Is'push'based on a true story?
Sapphire's Story: How 'Push' Became 'Precious' The gritty realism of the film Precious is even more intense in the novel Push, upon which the film is based. Author Sapphire discusses the inspiration for her work — and her initial reluctance to allow her work to become a film.
What is the genre of the novel Push by Sapphire?
Sapphire wrote the novel Push (renamed Precious) in a fractured ghetto patois that grew out of the author's experiences as a remedial reading teacher.
What is the story behind the book Sapphire?
Sapphire's Story: How 'Push' Became 'Precious'. Originally called Push (but recently renamed Precious to coincide with the film), the book, by the writer known simply as Sapphire, tells the story of a dark-skinned, heavy-set, illiterate African-American girl who has survived multiple pregnancies by her father.
What is the story of push based on?
( Push is based on a young woman the author encountered when she taught in a literacy program in Harlem and the Bronx.)
Is Claireece Precious Jones still alive?
Cutting ties with Mary FOR GOOD, but sadly in the 2012 sequel to the book Push called The Kid Precious dies of AIDS leaving Abdul in foster care after her and Mary's death!
Who was the book Push based on?
Movie fans know the story of Claireece "Precious" Jones — the pregnant African-American teen who was a victim of incest and abuse — from the provocative, award-winning film Precious starring Gabourey Sidibe. The movie was based on the novel Push by Sapphire.
Did Push by Sapphire inspire a movie?
Sapphire's Story: How 'Push' Became 'Precious' The gritty realism of the film Precious is even more intense in the novel Push, upon which the film is based. Author Sapphire discusses the inspiration for her work — and her initial reluctance to allow her work to become a film.
Is Push a fiction?
Push was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work of Fiction.
Is Precious Jones a real person?
"The level of abuse I suffered is not nearly as extreme as in the book, and there is no character in the story, not even the teacher, who is based on me." Rather, Precious is a composite character, she says, created from the real-life stories she encountered while teaching for seven years, from 1987 to 1993, in an ...
Is The Push book going to be a movie?
Canadian author Ashley Audrain's forthcoming debut novel, The Push, has been optioned for TV and film. Heyday Television, a production company run by Once Upon a Time in Hollywood film producer David Heyman, has acquired the rights after a nine-way bidding deal.
Is the Push a true story?
The novel Push, by Sapphire (pen name of Ramona Lofton), later renamed Precious, is not based on a true story.
What did Precious mom make her do?
Precious then reveals that her father impregnated her twice. She also reveals that she delivered Mongo while lying on the floor as Mary was kicking her on the head. There are also implications that Mary herself had molested Precious. The alternative school is having a good effect on Precious.
Does Precious get a happy ending?
Precious doesn't get a happy ending, but as she heads toward her own death, she can know that a happy ending may be possible for her child. Of course, Precious takes place in 1987.
Is Violet a psychopath in The Push?
Thus, it appears Violet really may be a psychopath and Blythe, vindicated. It's not the most unpredictable ending, but what's so haunting about it is the chilling truth that Violet is the culmination of generations of parental trauma.
How does the Kid by Sapphire end?
The story ended with Precious, now HIV-positive, promising to protect and love her second-born, the boy she named Abdul.
Will there be a sequel to the book The Push?
When it comes to writing, Audrain said she had never planned for a sequel. She is in the process of finishing a second novel called, The Whispers. Audrain said that story examines notions of female friendship in adulthood. No release date has been set for the book.
What is The Push by Ashley Audrain about?
The new year's first blockbuster novel is “The Push,” by Ashley Audrain, a psychological suspense tale about a mother's fears that her preschool-age daughter may be a psycho killer.
Was Violet a psychopath in The Push?
Thus, it appears Violet really may be a psychopath and Blythe, vindicated. It's not the most unpredictable ending, but what's so haunting about it is the chilling truth that Violet is the culmination of generations of parental trauma.
Who is Sam in The Push book?
When Blythe and Fox have their second child, a boy named Sam, Blythe's connection with him is immediate, and she adores him. However, one day as Blythe crosses the street, Sam's stroller rolls into the intersection and he is killed. Blythe is convinced she saw Violet push the stroller.
Who is Cecilia in the book The Push?
The woman talking in Ashley Audrain's scorching novel The Push (Pamela Dorman Books) is Blythe Connor's mother, Cecilia. Cecilia's mother, Etta, hung herself at the age of thirty-two. Cecilia herself left the family when Blythe was only eleven. “I don't want you learning to be like me,” she told Blythe.
What is the Push book?
Push. (novel) Push is the debut novel of American author Sapphire. Thirteen years after its release in 1996, the novel was made into the 2009 film Precious, which won numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards .
What is the ISBN number for Push?
177 (story until 140, then class book) ISBN. 978-0-679-76675-9. Push is the debut novel of American author Sapphire. Thirteen years after its release in 1996, the novel was made into the 2009 film Precious, which won numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards .
Where is the alternative school in Precious?
Precious is furious, but the counselor later visits her home and convinces her to enter an alternative school, located in the Hotel Theresa, called Higher Education Alternative Each One Teach One.
Is precious illiterate?
Precious begins the novel functionally illiterate. She spells words phonetically. She uses a "minimal English that defies the conventions of spelling and usage and dispenses all verbal decorum" (Mahoney). She employs variations such as "nuffin'" for nothing, "git" for get, "borned" for born, "wif" for with, and "chile" for child. She also uses an array of profanity and harsh details that reflect the life she has experienced. Michiko Kakutani, a book reviewer for The New York Times, states that Precious' "voice conjures up [her] gritty unforgiving world."
What is precious about?
Precious is ultimately about Precious herself, about the unfairness of the world and the deep need humans have to be loved. And it does that all without condescension or triteness. This isn’t the story of every African-American family in the Bronx ghetto – but it is a story based in truth, and one worth telling.
Is Leblanc an inspirational story?
LeBlanc tells the story almost detachedly, never editorializing, never judging. This is not an inspirational tale of some inner-city kid being touched by a teacher and becoming inspire to enroll at Harvard Medical School and cure cancer.
What is the story of the Kid in Sapphire?
True to this belief, Sapphire's second novel, The Kid, is even more unflinching. It takes up the story of Abdul, Precious's son, the product of rape by her father.
Who is the protagonist in Push?
When her debut novel Push came out 15 years ago, readers were enthralled and appalled by protagonist Precious Jones, the New York girl who was abused by her father and failed by the system – only to fight back, educate herself and transcend her background. The book owed its initial success to its use by social workers, ...
Why is Sapphire called Sapphire?
She adopted the name Sapphire for its connotations of vividness and to reclaim the demonised figure of the fiery black woman. She is from California, but has lived in New York for decades. Her background is modest and normal – army parents who broke up.
What is Abdul's fear?
One of Abdul's fears is that the abuse has "proved" that he is gay. "It is not shameful for a woman to come out of a rape situation and talk about what has happened to her; women have an idea of what happens to other women. To the best of my knowledge, men don't talk about it. The silence makes it worse.
Was Push an autobiography?
It's a far cry from the deprivations suffered by Precious and Abdul. Yet readers often assume Push was an autobiography. "That is the same thing as thinking Mark Twain was Huckleberry Finn. This has something to do with class and race and the way African Americans are perceived in the world of literature.
Is Push the white hero or villain?
In Push the white people are not the enemy and they're not the hero. Usually in stories about children in the ghetto, the kid is black and the teacher is white. The conflict between black and white has to be primary, or the attraction between black and white has to be primary.
Was Sapphire brutal?
It was also one of the few times the white, male bastion of the Oscars was stormed by a film with so many vivid roles for women, of all colours, sizes and ages. Sapphire dismisses critics who complained it was unrealistically brutal, saying this reaction reflects audiences' ignorance about the ubiquity of abuse.
Overview
Push is the debut novel of American author Sapphire. Thirteen years after its release in 1996, the novel was made into the 2009 film Precious, which won numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards.
Plot
Claireece Precious Jones is an obese, illiterate 16-year-old girl who lives in Harlem with her abusive mother Mary. Precious is a few months pregnant with her second child, the product of her father raping her; he is also the father of her first child (who has Down syndrome). When her school discovers the pregnancy, it is decided that she should attend an alternative school. Precious is furious, but the counselor later visits her home and convinces her to enter an alternative school, …
Style
Critics have gone in both directions as far as their opinions of the style in which Push is written. Some consider "the harrowing story line [to be] exaggerated," saying that it does not seem realistic to "saddle one fictional character with so many problems straight from today's headlines" (Glenn). Others have stated that while the dialect is problematic, Precious herself is believable because she "speaks in a darting stream of consciousness of her days in an unexpectedly evocative fashion" …
Sequel
In 2011, Sapphire published a sequel, The Kid. It follows the life of Precious' son Abdul from the age of nine to 19. Precious herself has died following complications from HIV, but was accepted to college before her death. Characters Rita, Rhonda, Jermaine, Mary, and Ms. Blu Rain all appear in the novel.
See also
• Precious, the film adaptation
• "Push", a song by Lenny Kravitz
Sources
• Bennett, Tegan. "Sapphire shapes a gem that is Precious". The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 January 1997, late ed.: 12.
• Freeman-Greene, Suzy. "Hard beat of Harlem; Books". The Age, 21 September 1996, late ed.: 7.
• Harmon, William et al. A Handbook to Literature. 9th edn. NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
External links
• The Official Film Website
• Interview about Precious with the cast and director, as well as Sapphire herself, at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival:
Sundance Interview Part 1 Sundance Interview Part 2 Sundance Interview Part 3