Precious Movie Analysis

In the movie, Precious, we view the character, Claireece Precious Jones, throughout the film’s entirety. Claireece Precious Jones is a 16-year-old African-American teenage girl that lives in Harlem, New York in the year 1987. She presents as anti-social as she does not have many friends. Precious lives with her mother, Mary, who has exposed her to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Claireece Precious Jones’ father died from complications from the AIDS virus. Precious has two children fathered by her own father. A girl named Mongo, short for Mongoloid, has Down syndrome and a son named Abdul Jamal.  She comes from a low-income family that lives on the edge of poverty, and it is largely recognized that exposure to such social circumstances raises the probability of different kinds of abuse, low literacy, insufficient access to medical treatment and care, unwanted adolescent pregnancies, and increased HIV risk. Throughout the film, the viewers see that she struggles academically, and is moved from a public school to an alternative school because she is pregnant for the second time. There she learns how to read and write, but her education is at its end and is negatively affected as she must raise her children. She struggles with depression, anxiety, and violent behaviors (results of an unstable household). To cope with the physical and emotional pain, Precious continues to fantasize about a life separate from her own, one filled with love and prominence. Claireece Precious Jones’ aggressive behaviors, depression, and anxiety are the product of the conditioning she received as a child in a physically and emotionally abusive household. 

She does not showcase a history of substance use and abuse. Although there are social workers prevalent in Precious’ life, she did not want to accept the efforts that they attempt to provide to Precious. Precious’ social worker is seen to be more unhelpful than she is helpful.  Although the social worker makes an effort to try and help Precious, her efforts are idle, even harmful. When the social worker holds a counseling session with both Precious and Mary, she exhibits very poor social work practice that could have had detrimental outcomes. Ultimately, Precious accepted help from within her community. When Precious’ principal found out that she was pregnant, she was given the opportunity to attend an alternative school. In the beginning, the thought of her attending an alternative school was absurd and she did not want to attend. However, she took advantage of the opportunity to attend school and to work on her education. In addition, she was focused on protecting those who she loved the most. In the movie, Precious proved how much she loved her children that she could not let anyone harm them. When Mary threatened Precious and her children, she left the home and did not let anything happen her to children. She was focused on making sure that her children had everything they needed and took the help from her teacher to find local resources. Finally, she accepted and was able to utilize resources. Precious was able to work with her teacher and the social worker to make sure that she remained in school, her children were safe, and found stable. There were no indications that she is a danger to herself or others. Precious did not showcase herself as being a danger or the cause of harm to herself or others throughout the film. She did not have a history of being a danger to herself or others neither. In this movie, there are three identified risk factors and safety issues that have impacted her life. The three identified risk factors of Precious’s life have been her relationship with her mother, previous trauma, and her living situation. Mary's authoritarian parenting style is to the extreme throughout this film. She expects ultimate obedience, treating Precious as though she were a slave just so she can get her way or feel superior to her child. The physical abuse comes in the form of throwing anything from a book to a pot and even physical punches and kicks. The verbal abuse is illustrated through Precious' mother as she demeans her is crucial to lowering her self-esteem and diminishing her identity. In addition, we even see that strangers aren't afraid to tease or mock her as she is in the community. Sexual abuse is often prevalent in her life as well. Since the age of 3, Precious' father, Carl Kenwood Jones, abused Precious sexually until the day he died. He raped her many times, impregnated her with two children, and infected her with HIV. Mary subjected Precious to the abuse because she did little to nothing to end it, in the belief that by allowing her boyfriend, Carl Kenwood Jones, to abuse Precious, he wouldn't leave the family. 

Precious has damaging family relationships, she does not have friends, her presence is rarely recognized and her schoolmates often ridicule her. Despite all of the harmful effects of her mother's abuse, Precious maintains a resilient personality and is motivated to do better, whether it meant continuing to get an education behind her mother's back or loving others as she would want. She has to live with the trauma of being physically, emotionally, and sexually abused by individuals she loved and trusted. As a coping mechanism, Precious escapes from her traumatic life into her imaginary world, where she is well known and loved and cared for by many. She also imagines herself in a romantic relationship with a boyfriend who loves her. Precious is strong and resilient and it helps her to get through life’s tribulations. Although these fantasies provide her with relief, they depict a profoundly flawed sense of self-worth. Due to her positive outlook on life, she continues to move past her terrible situation and keeps her searching for a better life. A profound strength that Precious has is her alternative school. Each One Teach One provided opportunities for Precious to create a better life for herself and move past her abusive past. Obtaining an education opened up many opportunities for Precious to find a job rather than just relying on a welfare check. This also empowered Precious and gave her a reason to dream even bigger. 

Areas in which I would require additional information to complete my assessment and better understand Precious is her ends goals in life and psychosocial factors. Setting goals helps trigger new behaviors within individuals, helps guide their focus, and helps sustain that momentum in life. Goals also help align one’s focus and promote a sense of self-discipline. Setting goals not only motivates but can also improve a client’s mental health and level of personal and professional success. Although, as viewers we see the impact of Precious’ life stem from the abuse and neglect that she endured. As social work professionals, we must pick our client’s brains and have them share their personal concerns confidently. In this film, Precious did not seem to like the social workers nor provide them with essential information in order for them to help her. Psychosocial factors are characteristics or facets that influence an individual psychologically and/or socially. Such factors can describe individuals in relation to their social environment and how these affect physical and mental health (Thomas, Nilsson, Festin, Henriksson, Lowén, Löf, & Kristenson, P.1). Better understanding the psychosocial factors within Precious’ life will allow myself and other mental health professionals to understand how her social support, loneliness, social disruption, bereavement, and social integration are affected. 

Precious' low-self esteem has led to mild depression and a sense of hopelessness, as she struggles to cope with the burden of two kids, her obesity, and the fact that she can't escape abuse. Mary's verbal abuse of Precious, in particular, highly contributes to Precious' low self-esteem as she continues to diminish her feelings and point out every flaw of Precious. Ultimately, Precious can be diagnosed with Depression. According to the DSM-5, Depression can be classified as ​​Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness, angry outbursts, irritability or frustration, even over small matters, loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities, tiredness and lack of energy, reduced appetite and weight loss or increased cravings for food and weight gain, anxiety, agitation or restlessness, and slowed thinking, speaking or body movements. These symptoms are frequently seen in Precious. She showcased these symptoms in day-to-day activities, such as school, social activities, and relationships with others. In the film, we see Precious getting ready to leave home, instead of seeing herself, she saw herself in the mirror as a slender blue-eyed blonde woman. Due to her obesity, she is left feeling vulnerable to taunts by classmates, boys on the street, and her mother. In addition, Precious is consistently berated by her mother's violent and demeaning put-downs. This hits home when Precious disclosed to her classmate ​ saying, "The other day, I cried, felt stupid." She was also seen crying, saying, "Nobody loves me" after she told her classmates that she is HIV positive. The constant flashback of sexual abuse is habitual as we see the negative effects that the years of abuse have done to her by the actions of her father. Lastly, the disassociation from reality is essential to the diagnosis’ that I have named.  When Precious falls victim to abuse either from her mother, father, or strangers, Precious is seen going into an alternative place that is filled with happiness and love where she is depicted as a celebrity or at a stature of fame. By dissociating from reality, Precious is in a safe place, mentally, where she is worry-free.