Mama

Precious’ mother plays an important role in the story. Her name is revealed to be Mary Lee Johnston (p. 12), but Precious usually refers to her as ‘Mama’ or ‘mother’, so we will do the same here.

Her outer characterization reveals that she is an African-American woman living in Harlem. She is also described as being even more obese than her daughter:

I look at Mama. Scare me to look at her. She take up half the couch, her arms seem like giant arms, her legs which she always got cocked open seem like ugly tree logs. [...] Mama can’t fit into bathtub no more. (pp. 20-21)

She has no job and lives entirely on welfare - after the birth of Precious’ first child she also starts to commit welfare fraud, pretending the child lives with them to receive extra benefits from the government (p. 19). We also learn from Precious that she hardly ever leaves the house (p. 32), instead spending most of her life eating, sleeping, watching television and abusing her daughter.

Her inner characterization paints her in a very negative light, as her main characteristics seem to be cruelty, jealousy and ignorance. We also get a clear sense that she has a very twisted view of both morality and re...

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