Precious Movie Psychology

The movie I selected was the 2009 movie Precious. The overall premise of the movie is based on how a young 16-year-old girl (Precious) who is illiterate and pregnant for the second time by her father overcomes so many adversities in her life. Claireece Precious Jones (Precious) lives in an abusive environment with her mother. She is an overweight teenager that is made fun of not only by her mother but by others in the neighborhood and at school. Many facts about Precious do not unfold until she is kicked out of regular school and sent to the alternative program. It is revealed that she is unable to read or write. Throughout the movie, she is constantly verbally and physically abused by her mother. She and her daughter Mongoloid (Mongo) are used as a

The mother is also verbally abusive when speaking about Mongo. Because Precious has one child by her mother’s boyfriend who is also Precious father, the mother has animosity for her. She blamed Precious for him not being there and suggested she enticed him. As the story unfolds, we find out that the father was inappropriate with Precious since she was a baby. Tension raises in the home because the mother loses welfare for Precious. The mother convinces Precious to signup for welfare and tries to discourage her from going to the alternative school. While Precious attends the alternative school, her teacher takes a special interest in her and teaches her to read and write. Her new teacher along with her welfare social worker helps her transcend into a different person. Just as things are looking up for Precious, her mother then visits her at a temporary shelter to inform her that her father was dead, and he had AIDS. Subsequently Precious learns that she is HIV positive. By the end of the movie, her new baby (Abdul) is three, and she gets her daughter from her grandmother. Precious is at a seventh-grade level and plans for a better future for her and the