Fresh Start

As Precious learns about the world around her, how do her views on race and sexuality change? Do her friendships help her lose her biases and see beyond stereotypes? What factors contribute to the way Precious sees the world in the beginning of the book, and what factors make her reconsider?

At first, it seems as though Precious has little consideration for others, and her perception on sexuality, morality and reality are slightly skewed due to her fathers actions, her mothers words and the rest of the worlds lack of concern. So far in her life she has only experienced sex as a mans desire; her fathers. She only knows that side of sexuality; she is at the age where she is curious about having sex with boys HER age, through love and not force. Her mother s relationship with her is hardly a relationship. Her mother verbally abuses her day and night and uses her as a slave. As a defense mechanism, Precious seems to be "stand offish" and mean to cover up any vulnerability. This is all she knows, but that is soon to change once she meets people that care about her at each one teach one.

When Precious first steps into the classroom at each one teach one, it's almost as if a weight is lifted off of her shoulder. Ms. Rain’s kind heart and the students understanding and similarities to her made her feel as though everything she had learned about life was wrong. She states, "But now since I been going to school I feel lonely. Now since I sit in circle I realize all my life, all my life I been outside of circle. Mama give me orders, Daddy porno talk me, school never did learn me." She realizes that she deserves better than what she had been given, and that she could make her life and her child’s life better. 

Ms. Rain not only helps her to notice Precious' potential as a student and a classmate, but she notices her ability to push through what she's been. She helps her to learn valuable lessons in life, not just reading and writing. The first life lesson that Ms. Rain teaches Precious that sets the bar/ helps her to fix most everything else in her life is truth. "But I was tired. Tired of game, lying. Miz Rain said she read the truth shall set you free; say she not sure she believe it herself." Precious went through life lying in fear that she would get in troubble, raped, or physically abused.

Not only does Ms. Rain’s relationship help precious to understand how she should be treated as an individual, but also her classmates help her to realize that she is not alone. When they had their first class, she got to know a little about each of the students. "My name is Rita Romero. I was born right here in Harlem. I'm here because I was an addict and dropped out of school and never got my reading and writing together." Although their stories aren't identical, what is the same about their lives is that it's not to late for them to have a fresh start. I believe that Precious needs that fresh start in order to appreciate life the way it was meant to be.

1st assignment

The Lake by Deborah Ager

The yard half a yard,
half a lake blue as a corpse.
The lake will tell things you long to hear:
get away from here.
Three o'clock. Dry leaves rat-tat like maracas.

Whisky-colored grass
breaks at every step and trees
are slowly realizing they are nude.
How long will you stay?
For the lake asks questions you want to hear, too.

Months have passed since, well,
everything. Since buildings stood
black against sky, rain hissed from sidewalks
and curled around you.
O, how those avenues once seemed menacing!

I know what you miss
sings this lake. Car horns groaning
in rush hour. Sweet coffee. Wind
pounding like hammers. Warmth of a lover.
Crickets humming love songs to the street

           
      I really took a liking to this poem in particular because it’s a very familiar description and so near and dear to my heart. The reason I chose Deborah Ager was because she is a younger poet and it’s much easier for me to relate to her poetry, interpret her work, and truly understand what she is trying to portray to the reader. My father lives on a lake and it seems that every word the author has written has captured my exact emotions towards being at that lake. I love the vivid words to describe simple things like, “whisky-colored grass” and “half a lake blue as a corpse”. It painted an elaborate picture in my mind and really drew me into the poem and made me want to read the line over and over again.  I also find it fascinating when a poet is able to find words that can describe a feeling that you can’t quite put your finger on. Not only do I enjoy when the author uses vivid words, but I also love when they’re able to describe inanimate objects as if they were real such as in the last stanza, “I know what you miss sings this lake”. I almost feel as though that’s what is running through my head as I stare off into the distance on the porch of my father’s lake house. This poem really captures everything there is to experience in that moment, on that lake.

---