Relationships between the characters

Precious and her mother

The relationship between Precious and her mother changes as the story progresses.

In the beginning, the mother clearly dominates the relationship. She treats Precious like a slave, forcing her to do all of the housework and shopping (p. 22).

Worse still, she assaults her physically and even abuses her sexually (pp. 19-21). She also pushes Precious to overeat (pp. 20-21), which implies that she has played a significant role in ensuring that her daughter is on her way to becoming as obese as herself.

We learn from near the beginning of the story that Mama has abused Precious for a long time, and that she was complicit in allowing her partner to sexually abuse Precious. When speaking to Precious’ counsellor Ms Weiss, Mama claims to have taken good care of Precious when she was a child, but her words reveal that she has a very twisted idea of what care means:

‘I’m a good mother. She had everything. I done told her that. Pink ‘n wihte baby carriage, little pink bootie socks, dresses; everything I put on her pink. Precious, she, so smiling and healthy. A day don’t go by I don’t take her out wheeling in the air. [...] She had a happy childhood all ‘n all, Carl jus’ a high-natured man…’ (p. 134)

In the same conversation, we learn that Carl’s and Mama’s abuse of Precious started even earlier than Precious realizes. Mama’s reaction is not horror at Carl’s actions, but jealousy that Carl seemed to prefer Precious to her, leading her to hate her own daughter.

Though Precious has passively accepted her mother’s behavior for many years, we soon start to see signs that Precious is beginning to rebel again...