Push

Precious was 12 when she gave birth to Little Mongo, a daughter with Down syndrome and the product of her father’s ongoing sexual assault. Precious’s naming of her daughter demonstrates her lack of education, since “Mongo” is short for “Mongoloid” (a simultaneously racist and ableist description of the eye shape people with the condition often have) The fact that others (particularly those at the hospital) allow Precious to give the girl this name also suggests that they see her as a disposable child who will spend her life away from society. Little Mongo is immediately taken to live with Precious’s grandmother and then institutionalized, although Precious’s mother collects welfare for her. As Precious grows and matures, she repeatedly expresses her desire to get custody of her daughter, an act that would mean the difference between growing up with love and affection or growing up as a patient in a facility.

When Precious names her second child Abdul, she demonstrates her love for him and her hope that he will have a better life. Abdul comes from a book of African names and means “servant of God” (67), while Louis refers to Louis Farrakhan. When Little Mongo was born, Precious had little control over what happened to the baby. With Abdul, Precious manages to escape from her abusive home and into a halfway house. Although Abdul is the product of Precious’s trauma, she embraces motherhood and gives him the love she never received. She also teaches Abdul to read while she herself is still learning. Precious is saddened with the knowledge that she won’t be able to watch him become an adult, but she finally sees herself as beautiful when she sees herself reflected in him.

Precious’s mother, Mary L. Johnston, is everything that Precious is afraid of becoming. Mary is hateful and ignorant, collecting welfare while she eats and gains weight in front of the television. She is also sexually and physically abusive to Precious, and Precious associates her mother’s smell with her earliest memories of her mother sexually assaulting her. Precious blames her mother for allowing her father to rape her.

Mary doesn’t seem to see Precious as her child. She accuses Precious of stealing Carl, as if she were a grown woman with agency rather than a child who was raped. Mary nurses her own delusions about Carl, prioritizing them over Precious’s well-being. She refuses to see Precious’s pregnancies until she gives birth, beating her for going into labor and destroying Mary’s illusions. When Precious finally agrees to a counseling session with Mary, Mary reveals the extent of these delusions by insisting that Precious had a happy childhood rather than an abusive one. Although Mary was Carl’s mistress (as she reveals when she tells Precious about his death), she treats their relationship as if it were a magical love story. In the end, Precious can’t repair what her mother did, but she works toward moving on and escaping her.

Carl Kenwood Jones, Precious’s father and the father of her two babies, only appears in Precious’s memories of sexual assault. Although Mary gives Precious Carl’s last name, she eventually reveals that not only are she and Carl not married, but that Carl had a different wife and children. Throughout Precious’s childhood, he moved in and out of her life, disappearing for years after Precious gave birth to her first child. Carl represents the monster of Precious’s past, not only as the actual villain who abuses and rapes her, but as a specter of trauma and through the tentacled consequences of his abuse on her life. Even after he dies, Precious is left with the life-altering physical reminders of him, such as a baby to care for and an HIV diagnosis. Carl first assaults and attempts to rape Precious when she is only three, and Mary is in the room and allows it to happen. Throughout her life, he tells Precious that since her body responds, she wants the rape to happen, confusing her about the fact that she is a rape victim. His constant abuse has left Precious feeling worthless and invisible.

Blue Rain, Precious’s teacher at the alternative school Each One Teach One, changes Precious’s life in many ways. She is a Black lesbian, challenging Precious’s previously unenlightened view of diverse sexualities and becoming the first positive example of Black womanhood in Precious’s life. On the first day of class, Ms. Rain manages to draw out Precious’s unspoken secret: She cannot read. Ms. Rain patiently teaches her students to read, beginning with the alphabet. She does not judge their struggles but also refuses to tolerate nonsense, as she demonstrates when Jo Ann insists that she belongs in the GED class. Ms. Rain loves and cares for her students and is the first person to show Precious that she has potential and can learn. When Precious is homeless with newborn Abdul, Blue Rain catalyzes the rest of the school to do whatever they can to find her a place to stay that will also allow her to stay in school.

Precious meets Rhonda as a fellow student in the pre-GED class at Each One Teach One. Her first impression of Rhonda is that she is large, ugly, and dark-skinned. Rhonda is smart and assertive, a leader in the class who is eager to learn, pushing her classmates to participate and come out of their shells. On the first day of class, Rhonda lends money to Precious to buy a bag of chips—an act of kindness that nearly brings Precious to tears. Rhonda is originally from Jamaica but came to New York with her mother and brother. In the book of the students’ stories, Rhonda describes working in her mother’s restaurant instead of going to school. Her mother pinned her hopes on Rhonda’s brother, Kimberton, coddling and favoring him because she believed that he would become a doctor. When Kimberton began raping Rhonda, Rhonda’s mother blamed her and kicked her out.

Rita, a pretty Latina girl with a history of drug addiction that has damaged her teeth, becomes one of Precious’s good friends at the alternative school. She is Puerto Rican, and her father always impressed upon her that he and she were both white, unlike her darker-skinned mother. Precious becomes close to Rita when she takes Precious to a meeting for incest survivors in downtown New York. Rita also has HIV or AIDS, which she asserts is simply a disease, not a punishment or something to be judged. When Rita tells her story in the class’s book, she describes watching her father murder her mother. To survive, she became a sex worker. She challenges Precious’s preconceived notions because Precious knows that Rita is a good person despite her previous drug use. By the end of the book, Rita has a wealthy boyfriend who loves her and has paid for her dental work, and her life is looking hopeful.