter of comparing the novel "Push" with the guide "How to Read Literature Like A Professor", I believe that the entirety of "Push" fits in the first chapter of "How to Read Literature Like A Professor", called Every Trip Is a Quest(Except When it's not.) The amazing thing about this chapter makes me realize that her life has been a quest. In the following paragraphs,