FEMINIST IDEOLOGY IN PRECIOUS FILM
A Thesis submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty In Partial of the Requirements for
Strata 1 (S1) Degree
Arranged By: Puspa Mega Apriyani
106026001020
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
FEMINIST IDEOLOGY IN PRECIOUS FILM
BY LEE DANIELS
By:
Puspa Mega Apriyani 106026001020
By:
Puspa Mega Apriyani 106026001020
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTEMENT
LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
ABSTRACT
Puspa Mega Apriyani, Feminist Ideology in Precious Film. A Thesis: Letters and Humanities Faculty, State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta, March 2011.
This research is intended to give an understanding of feminist ideology emerge through the main character. The writer analyzes that Precious as the main character who to be an independent girl that reflects feminist ideology in the film Precious director by Lee Daniels. This film is studied by using the descriptive qualitative method and the concept of ideology of feminism. The writer analyzes the feminist ideology to explain the concept of feminism through a girl character.
APPROVEMENT
FEMINIST IDEOLOGY IN PRECIOUS FILM
A Thesis
Submitted In The Faculty of Adab and Humanities in Partial Fulfillment Requirements for Strata One Degree (S1)
PUSPA MEGA APRIYANI NIM. 106026001020
Approved By: Advisor,
Inayatul Chusna, M. Hum NIP. 197801262003122002
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
JAKARTA
LEGALIZATION
Name : Puspa Mega Apriyani
NIM : 106026001020
Title : Feminist Ideology in Precious film.
The thesis has been defended before the Letters and Humanities Faculty’s Examination Committee on, May 4th, 2011. It has already been accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Strata 1.
Jakarta, May 4th, 2011
Examination Committee
Signature Date
1. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd (Chair Person) __________ _________ NIP: 1640710199303 1 600
2. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum (Secretary) __________ _________ NIP: 19781003 200112 2 002
3. Inayatul Chusna, M.Hum (Advisor) __________ _________ NIP: 19780126 200312 2 002
4. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum (Examiner I) __________ _________ NIP: 19781003 200112 2 002
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text.
Jakarta, March 2011
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah, the most Gracious and the most Merciful
First of all the writer expresses her grateful to ALLAH SWT, the lord of
the universe, who has created heavens and earth, who has created mankind and all
that we perceive. Peace and blessing be upon the prophet Muhammad SAW, his
fellows and followers.
Second, the writer expresses her gratitude to her father and mother, Bpk
Ahmad and Ibu Siti Hawari for the useful advice and the financial support, her
brother and her sister Intan Permata Sari, Adiel Fathan mubinah and Azka Aulia
Rahman.
Next, the writer would like to thank to her advisor Inayatul Chusna M.
Hum for her great patient and contribution to finish this thesis, and for all her
advices and suggestions that has been given to her. May Allah responses her
deeds with thousands kindnesses.
Moreover, the writer also wants to thank to these following people;
1. Dr. Abdul Wahid Hasyim, M.Ag, the Dean of Letters and Humanities
Faculty.
2. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M. Pd, the Head of English Letters Department.
3. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum, the Secretary of the English Letters Department.
4. All the lecturers of English Letters Department, who have taught and
5. The examiners of this thesis, Mrs. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum. and Mrs.
Maria Ulfa, M.A., M.Hum.
6. All librarians in the Main Library of UIN Jakarta, the FAH UIN Library,
the UIN Jakarta American Corner, and the FIB UI Library who helped her
to get many useful references for this thesis.
7. Her best friends, ‘SPYDERBENTS’ and Fadli Kemal for spending his
time to accompany her in writing this thesis.
8. English Letters Students Class of 2006, Kiki, Ninda, Lya, Nurul,
Nilam, Damanhuri, Emon, Ocid, Jarwo. Her best friends at the university,
Dian, Mita, Eka, Vina, Ara for the support of the study and the thesis.
9. Her cousin, Septi for being loyal listeners in her problems and all teachers
in Tk. Islam Ulil Albaab.
May Allah blesses and protects you always. Finally, the writer realizes that
this paper is far from being perfect. The writer will be very open for any
suggestions and critics.
Jakarta, March, 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. Character and Characterization in Film ... 7
B. Feminist Film Criticism ... 11
C. Feminist ideology . ... 13
CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS ... 16
A. Data Descriptions of Precious Character ... 16
B. Data Analysis of Precious Character... 23
CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 35
A. Conclusion ... 35
B. Suggestion ... 37
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 39
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A.Background of The Study
Film is an audiovisual media. According to Oxford Learner’s Dictionary,
film is a series of moving pictures recorded with sound that tells a story, shown on
television or at the cinema or movie theatre.1 Film is another alternative of media
for narrating a story, the story refers to a fabricated story which is created based
on either imagination or reality, either film or literary work contains fabricated
story which brings messages, criticisms, or new aspiration toward a particular set
of social values. The possibility of noticing symptomatic meanings reminds us
that all meaning, wheather referential, explicit, or implicit is a social
phenomenon.2
In film, the spectators know that someone invented and guided the action
from the audio and visual. Film is the life picture which is one of the form of art.
