Analysis of a Family

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Description of the Family Dynamics In the film “Precious” the family dynamics are nothing short of complicated and dysfunctional. The family’s dynamics are built around violence, aggression, and abuse. Clarice “Precious” Jones is a sixteen year old girl living in Harlem during the 1980’s. She lives with her mother, Mary, and is pregnant with her second child. Precious has been abused by her parents in many capacities for most of her life. She is raped by her father, hit, told she is stupid and worthless, sexually abused by her mother, as well as forced to endure a whole host of other abuses. She appears to possibly be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the major traumas faced throughout her life. Both of her children have been fathered by her own biological father, who no longer lives with the family. Despite all of the struggles that she faces, Precious is incredibly resilient and strong. Precious’ first child, Mongo, lives with her maternal great-grandmother, Shelia. Mongo has Down’s syndrome and has developmental delays because of it. Mary (Precious’ mother) does not work, nor does she want to. She receives food stamps and other forms of aid through manipulating the welfare system by saying that Mongo lives in the apartment with she and Precious, when in reality, Mongo lives with her great grandmother. For most of the movie we see Mary sitting in front of the television, smoking or sleeping. We never see her cook or clean, but instead Precious is required to do all of these jobs. Mary appears to be depressed and possibly suffers from some other form of mental illness. Within the Jones family there are some major problems with boundaries. Due to the incestuous relationship between Precious and her father, the boundaries of the normal parental subsystem are blurred. These boundaries are further blurred by Mary’s sexual abuse towards
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