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.