The popular form of the entertainment and also business and film is unique, set
part from all other media by its quality of free and constant motion.3
Nowadays, film is considered to be an important art form and a source of
popular entertainment that people mostly like. Film mostly reflects the social
1
A.S Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, sixth edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), P.496.
2
David Boordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, fourth edition (New York: Mc-Graw Hill, Inc, 1993) P.52
3
condition in certain community. As social documentary, film exposes issue rising
in surrounding such as political issue, social issue, global issue, gender issue, etc.
Such issue reflect what has been going on in society.
For the last two decades many films have begun to use girl as the central
characters of the story. Those films try to bring about issues related to girl. The
emerge of feminist movement has become one of several reasons why girl are put
as the centre of the story.
There are several films focused on issues of feminism, such as The Secret
Life of Bees and The Color Purple. These films are about the life of a girl who has
to face a lot of problems or obstacles in her life in order to make her life better
than before and to get freedom from society oppression. For instance, The Secret
Life of Bees is 2009 American film that presents Rosalleen, as a girl who gets
violence from three men in town and then she is thrown into jail and often gets
inequalities from men. Meanwhile, The Color Purple is 2008 American film
directed by Steven Spielberg. This film is about a story of a young
African-American girl named Celie. A fourteen years girl who has two children by her
step father who takes them away from her at childbirth and forces Celie to marry
with a local widower who treats Celie like a slave.
Those are examples about the life of girls described in film. They get
from the society and family. However, in the end of the story the girl’s characters
can solves all the obstacles that make them independent and mature girls.
Another film that exposes issue of feminism is Precious. Precious is a
2009 American drama film directed by Lee Daniels, and it is an adoptation from
the novel Push written by Sapphire. The main character is Precious Jones. She is
16 years-old, overweight, illiterate who lives in the Ghetto of Harlem in the 20th
century. She lives with her dysfunctional and abusive mother, Mary. She has been
impregnated twice by her step father, Carl and suffers long term physical sexual
and mental abuse from her unemployed mother. Her first child Lil Mango has
down syndrome and is being cared for by Precious’s grandmother.
Following the discovery of Precious second pregnancy, she is suspended
from school. Her Junior High School Principal arranges to have her attend an
alternative school which she hopes can help Precious to change her life’s
direction. Precious finds a way out of her traumatic daily existence through
imagination and fantasy.
Usually, her imagination and fantasy happened when she is being raped by
her step father. She looks at the ceiling and imagines herself in a music, video
shoot, in which she is the superstar and the focus of attention while looking in
photograph albums, and she imagines the pictures talking to her. When she looks
in the mirror, she sees a pretty, white, thin, blonde girl.
Inspired by her new teacher in her alternative school Blu Rain, Precious
begins to learn hard and tries to read, write the letter, and she must adaptation with
mother Mary deliberately drops three-day-old Abdul and hits Precious, Precious
fights back long enough to get her son and flees her home permanently.
Shortly, after leaving the house, Precious breaks into her school classroom
and finally lives in her teacher’s house. The end of the film Precious still resolves
to improve her life for herself and her children. She severs ties with her mother
and plans to complete a General Educational Development test4.
The film tells about a girl in self-awareness of her love life, relationship,
and struggle. It is based on principles of self-exploration, self-empowerment, and
self-liberation. One of the reasons why the writer chooses this film is because the
main character is a girl. This girl struggles to have her freedom and liberation
from society oppression.
Therefore, the writer is interested to analyze it more deeply by using
feminism approach, especially more about the feminism ideologies through the
main character and the writer wants to see the main character of Precious
described in the Precious film.
4
B.Focus of the study
The topics are limited within discussion on the main character, Precious
and the feminist ideology that emerges through the main character in the Precious
film directed by Lee Daniels by the feminist ideology criticsm theory.
C.Research Question
Based on the background of the study and the focus of the study above, the
writer would like to propose the statements of the problems as follow:
1. How is Precious described in the film?
2. From the description of Precious, what is the feminist ideology of the film?
D.Significance of the Study
The researcher hopes the result of this study can give some significant
information for other researchers who want to do a deeper study about feminism
on ‘Precious’ film, especially, or in other literary works.
E.Research Methodology 1. The Objective
The purpose of the research is to analyze a girl who wants to be an
independent girl in Precious film. This study tries to describe Precious in the
Precious’s film and the reflection of feminist ideology of the film.
2. The Method
The writer uses the descriptive-qualitative method by finding the problems
evidences taken from the girl character in it, and relate to the theory of feminist
3. Technique of Data Analysis
In this analysis, the writer explains all data in the film ‘Precious’ by
analyzing feminist ideology to explain the theory of feminism through the girl
character and her action.
4. The Instrument
The instrument of this research is the writer herself, by watching the whole
of Precious film, grouping the dialogues of some characters about Precious and
analyzing the data that have relation with the relevant theories.
5. The Unit of Analysis
The unit of analysis is a film entitled Precious. This film is directed by Lee
Daniels and released in America on November 6th, 2009.
