Precious_Movie

Lourie Lumb November 3, 2010 Precious Movie Watching the movie I learned that precious always is dreaming of a lite skin boyfriend, wants to be on magazine covers and wants to start in a BTV video. Precious is the story of a 16-year-old girl struggling in a bleak and brutal world' She is an overweight, African-American teen in Harlem. She’s about to give birth to her second child and is accepted into an alternative school where a teacher helps her find a new path in her life. In the beginning her mother is watching television and as she walks into the house after coming home from school her mother’s voice starts to get loud. While precious is doing dishes her mother throws something at the back of her head and demands her to cook something to eat because she was hungry. She later starts arguing with her, swearing at her, calls her dumb, worthless and tells her that no one is going to help her and that she needs to go to welfare after the principal shows up at her house uninvited. The next day precious went to the place where her principal told her to go. When she arrives they start asking her questions, and then test her to see where she belonged and what class she had to take. Precious has been at this school for a couple of days now and she starts to open up by writing everything in her journal. One day precious was hungry; she walked into a restaurant and asked for a basket of ten piece chicken then runs off with it without paying. She later then throws it all up in a trash barrel at school. Her first child from her father which is a girl has Down syndrome, and stays at the great grandmother’s house. She is only brought to the house when the social worker visits. Precious was pregnant by her father again for a second time. Both of these pregnancies she never went to see a doctor. While she is at the alternative school classmates asks her when she is due but she tells them that she does not know because she never been to the doctors. While precious is pregnant and walking home from this school some boys started telling her that they want a piece of her fat ass and she just ignores them until one of them kicks hers down and then they made out with her. I got this feeling after they said that’s all they wanted and by the look on their face. While she is celebrating her completion of classes she goes into labor and is rushed to the hospital where she delivers a healthy baby boy. This is where the only male comes in and starts helping her get better. Precious then leaves and arrives at her house; her mother asks where have you been' Can I see the baby' And go make me something to eat. While the grandmother is holding the baby she is smoking and then later throws the baby to the floor. Precious sees this and runs to pick him up. While precious starts to pick up her son her mother starts beating on her. Precious and her mother start fighting, and while her mother is down on the floor she picks up the baby and starts to walk out the door when then her mother throws a flowerpot at the back of her head. As precious starts walking down the stairs holding the baby she tumbles down them. After a few minutes just lying there she notices that her mother is about to throw the television at her and she moves in the nick of time just before it crashes, because if she didn’t both her and the baby would be badly hurt or dead. Precious then gets up and walks to the train station, just to get to school and she breaks the window to get in so she and the baby can be warm. The next day when they found precious there with the baby they start to help her find a place to stay. The teacher was able to get her into a half-way house where she stayed safe from her mother. Here precious tells the teacher that the doctor told her she was HIV positive. Precious’s mother started calling the social worker because she hasn’t seen her or the baby instead of calling the cops her social worker told her that it was up to her daughter if she wants to see her. About after nine months precious and the social worker set up a meeting and this is where the social worker started asking about the abuse that was going on in the house. At the very end precious walks out of the social workers office with her daughter and her son this is where she was happy because it was finally over. Precious was happy and they were all safe from the abuse. There are no men, police, and mental health professionals in the movie. Precious’s father is only a glimpsed of flashbacks due to his assaults on her, and in the fantasy sequences that provides an escape from her pain. Precious fantasizes being with handsome boys, but otherwise the only male character in the movie is a hospital worker. The school personal is her principal and her new teacher at the alternative school. The medical team is the only male shown in the movie that goes by the name of Nurse Johnson. The social worker is Ms. Turner, and she only there to help her daughter then later her. She is the one who asks the mother about the abuse that has been going on in the house. Now let’s answer the questions. 1) Was the intervention timely, appropriate and helpful to precious and her child' No, but it was appropriate and helpful to precious and her child 2) Did the intervention stop the abuse' Yes, but after it was too late. 3) What kind of treatment did precious receive' She received schooling, and only treatment after having her second child 4) Do you feel the treatment was appropriate' It was good at the end but something should have been done way before she had her first child. The types of abuse were physical, sexual, and emotional. The perpetrator was her father and the guys on the street. The duration of the abuse started when she was young. The extent of the abuse lasted until she left the house after her second child. The abuse started when she was about three years of age. And the reactions of significant others at the disclosure was harsh, mean and cruel, but it was a happy one for precious and her children. .