Some say that you got to see black in order to know that white exists. Since I was little, I’ve been raised in a loving and caring household. However, I’m conscious of what violence is and how it surrounds me, outside of my little bubble. I understand white because I know what black is. “Precious” is a perfect movie to contrast my lifestyle and to explain all of this. Being based on Sapphire’s book “Push”, it has a literary background and interesting way of telling the story as if it were a diary. Now, how can we compare these two masterpieces?
Lets start from the top, its name. As we the movie lovers know, there’s an action film titled “Push” too. Therefore, we conclude that to avoid confusions, Claireece P. Jones’ film directors and producers decided to change the name. Throughout the book, we can see that the word push is often used to indicate Precious that she has to “push it to the limit”. Situations where it happens are when she is about to give birth to her child and Ms. Rain inducing her to learn how to read and write. Therefore, the novel’s name goes better with the social problem that Sapphire was trying to reflect through her lines. People that live under marginalization or other limitations have to give a little extra in order to survive in this world; society can’t win the battle. The movie was more about the protagonist. Lee Daniels had the job to make us get into Precious’ life, feel her suffer and understand what she went through. That’s why the film name was more appropriate.
Now, I’m going to confess that I saw the movie a long time ago. Since our protagonist’s story had the spotlight, I didn’t get so much involved in her classmates’ life background. After reading the last pages in the book, even I felt that peculiar sensation of noticing that there are worst situations that those that we live everyday. Those poor girls had to go through so many horrid situations. Then, I think that it was wrongly avoided in the movie. If a little more was told about these girls, we could understand better how Precious was helped emotionally by knowing that group. The movie didn’t show her going to the Survivors of Incest Anonymous either so it lacked of reality in the protagonist’s sudden growth and self-esteem.

“Happily ever after” endings have their own stories. This one maybe wasn’t made for an ending like that. The movie was wrapped with the image of a surviving mom having all her life solved, and with both of her kids with her. The book lets us with the feeling of hope since Ms. Jones didn’t get back Mongo, her daughter, yet. This fact gave the tale a reality that we can handle. Life was too hard for her in order to finish having all figured out and served in golden plates.

But, what do I see? All critics? No! Something can be pointed out as a great similarity between the book and the film, and it is the principal characters. I loved the way Precious and Mary were just as the book described them. The characteristics were very appropriated for both of them. The reading creates you an image of how they could look like and I saw the two women that I imagined on screen.
Both works are excellent in their categories. “Precious” is a movie that I won’t forget; it even was still fresh in my mind when I saw it a second time. “Push” is a book that you don’t throw away or lend because it can be read more than once. I enjoyed a lot the experience of getting to know this girl so different in comparison with myself. I learned a lot from her, and went up another step in the scale of knowledge of what black is really.