6. Place and Time
This research began on the ninth semester of 2010-2011 in the faculty of
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A.Character and Characterization in Film
The unit of this study is a film. There are some definition of film. Film is a
technology utilized for the mass entertainment to spread up information and
various messages in a broad scale besides press, radio, a television.5 Film included
in a mass communication contains the aspects of entertainment, and education.
The facts that implicitly presented in film are based on the phenomena occuring in
a community. Some of the theme of film focuses on the social problems,
frustrations, pleasures, and joys of human relationship such as love, friendship,
marriage, divorce, family interactions, sexuality, and so on. Even, film is made in
an imaginative way.6
In a film, character is also an important element that functions to develop
the story because character is a person who carries out the events which then
becomes a story. By understanding the chacracters in a film, the viewers are able
to get what the story is all about.
Based on a function of character in a story, character can be divided into
two:7
5
Sean Mac Bride, Komunikasi dan Masyarakat Sekarang dan Masa Depan, Aneka SuaraSatu Dunia, (Jakarta: PN Balai Pustaka, Unesco, 1983), P. 120.
6
Mafri Amir, Etika Komunikasi Massa Dalam Pandangan Islam, (Jakarta: Logos, 1999), P.20.
7
1. Protagonist character is the central character in the story, who faces conflict.
The protagonist character is usually easy to identify. He or she is the core
character that carries out positive characterization or presents positive moral
values. Protagonist often struggles with the antagonist.
2. Antagonist character is the one who carries out negative characterization and or
presents negative values. Antagonist can be difficult to identify, especially if he
is not a human being, but rather the hostile social or natural environment with
which the protagonist is forced to contend.
Character is then developed based on the characterization which can be
distinguished into two, flat and round characters. 8
1. Flat characters are those who represent a single characteristic, trait, or idea, or
at most a very limited number of such qualities. Flat characters are also called
as type characters, one-dimensional characters, or, when they are distorted to
create humor, as caricatures. Flat characters are less complex than round ones.
2. Round characters are the opposite. They represent a number of qualities and
traits and complex multidimensional characters of considerable intellectual and
emotional depth who have the ability to grow and change.
Characters and characterization are different, Richard Gill said that a
character is a person in literary work and characterization is the way in which a
8
character is created. From those distinctive, character is the product and
characterization as a method.9
Characterization is character development and the process of creating. It is
presentation attitude and behaviour of imaginary person in order to make them
credible to the author’s audience, and characterization can involve developing a
variety of aspects of a character, such as appearance, age, gender, educational
level, occupation, financial status, marital status, social status, hobbies, etc.10
Here are some categories to recognize the characterization.
Characterization through appearance, characterization through dialogue,
characterization through external action, characterization through internal action,
and characterization through choice of name.11
1. Characterization through appearance
Because most film actors project certain qualities of character the minute
they appear on the screen, characterization in film has a great deal to do with
casting, a major aspect of film characterization is revealed visually and
instantaneously.
The minute we see most actors on the screen, we make certain assumptions about
them, because of their facial, features, dress, physical build, and mannerism and
the way they move.
2. Characterization through dialogue
9
Richard Gill, Mastering English Literature, (London: Macmillan, 1995), P.105 10
Joseph M. Boggs, Denis W. Petrie. The Art of Watching Films, Fifth Edition, (California: mayfield Publishing Company, 2000) P.291
11
Character in fictional film naturally reveal a great deal about themselves
by what they say, but a great deal is also revealed by how they say it. Their true
thoughts, attitudes, and emotions, can be revealed in subtle ways through word
choice characters use of grammar, sentences structure, vocabulary, and particular
(if any) reveal a great deal about their characters social and economic level,
educational background, and mental processes.
3. Characterization through external action
Although appearance is an important measure of a character’s personality,
appearance are often misleading, perhaps the best reflections of characters are
person’s actions. It must be assumed, of course, the real characters are more than
mere instruments of the plot that they do are what they do for a purpose, out of
motives that are consistent with their overall personality. Thus, there should be a
clear relationship between a character and his or her action, the action should
grow naturally out of the character’s personality.
4. Characterization through internal action
Inner action occurs within characters mind and emotion and consist of
secret, unspoken thoughts, daydreams, aspiration, memories, fears, and fantasies.
People’s hopes, dreams, and aspirations can be as important to an understanding
of their character as any real achievment, and the most obvious way in which the
filmmaker reveals inner reality is by taking us visually or aurally into the mind so
that the audiences see or hear the things that the character imagines, remembers,
or think about.
One of important method of characterization is the use of name processing
appreopriate qualities of sound, meaning, or connotation, this technique is known
as name typing. The “sn” sound, for example, evokes unpleasant associations,
because a large majority of the words beginning with that sound are unpleasant;
snide, sneer, snake, snail, sneeze, etc.s
B.Feminist Film Criticism
Feminist film theory is theoretical film criticism derived from feminist
politics and feminist theory. The development of feminist film theory was
influenced by second wave feminism and focused on women characters.12
Most feminist approaches to film share a common assumption: the ways
women are represented in mainstream commercial films reflect. Feminist film
critics work to raise our consciousness about the negative images of women in
film in order to denaturalize these images, to expose them as cultural constucts,
not mirror reflections of the way women really are.13
In the past there were few roles that women played in films: angelic,
mothers, castrating mothers, crones, victims, girlfriends, whores and femme
fatale. In several of these stereotypes the character is not agent in the narrative,
but a counter in the on going male-centered narrative.14
12
Lala Nurbaiti, The Discrimination of Jane Austen in Miss Austen Regrets Film by Using Liberal Feminism, (Jakarta: Pusat Studi Wanita 2008)P. 12.
