Precious

Introduction

Precious is the main character of Push, as the entire story revolves around her - zooming in on a specific period in her teenage life, but also revealing details of her childhood through flashbacks and other backstories.

Her name is symbolic: it is used to suggest that despite society judging her because of her appearance and her social status, she is a precious human being, who deserves recognition, love and respect. This is directly suggested in the story at one point, as Precious reflects on the way society and her parents treat her:

I always thought I was someone different on the inside. That I was just fat and black and ugly to people on the OUTSIDE. And if they could see inside me they would see something lovely [...] that Mama and Daddy would recognize me as… as, I don’t know, Precious! (p. 125)

Outer characterization

Precious’ full name is Claireece Precious Jones. She is 16 years old when the story begins (p. 21), and 18 at the end. We also see flashbacks that go back to her childhood occasionally, such the story of giving birth to her first child when she was just 12 years old.

Her outer characterization reveals that she is African-American. She is both tall and overweight, to the point where her classmates are frightened of her: “...I’m big, five feet nine-ten, weigh over two hundred pounds. Kids is scared of me” (p. 6).

She is bullied because of her size and appearance too (eg. p. 12) and is frustrated about being overweight, but despite this she takes some pride in her looks, and it is clearly important to her to be clean and well-dressed (p.35-36). It is implied that this is also a result of her wish to distance herself from her mother (p. 36), who does not seem to care about her appearance at all, and has stopped washing because she cannot fit into the bathtub (p. 21).

Even as a small child, Precious’ appearance was marked by the abuse and neglect she suffered in her home: “I see me, first grade, pink dress dirty sperm stuffs on it.” (p. 18)

Later in the story, we also discover that Precious is HIV-positive. She lives with her mother on 134th Street, in the district of Ha...