PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
Uploaded by wilsdom on Nov 23, 2007
Running head: WHEN PEOPLE WANT TO HELP
When People Want to Help
Wilson Burgos Aroca
Universidad Surcolombiana
When People Want to Help
There are certain periods of life in which we have to face difficulties and traumas. We experience suffering in such a way that our hopes, life projects and dreams become extinct. Sometimes, life problems are too difficult to be overcome by only ourselves. Thus, we need the external help of others and the values they can project towards us in order to triumph over life obstacles. Through their actions, their words, their advice and their receptivity to our troubles, people play an important role when they want to help us.
Push, a novel written by Sapphire in 1996, illustrates the condition of African Americans living in Harlem in the 1980’s and the suffering of a girl, Claireece Precious Jones, who experienced sexual harassment, committed twice by her own father, having as a result two children by him “He has forgot he is the Original Man! So he fuck me, fuck me, beat me, have a chile by me” [34]. Considering the cruelty of the act itself, which is also reflected in the language the novel has, Precious could overcome this trauma and did not end up committing suicide or being a dangerous criminal.
The question that arises now is related to how Precious overcame her own difficulty and did not take the wrong way. The answer must be related to what the author of the novel expressed in an interview. Sapphire (1996) mentions that “we [women] are taught to be very laid-back and passive, but if we are to survive, if we are to move forward, we have to have that pushing energy.” As a consquence, the role of people that surrounded Precious and their interest to help her to overcome her trauma, including her own strength to change her negative points of view about life, made Precious become a woman with hopes, dreams and a high self-esteem.
In the novel, there are people who are willing to help Precious. The role of professor Rain, the signs of love and motivation towards Precious’s children, the solidarity, receptivity and cooperation of Precious’s classmates, the powerful ideas of Langston Hughes and Alice Walker; and her own strength are the positive influences Precious had to be a living and visible being again.
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