13
Marilyn Fabe, Closely Watched Films An Introduction to the Art of NarrativeFilm Technique, (London, England: University of California Press, 2004). P.207
14
Three have been female directors in the past-such as Dorothy Arzher or
Ida Lupino – but most of these are neglected. But even if the the director is
female, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the director is feminist. In Blue Steel
(1989), point Break (1991) and Strange Days (1995) Kathryn Bigelow proves that
she can have as much testosterone as any male director. Even when in the first
film she puts a woman at the centre- Jamie Lee Curtis it is hardly a traditional
female figure.
Part of the project of feminist film criticism is to identify the different
kinds of screen representation of women. In its scope, multiple voices in feminist
film criticism illuminate the range of theoretical, critical, and educational
direction open to feminist students of film and encouranges readers to participate
in assessing and shaping the critical context in which film are produced and
received.15
C.Feminist Ideology
Feminism is the belief in the right of women to have political, social, and
economic equality with men. The word feminism originated from the French word
feminist in the nineteenth century, either as a medical term to describe the
feminization of male body, or to describe women with masculine traits. However,
15
more than a social concept, feminism is a concept about equality between men
and women in politic, economic, education and social; or organized activities,
which struggles women’s right and their needs. Thus, feminism takes sides to
women, who are discriminated, exploited, and ignored.16
That feminism movement begins from an idea, which among form of
disclosure toward oppression ideology in the name of gender, the search about the
women oppression grew and it was meant to tell about the creation of liberation
was true. Women movement in Europe and North America is divided into three
waves. The first wave of feminist movement began in the 19th century, precisely
in 1848. In that year, a convention was held in Seneca Falls, USA. The convention
tried to declare another version of the Declaration of Independence, which did not
represent the women aspiration that declared, ‘All men are created equal.’
Therefore, to bring the equality between men and women, the the convention
declared another version; ‘All men and women are created equal.’ 17
While ideas do not necessarily cause social movement, ideology is central
component in the life of any social movement. Ideology was a term used in
Marxist theory to show how the worker under capitalism might be living in a state
of false consciousness of distorted reality about their relations to capital. The
argument went that once they began to see these relations as they really are ones
16
Jane Pilcher and Imelda, Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies, (Trown Br Idge, Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press Ltd, 2004), P. 48.
17
of oppression and exploitation then a class based revolution could overthrow
capitalism by seizing the means of production.
The emphasis is on the relationship of ideology to lived experience, and in
this light ideology could be defined as the representation of the imaginary
relationship of individuals to the real conditions of their existence. According to
the Althusser’s in his statement “ raw materials needed to reproduce them include
not only sufficient wages for food, clothing, housing, and childrearing, but also an
appropriate form of education to prepare them for the work they will end up
doing. Not only must education provide the fundamental skills appropriate for
labour power to reproduce itself, it must also pass on the skills of citizenship
appropriate to their class rules of morality, civic, and professional conscience
and ultimately rules of order established by class domination.”
The process of the ideology of gender that makes appeal to the essential
differences of biological sex and builds up a knowledge of acceptable and
unacceptable feminine behaviour, which has already been communicated to
women through the process of education and gender socialisation within the
family, does this most effectively.18
This representation is, furthermore, replayed by various means in the
public domain, through codes of dress, film, and TV representations of women,
the way unfeminine behaviour by actual women is treated by the press or in the
law courts so that it is constantly reinforced while allowing for subtle shifts by
18
which ideology can also contain contradictions and maintain stability for example
the idea of the career woman.19
The basic idea in feminist research is the effort to understand the position
of women. Women’s rule will become the central topic in this research. It is clear
enough that feminist ideological criticism is an effort to interpret film and to know
more about the image of women throughout the film. Through this, it can be
considered much how do this critic is needed in order to analyze the phenomena
of women reveal in literary work, without this approach, it must be hard to
understand more.
19
CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS
A. Data Description of Precious Character
According to the theory of character and characterization, characterization
may involve developing a variety of aspects of a character such as: Physical
Appearance, Educational Background, Financial Status, and Social Status. The
following are the data of description of the characterization of Precious along with
precious. Your baby loves you. I
Precious is a film directed by Lee Daniels. In the beginning of the film, the
narration shows the setting in 1987 in the Harlem City. It is about a girl with
strong character. This film tells about Precious who seeks her freedom from
society oppression. She gets oppression from her step father because she becomes
a victim of sexuality from him. Besides that, she gets oppression from other boys
in her society. In short, she gets many oppression in her life. The film shows her
independence and struggles to improve her life and her children. She wants to
change her life and wants to make her life better than before.
