Push By Sapphire: Summary

Push by Sapphire is a book detailing the events of Claireece Precious Jones, known as Precious throughout the book. Her mother, Mary L Johnston, and father, Carl Kenwood Jones, abuse Precious physically, emotionally and sexually. The textbook our class is reading offered valuable definitions and further knowledge about the signs of abuse and the theories behind why people do what they do. Precious was a strong, independent child and woman who endured what no human should ever have to endure. The book is explained throughout all of the paragraphs. Push opened up with Precious being suspended from school because she was pregnant. Then fast forwards to her having her first child on the kitchen floor. Immediately abuse is seen as her mother kicks …show more content…
Back then, people were not as informed about the signs of abuse, nor did places have the resources or money to inform people. Precious lived in a ghetto community without many resources so even if an adult had suspected abuse, there would have been no one to report it too, nor would the adult know where to begin. The nurse at the hospital when Precious gave birth to Little Mongo should have known about the abuse. She asked Precious the name of her father, which she said was Carl Kenwood Jones, than she asked what the baby's father's name was and Precious used the same man's name. The nurse clearly had an understanding that the baby was a product of incest, yet nothing was done. It wasn't that people didn't recognize the symptoms of abuse because plenty of adults did, they just didn't have the knowledge or resources to get Precious the help she needed. The halfway house took Precious away from the abuse but still never got her the psychological help she needed. Legal action was also never taken against Mary or Carl for the abuse that they both put Precious …show more content…
Incest is any sexual relationship between biological family members. This is talked about in our textbook and it lists several theories as to why members of the same family engage in relationships. Carl raped Precious and since he was her father, it classified as an incest relationship. Another issue mentioned in the textbook that ties into Push is pedophilia. Carl began raping Precious when she was seven and got her pregnant at the age of twelve. Pedophilia is defined as a sexual fixation on young children that can translate into sexual acts with the child. Carl had interest in Precious as a young child and proceeded to rape her for almost nine