Friday, 17 January 2014
Friday, 10 January 2014
Push: Book Review
Remember those times in your life when you didn't know what how to get yourself back up. Well the book Push by Sapphire conveys those times in your life when you feel worthless and don't want to keep on living. In addition it tells how to get back up, shows you life is precious.
Set in the tough streets of Harlem, New York during the 1980's. Precious Jones, a illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible: invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem's casualties. But when Precious is, pregnant with a second child by her father, she meets a determined and highly radical teacher, who bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary. We follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as Precious learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it her own for the first time.
This novel uses extremely beautiful language to portray the message of the book.The language represents the vernacular that someone like Clarice would use on a daily basis, for example, instead of saying ask, Sapphire had Clarice say aks as well at toof for teeth or tooth. This helps to make the book feel extremely authentic and aids with identifying with the protagonist.
The main protagonist Clarice started being abused by her father at a young age. When she was at school she would be teased for being black and fat so she began to recede to herself. She was abused so much she would, cry, or wet herself and teachers would get frustrated of her instead of assuming something was wrong with her. It had me thinking how many children who are victims of child abuse just keep get by without anyone assuming or trying to give help. The system truly had re-victimized Clarice when they ignored the fact that something was going on at home.
Clarice's mother Mary Lee Johnston, Clarice's verbally and physically abusive mother. Throughout the book she beat her and calls her worthless, and basically thinks she shouldn't be living. In the book Mary Lee claims that she hates her daughter because she "stole" her husband away from her. That part of the completely disgusts me because what kind of mother would say to her daughter. A mother is suppose provide unconditional love for a child. Clarice was only 12 when she got pregnant with her fathers child do you think Clarice felt good about that? The fact is that she was RAPED, she had no other desire to want to have sexual intercourse. So maybe Mary Lee felt angry because her husband needed to find sexual pleasure within her daughter instead of her so she is taking her anger out on the wrong person.
There were many Black lesbians in the story which isn't that surprising since Sapphire is a lesbian. Ms. Rain a lesbian was a teacher at the Clarice's school. She knew about Clarece's pregnancy and knew her story and became the first positive person in her life. So this part of the book is pretty amazing because it shined a light in Clarice's life and learned that just because a person is different doesn't mean they are evil.
I would over give this book 5 stars it shows so many layers. Also it makes you look at yourself as a person. Though had very explicit sexual content it makes you really think about what society need. This book was a very big eye-opener for me which showed instead of thinking my life sucks I have to think about others and that they might need more help than I do.
This book is absolutely not for young readers it's way to sexual for them to ever understand. Sapphire's intention was to show us young teen they cruelty in the world not paint us a happy ever after story.
Set in the tough streets of Harlem, New York during the 1980's. Precious Jones, a illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible: invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem's casualties. But when Precious is, pregnant with a second child by her father, she meets a determined and highly radical teacher, who bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary. We follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as Precious learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it her own for the first time.
This novel uses extremely beautiful language to portray the message of the book.The language represents the vernacular that someone like Clarice would use on a daily basis, for example, instead of saying ask, Sapphire had Clarice say aks as well at toof for teeth or tooth. This helps to make the book feel extremely authentic and aids with identifying with the protagonist.
The main protagonist Clarice started being abused by her father at a young age. When she was at school she would be teased for being black and fat so she began to recede to herself. She was abused so much she would, cry, or wet herself and teachers would get frustrated of her instead of assuming something was wrong with her. It had me thinking how many children who are victims of child abuse just keep get by without anyone assuming or trying to give help. The system truly had re-victimized Clarice when they ignored the fact that something was going on at home.
Clarice's mother Mary Lee Johnston, Clarice's verbally and physically abusive mother. Throughout the book she beat her and calls her worthless, and basically thinks she shouldn't be living. In the book Mary Lee claims that she hates her daughter because she "stole" her husband away from her. That part of the completely disgusts me because what kind of mother would say to her daughter. A mother is suppose provide unconditional love for a child. Clarice was only 12 when she got pregnant with her fathers child do you think Clarice felt good about that? The fact is that she was RAPED, she had no other desire to want to have sexual intercourse. So maybe Mary Lee felt angry because her husband needed to find sexual pleasure within her daughter instead of her so she is taking her anger out on the wrong person.
There were many Black lesbians in the story which isn't that surprising since Sapphire is a lesbian. Ms. Rain a lesbian was a teacher at the Clarice's school. She knew about Clarece's pregnancy and knew her story and became the first positive person in her life. So this part of the book is pretty amazing because it shined a light in Clarice's life and learned that just because a person is different doesn't mean they are evil.
I would over give this book 5 stars it shows so many layers. Also it makes you look at yourself as a person. Though had very explicit sexual content it makes you really think about what society need. This book was a very big eye-opener for me which showed instead of thinking my life sucks I have to think about others and that they might need more help than I do.
This book is absolutely not for young readers it's way to sexual for them to ever understand. Sapphire's intention was to show us young teen they cruelty in the world not paint us a happy ever after story.
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
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