In this chapter, the writer discusses Precious as the main character. She has
very important role in the development of the story because her character is
presented with conflict and actions that build the film. As a main character,
Precious is described as a pity girl who is different from other girls generally, who
always get attention from society, especially from the family.
Firstly, The writer wants to analyze about her physical appearance to
know how Precious is described in the film and to show why she receives
In the beginning of the film, Precious is described through her personality,
hobbies, dreams and wishes. She has many wishes in her life, such as: she wants
to have a boyfriend with light skin and real nice hair like other girls because she
never has a boyfriend until she is 16 years old. Then, she also wants to be on the
cover of a magazine, and to become an actress on BET videos. But it is just a
dream for her because she never gets all her wishes. As it is mentioned earlier, she
is different from other girls that sometimes she feels unconfident with her physical
condition. The physical description of Precious in this film is so different like
other girls typically who have beautiful faces, smart, tall with the light skin, and
long hair, but Precious has a black skin, stupid, overweight, and unattractive.
In addition, her style makes her unattractive to other girls because she
always wears t-shirt and jeans that makes her body looks really fat. Her short hair
never looks good on her.
Precious: I wish I had a light-skinned boyfriend with real nice hair, and I want to be on the cover of a magazine. But first, I want to be in one of them BET videos. Momma said i can’t dance, plus she said who wants too see my big ass dancing, anyhow?
Precious: last week. Ms. Rain asked us to write down what we wanna be like. I wrote that I am real skinny, with light skin, and long hair.
Precious: there’s always something wrong with these tests, these tests paint a picture of me with no brain. These tests paint a picture of me and my mother, my whole family, as less than dumb, just ugly, black grease to be wiped away, find another job for sometimes I wish I was dead.
From the text above, the writer analyzes that she feels unconfident with
her physical appearance, she looks down when she look to herself is really
When she gets a chance from her teacher to write what she wants to be like, she
writes that she wants to have real skinny with light skin and long hair. She
becomes unpretentious person so it influences her social lifes, for example in her
relation and interaction to her society, she has no friends in her house and school.
From the description above, the writer analyzes that she has an oppression
from her body appearance, because she feels not precious and amazing person
like other girl, and she wants to be normal girl.
The more important thing is that she wants to get attention from society and
family. If she became a famous actreess, she can get attention from the society,
and everybody will love her, because she never has it before.
Secondly, the writer analyzes from Precious’s educational background.
She is a student in the Junior High School, but she is suspended from her school
because she is pregnant for her second child by her step father. For the first time,
she feels unfair with her headmaster, and can not accept it but finally she can.
After that, Precious continues her study in the Alternative School. She gets
a recommendation to the Alternative School from her headmaster. It is shown that
Precious never forget to continue her study. She wants to be able to write and to
read as well, even though she is suspended from the Junior High School before.
Precious’s character undergoes especially after she moves from the Senior
High School to the Alternative school. In the Senior High School, she doesn’t
special at school, she never says anything, she never open her book, and she is just
that she is stupid compare to other students in the class. She often gets
discrimination from her friends, and she has no friends in her school.
But, she has ambition to be better in her future life such as: she wants to be a
normal girl, pay attention to her teacher, and to sit in front of the class. She has
spirit to keep studying in school although she never gets the chance to improve
herself to be better because her teacher and her friends never supports her. No one
cares about her, no one wants to be her friend, and no one thinks about her.
Precious: I don’t say nothing. I don’t open my book, even. I just sit there. I’m gonna be a normal, and pay attention, and sit in the front of the class, someday.
When she is pregnant for the second child, she is suspended by her
headmaster. She feels that her pregnancy is not a problem, she thinks that she
always does her work and she never do any fault in the school. Meanwhile, the
headmaster thinks that Precious’s pregnant is a problem so that she is suspended
from the school, because she is 16 years old and she is still a student in Junior
high School. But Precious’s headmaster recomends her to continue to study at
the Alternative School because she is one of the best Mr. Wicher’s students for
Maths.
Ms. Linchenstein: hello Claireece, are you pregnant? You’re 16, you’re still in Junior High school and you’re pregnant with your second child. I’m going to have suspended you.
Precious: that ain’t fair! I didn’t nothing, I do my work.
Precious has ambition to get a higher education, even though her mother
rejects it because in her opinion school will not help anyone and it is not
important, especially if the teachers are white people. She doesn’t like if
Precious’s teacher cames to their house, especially if she must discuss about
Precious’s education.
Mary: School ain’t gonna help none! You need to forget about that school shit and take your ass down to the welfare. Don’t listening white bitch!
Precious: (I don’t know what on Alternative school is, but I feel I wanna know, my heart is all warm inside, Mr. Wicher think I’m a good student).
Precious keeps her desire to get a higher education. She always talks to
herself that she wants to change her life, and she is really optimist to face her
future life, and she finds a way to solve her problem by herself, even though in the
beginning of the story she feels that she can not be a better person. Neverthless,
when she decides to enter the alternative School, she feels better and she has
motivation to improve herself. In this situation she starts to change her attitude,
and characterisctic and she always gets support from her teacher and her friends
in the Alternative School, which make her more comfortable and happier.
