Questions I Have On The Novel "PUSH"

In the book “Push” there were a lot of situations and experiences that the main character Claireece Precious Jones goes through in her life. Precious’s life was not an easy one; she was basically born into a bad situation. Both Precious’s parents abused her in any way possible. Precious’s Father Carl Kenwood Jones repeatedly raped Precious, while her mother physically and emotionally battered her. After a while of dealing with this type of abuse, Precious’s self esteem was basically ruined.

After reading this book and seeing the experiences that Precious go through, it made me think of questions that I couldn’t seem to really find the answers to. For example, why did Precious’s Father hurt her by raping her? How can a man do that to his daughter? From what I have read, it seems as if Precious’s Father rapes her because it gives him a sense of power and control. But why did he take it as far as he did? He gave Precious not only one but two kids and basically ruined her childhood. To what extend can a father go to hurt his daughter? Even though this book is not based on a true story, this book shows real life events that do happen, especially to women. Other questions that I thought of are why was the mother so cruel to her own daughter? Why did she allow Precious Father to continuously rape her? It also shocked me that a mother can be so terrible to her own daughter; but with the pain Precious’s Mother caused, it seems as if there had to be a reason behind it. It seemed as if Precious’s Mother was jealous of the fact that Carl (Precious’s Father) wanted to sleep with Precious instead of her. Precious’s abuse from her mother was cruel; but it was the Mother‘s way of dealing with the situation.

As one can see, Precious had a very rough life which one would question, why was the parents making life so terrible for Precious?  It is a question that stayed on my mind throughout the whole book. I felt as if Precious was born into a bad situation with parents that just did not care about her, but how can two parents not care about their own child?