Abuse, Power and Survival

         The themes Sapphire gives in this novel show the affects and causes of power, abuse and survival. Through the story of precious's life we see each of these themes to the extreme. From a young age being abused made Precious become a strong but vulnerable person. As we could see in her normal conversations with people, the abuse made her into a defensive person. When someone tried to even just talk to her she put up her guard and became defensive.Even in school Precious become defensive with her peers and teachers. The abuse lead to her not knowing what "caring" was. She became accustomed to what was surrounding her and took the abuse as an everyday life situation. Not only was it the physical abuse which she seen but also the abuse in form of neglect. Through the novel, there was only one person that believed in Precious and wanted to help. Every other character in her life just passed her on to the next person as though they weren't her problem. This lead to Precious being ignorant to the fact that there were people out there who may have cared and could have helped. Instead she lived up to the expectations that people set for her instead of expectations she set for herself. One positive that came from her abuse was the power she had to be a strong women. Taking all that beating and abuse lead Precious down the path to power, and empowerment. Eventually by the end of the novel, she learned through the help of other to take that strength she gained from the abuse and turn it into power to move on. Regardless of what happened in her life, she was still strong even though she wasn't knowledgable about her surroundings and what was going on. These two themes together in the novel lead to the third theme of survival. With the abuse she endured throughout her life making her a stronger more powerful woman she was able to survive in a world where no one cared to help her succeed. These three themes together play as the background for Precious's life and struggle from becoming a weak, dependent individual onto a strong willed independent mother.