Precious: I wish I could sit in the back of the class again. I never really
After she has the second child, she really wants to educate her son to
became a good person, more educated, and she doesn’t want her son to be like
her. She wants to teach all knowledge to her children.
Precious desire is in line with feminist ideas which always suggest that girls need
to develop themselves to be smart although many problems and obstacles come.
Precious: Ms. Rain is the one who put the chalk in my hand made me queen of the ABC’s. After I settled at the halfway house, I worked my hardest to memorize letter sounds, writing in the journal, and reading smaller and fatter books. Then I found out the Mayor’s office give me a literacy award and a check for progress.
Precious: I don’t really want to read the whole thing. I kind of just wanna say what its about. At advancement house, they were quizzing me about my mother and my father, right!! But its not really about them. They’re trying me to get me to do workfare. They want me to be a home attendant. All they want me to do is work, now; I do wanna work, but not for welfare check. I’d only see Abdul on Sunday, plus I’d have to leave class, plus I’m gonna start going to survivor meetings.
After she graduates from the Alternative School and after she completes a
General Educational Development Test, she gets a good job, and she begins to
make plan for her life. She tries to be good person like other people who have a
good occupation, so she tells to all her friends about her desire and about her
payment from her job.
Thirdly, the writer analyzes about Precious’s financial status. Precious and
her daughter get money from social worker for their life because her child Lil
Mongo, gets down’s syndrome. Her mother who is unemployed because gets the
Precious: My grandmother (Tsosie) brings little mongo over to our house, on days when the social worker come, so it looks like she live with us, then my mother gets money and food stamps for me and mongo.
If Ms. Turner, a social worker, comes to her house, her mother pretends to
be a good mother and good grandmother to Precious and her daughter. She gives
more attention to Precious and her children, in order to create a good image of her
so that the social worker continue give the money to them.
When Precious comes to the Alternative School to register her study, she
doesn’t need much money to fulfill the payment, because she and her daughter get
money from the social worker, even though she never holds the money by herself,
because her mother has already taken all the money. In addition, Precious lives in
a small apartment with her unemployed mother and their life are very simple.
They only depend on their life on the money that is given by social worker every
month.
Precious: that’s the end of them welfare checks. I just couldn’t lie no more, I shouldn’t have said none of that Momma gonna kill me.
Precious: I got kicked out of school cause I was pregnant, I could start today? My mother gets AFDC for me and my daughter.
Staff : so your mother has custody of you and your daughter, and you’re on her budget?.
Finally, the writer analyzes Precious’s social status, that include her social
background, and her relationship with the family and friends. Precious was born in
the Harlem City in 1987 and she lives in a black people environment. She only
lives with her mother in their small apartment because her grandmother, Tsosie,
She has two children by her step father, the first is Little Mongo and the second is
Abdul. She is impregnated twice by her step father and in the end of the story she
gets HIV virus from her step father too. Besides that, she also suffers long term
physical sexual and mental abuse from her mother.
Every day, she does cooking for her mother, and she does all house chores.
However, she still has the spirit to continue her study, because she wants to be
able to write and to read so she can teach all knowledge to her children later.
Precious promises to her grandmother, Tsosie, who take cares of her first child,
Lil Mongo, if she gets GED, she wants to take her children to her apartment.
Precious often gets pressure from her mother, and the climax is when
Precious is pregnant and giving birth for her second child. Her mother is angry
because she is jealous that her husband makes love with her daughter. Meanwhile
she doesn’t have any children from him.
Mary: See. You will never know shit. Don’t nobody want you, don’t nobody need you. You done fucked around and fucked my motherfucking man and had two motherfucking children, and one of them is a goddamn animal, running around, looking crazy as a motherfucker, bitch, you know what!
In addition, her mother often called her with the worst nicknames such as:
stupid, uppity bitch, you’re a dammy bitch, motherfucking woman, you fat bitch,
and you fucking bitch. But, Precious is still silent and still respects her mother
because she still loves her mother. Actually, she is a good daughter, she wants to
get attention from her mother, sometimes she often makes the imagination that her
mother gives the attention, love, and care to her, for example:“you need some
loves you precious”. But, she know that it is in her imagination, not in real life,
but at the end of the story, she has the brave to fight her mother.
Mary : you ruined my fucking life. You done took my man, you had those fucking babies.
Precious: I ain’t stupid, and I didn’t take your man, your husband raped me.
From the text above, the writer concludes that the relationship between
Precious and her mother is not good. This is one of the examples that describes
the relationship between mother and her daughter.
Precious has bad relationship with her mother but she has a good
relationship with her grandmother. When she comes to the Psycologist, she tells
about her feeling during her stay with her mother. She also explains about the
condition in her home life, her purpose coming to the psycologist is to find a safe
place for her.
Ms. Weiss: so, tell me about your home life?
Precious: I just wish I had my own TV, so I could watch it in my room. If I had my own TV, I wouldn’t have to watch it with my mother.
Ms.Weiss: and what’s it like watching TV with your mother?
Precious: my mother like a whale on the couch. She says I eat at the time, but she always making me eats, then she calls me a fat mess. She says the apartment is little cause of me. Only time she ever leaves is to play her numbers, I feel like I could just sit in the house with her everyday the shades drawn, watching TV, can you help out with that? Can we talk about something else now?
