Precious.

            Not having seen the movie Precious or having read the book Push before, I was unsure of what to expect when I began to read.   What unfolded was a story of courage and hope, of the deepest desperation and the most genuine yearning. 

What I do expect, however, especially when reading a book for class, is to look for some theme or recurring symbol that reveals the author’s purpose for writing.

With Push, I had an entirely different reading experience.

Push is a young woman’s story. Even though the book, written by author Sapphire, is a novel, it is based on reality, on real life, on the horrors that are being lived every single day and on the fortitude with which so many endure.  As Sapphire explained to National Public Radio in a 2009 interview, all of the elements that combined to create Precious Jones’ story were ones that she saw in her students.  While she worked as a remedial reading teacher in New York, she “encountered girls like Precious… overweight girls who didn’t fit into the confines of our society’s beauty paradigm, girls who were essentially ‘locked out’ of the broader culture” (Norris, 2009).

And so I found myself unwilling to even think about themes and other basic aspects of literary analysis.  Theoretically, the topic of Push can be related to other books that we have read this semester.  But while I was reading, I was asking myself: what right do I have to analyze someone else's story?  I have not lived what she has, and in a story narrated so personally, and that allows each reader to experience, albeit from a far, far distance, just a bit of what she did, I felt as though I was dismissing the essential parts of the human experience by looking at this as a purely literary work.  Instead, I have felt devastated but inspired by Precious thus far, reminded of the true resilience of human nature.

 This is not to say that the other books we have read so far this semester have not been personal or revealing—but Sapphire writes in such an honest way, it is like sitting with someone and listening to her tell her story out loud, not for analysis, but for herself, for sharing.

Norris, Michele. Sapphire's Story: How 'Push' Became 'Precious'. "Listen to the Story." All Things 
     Considered. National Public Radio. November 6, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story
     /story.php?storyId=120176695