Essay: A Lifetime of Disappointment

PROMPT: Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.

A Lifetime of Disappointment

          Claireece "Precious" Jones is a sixteen year old girl from Harlem who faces all of the most difficult challenges that life could possibly give one person. She has been repeatedly raped by her father since she was a baby and abused by her mother both physically and emotionally. The issues of abuse are so consuming to a child that the effects can be unbearable. Their abuse towards Precious is the main source of many conflicts that are present in her life.
            First of all, by being abused by her father ever since she could remember, Precious closed off the world around her at school. She stopped paying attention, listening and caring about school in general. Therefore, Precious never learned to read and write at a young age like most elementary children.  Precious was also made fun of and bullied in school which is most likely an issue in contributing to her obesity. Precious had her first child at the age of twelve and was forced to leave school. Leaving school left Precious alone with nobody in her house to turn to since she was an abused, only child.
            Precious' mother blamed her for the father's abuse. The emotional problems of the mother caused her to physically act out her frustrations toward Precious in a harmful way. She would beat, kick and push her own daughter as well as sexually abuse her. The mother knew about the sexual abuse of the father and was jealous of Precious instead of helping her own daughter. Precious developed a "thick skin" to deal with her struggles at home. This attitude continued with her through the dangerous streets of Harlem into her classroom at school.
            Precious had so many issues that could be blamed on her parents. Because she was raped and abused, Precious mentally escaped into an internal darkness. This darkness led to shutting down at school, not paying attention, not caring, not learning, and eventually being suspended for being pregnant with her father's child. It took having her second child at sixteen to realize that someone could be kind and care about her situation. The EMS that helped deliver her child was the first person to show Precious a genuine act of kindness. This made her realize that she could feel warmth from someone who cared.
            The conflict of Precious' journey through incest, abuse and neglect leads her in an unlikely path. Her challenges with school eventually guide her to an alternative school in which she begins to make a change within herself. The teacher opens up Precious' mind to a world of words. At first she cannot spell these words, but she knows what she wants to say. She does the best she can to express her feelings in a journal.  This was the best therapy for Precious to regain a new hope in life. Her battles in life were expressed through her poetic writing which a teacher became more than a teacher, but a friend.
            Precious' worst nightmare of being raped by her father ended up giving her a child that gave her so much to hope for. Her hardships did not keep her from learning to read and write, which opened up a whole new world. If Precious had not told her story of her abuse, the world would not be privileged to her insight on hope as written in her poetry. Precious shows how even her struggles never completely got the best of her.