Precious: I wish she’d stop this shit. The other day I cried, I felt stupid.
The relationship between her and her step father is also not good. After she
is raped by her father, she believes that her father make a promise to marry her
She is really sad about that, especially when she knows that she gets HIV positive
from her step father, and at the time she feels nobody loves her, and nobody needs
her. She thinks that love ain’t done nothing for her, likes in her statement Love
beat her, raped her, called her an animal,make her feel worthless, make her sick.
Ms. Weiss: you know what? Let’s talk about your father? Tell me about your relationship with him?
Precious: I don’t know much more than you do Ms. Weiss. I ain’t say shit like it. Move on. Bitch. Can we change the subject?
Precious: nurse says I’m HIV positive. But Abdul is all right. I just got to stop breastfeeding him.
Ms.Rain: Remember, you once talk to me, you never really got to tell your story, so write now!
Precious: please don’t lie to me Ms.Rain. love ain’t done nothing for me. Love beat me, raped me, called me an animal,make me feel worthless, make me sick.
Ms.Rain: that’s wasn’t love, precious. Your baby loves you. I love you too. Precious is really sad because she knows that she will die, and she thinks
about her children if she died. She only wants to be a good mother for her children
and she wants to look after and rise up her children because she loves them. She
never gives up on that condition. She has spirit to change and manage her life, and
she also wants to show to the people that she could manage her life well.
Precious: Ms. Weiss said I got HIV, she said I was supposed to die from it, I ain’t worried about dying shit, I gotta worry about how I’m supposed to raise these kids. I just wanna be a good mother to them.
The last point about Precious’s social status is her relationship with her
friends and her teacher in the Alternative School. She starts to adapt a new society
Even though in the beginning, she has a bad relationship with her friends,
due to her overweight, and unattractive appearance, her teacher always gives her
some advice and motivation to make her a good student and a good friend to all
until she can get along with them.
Before she enters to the Alternative School, she doesn’t have friend, but in
the alternative school she has some friends such as: Rhonda Patrice, Rita Romero,
Jermaine, and Joann. They always help Precious to solve her problem in her life,
so Precious feels more comfortable with them and she finds a new family.
Precious: ain’t nobody ever grabbed my hand like that before.
They’re so nice to me, why other people should be nicer to me than my mother and my father? I felt warm, they’re fine, and grandmother’s scared of momma. I know that’s why she ain’t letting me stay with her.
Precious lives in the black people environment and she is a black girl too,
but she often gets oppression from black boys. She feels unconfident because of
her physical appearance, but she can’t do anything to against them, sometimes
there are many black boys on the street and they disturb her like this statement:
Boy: she’s stupid. That’s not even funny. That’s what she’d get anyway.
In the end of the story she starts to change her life and she wants to be a
better person than before. The more important is that she becomes an independent
girl, she wants to show to other people that she can prove that she can manage her
own life without her mother. She gets many experiences and lessons which make
her better than before, and she always gets some support from her teacher in
everything. Precious says that “Blu Rain is the one who put the chalk in my hand
Ms.Rain: I think your first responsibility has to be to yourself. If you keep Abdul, you might have nothing. You’re learning to read and write, that’s everything. You come back to school when you get out of the hospital. You’re only 17.Being a good mother might mean letting Abdul be raised by someone who’s better able than you meet his needs you can got GED, and go to college. You can do anything precious.
Precious: “Some folks got a light around them that shine for other peoples, I think maybe some of the tunnels, and in that tunnel, maybe the only light they had was inside of them, and then even long after they escaped that tunnel, they still be shinnig for everybody else, that’s Ms.Rain to me.”
Precious: All years I sit in class, I never learned, now I got a baby again by my father. I wish I had a boyfriend like the other girls, and then I’ll feel right. I love my baby, I just wanna be a good mother. I’m gonna read to this baby too, and hang colors on its well. Listen baby, mother not dumb! Mother loves you. (When she was studying at the class)”.
From the text above, the writer analyzes that she has a good relationship
with her friends and her teacher. She can change her characteristics to becomes
independent, confident, responsible and mature person. She starts her new life
with her children, she can be an educated girl and a good mother for her children.
In short, Precious’s characteristics in this film reflect feminist ideas.
C. Feminist Ideology on Precious’s Characteristics
From the analyses of Precious’s character, the writer finds out that
Precious’s characteristics reflect feminist ideas. In the beginning of the film,
Precious experiences oppression from school, family, and friends that indicates
that she gets discrimination, unfair treatment, and violence from her society.
However, in the end of the film, she overcomes and be able to reach her wishes to
be a good independent mother and she can find a new life. Finally she grows up
Precious tries hard to make her wishes come true and to overcome oppression
from her step father. In addition, she must fight her mother who believes that
school is not important for girls and it waste money.
Despite of her mother disapproval, Precious is able to complete her degree
(GED), and she even has ambition to get a higher education. In order to be
independent, Precious decides to leave the house and her mother and live only
with her children in different place. Her desires to fight the oppression from her
society reflect the feminist ideas. When she faces difficult situation, she is able to
solve it courageously and bravely, without being afraid to people.
She is being oppressed when she is pregnant and the headmaster doesn’t
allow her to study, so she is a woman who experience rapery. But she is able to
improve herself after she gets some supports from her teacher in the Alternative
School, until she can finally read and write.
Precious wants to change her life, and at the end of the story Precious can
handle her children without her mother’s help and she becomes a good, smart,
responsible and independent girl even though her age is only 16 years old. She
becomes an independent girl and she can decide what she wants to do including
her decisions to live only with her children. She can be an independent individual
and she can make her wish come true without fear of anything. As a young
mother, Precious doesn’t want her life to be ruled by other people including her
So the feminist ideology exposed by the film is through the Precious’s
characteristics. The writer just focuses on Precious because she is the main
character who fights for her independence. She can faces all problems in her life,
studies hard, and tries to be better person than before.
The self confident is a tool that the film offers for every girl to deal with
problems and able to be in the same position as men to stand up on their own feet
and to be proud of them, although they have different background of family,
education, financial, and social status, they must face as challenges and must
belives that they can face and solve their problems.
Finally, in the end of the film there is a statement “FOR PRECIOUS GIRL
EVERYWHERE.” It can be said as the message of this film based on the ideology
that is presented in the film. This statement means every girls, regardless race,
age, education background, or conflict faced, are precious and able to face
obstacle and win them. This film wants to show for every girls to proud of
theirselves although they’re not perfect, for example from the physical
appearance, educational background, and social status. Their must have self
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
Precious’story presented in the film of Precious is directed by Lee
Daniels. It is about a girl, named Precious Jones who seeks her freedom from her
society that oppressies her. The film presents her struggle to be independence and
to improve her life and her children and to make her life better than before.
Precious as the main character is 16 years old, overweight, black skin,
unanttractive, and illiterate girl. She feels unconfident with her physical condition,
because she is different from other girls typically who have beautiful faces, smart,
and tall with the light skin. She looks down when she feels that she is different
from other typical ideal girls commonly. She has two children by her step father
and at the end of the story she also gets HIV virus from her step father. Then, she
often gets pressure from her mother. Her mother is angry because she is jealous
that her husband makes love with her daughter.
Her problems and obstacles in her life, make her became a mature,
confident, smart, responsible, good mother and educated girl even though her age
is only 16 years old. Precious tries hard to overcome oppression and then she
becomes an independent girl in action, mind, and economy.
The writer analyses the characteristics of Precious from her Physical
Appearance, Educational Background, Finansial Status and Social Status to know
from the society. From the physical appearance, the writer analyzes that she has
an oppresion from her body appearance. She feels not precious like other girls and
she becomes unprententious person, so it influences her social life. She has no
friends in her house and school environment. From the educational background,
she is not a special student. She never asks and says anything, she never opens her
book, and she just sits at the back of the class, it makes her unable to read and
write. But she has ambition to get a higher education even though her mother
rejects her desire.
From the financial status, she lives in a small apartment with her
unemployed mother and their life are simple. They only depend on the money
given by the social worker every month. The last is from the social status, the
writer analyzes from her relation with her family and society. The important
things is the relationship between Precious and her mother and step father are not
good, but she has good relations with her friends and teachers in the Alternative
School. Precious is a black girl but she often gets oppression from black boys in
her surrounding, but she can’t do anything to against them.
After the writer analyses all about her characteristics, the writer concludes
that Precious’s characteristics reflect feminist ideology. Her desire to fight the
oppression from her society reflects the feminist ideas. When she faces difficult
situation, she is able to solve it courageously and bravely, and she is able to
improve herself and changes her life to be better than before. She becomes an
independent individual. As a girl, Precious doesn’t want her life to be ruled by
Through the character of Precious it can be concluded that every girl can
have freedom to choose her life based on her desire. Furthermore, The self
confident is a tool that the film offers for every girl to deal with problems and able
to be in the same position as men to stand up with their own feet and to be proud
of them, although they have different background of family, education, financial,
and social status, they must face as a challenges and must belives that they can
face and solve their problems.
The more important, in the end of the film there is a statement “FOR
PRECIOUS GIRL EVERYWHERE.” This statement can be said as a message for
girl in this film. That every girl, regardless race, age, education background, or
conflict faced, is precious and able to face obstacles. This film wants to show for
girls to proud of theirselves, though they’re not perfect, for example from the
physical appearance, educational background, and social status. In short, Precious
film exposes feminist ideology.
A. Suggestion
In this thesis, the writer uses the concept of feminist ideology to analyze
the film through the character of Precious. The writer uses feminism theory
because she finds that the character of the film reflected of feminism theory.
The writer also suggests film viewers and researchers from different
perspectives. Besides that, anyone who is interested to do deeper study about
character and characterization that related to feminist ideas, can also uses feminist
The writer also expects that the research will be useful to the reader who wants to
analyze character and characterization in any type of film.
Finally, the writer hopes that study will enrich reader’s knowledge of
feminist film criticism, especially for the students of English Department, Faculty
of Adab and Humanities, State Islamic University Jakarta, as an additional
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