Push Chapter 1

Invisibility is the word that highlights the first chapter of Push for me. Precious reasons her invisibility when saying "Don't nobody want me. Don't nobody need me. I know who I am. I know who they say I am"(31). She recognizes that she is human, that she is not this vampire that everyone see's her as. This is why she says she knows what THEY say she is, and this is why she believes that she is invisible. Everyone sees her as a vampire, or welfare queen. A black woman whose sole source of income is welfare, whose "intelligence" is minute, whose sexual deviance is innate, this is the vampire she is seen as. But she is not a vampire, and she knows this. So the real her must be invisible. Makes sense to me.

One thing that struck me as a little ironic is her perspective of the other boys in her math class. She is seen as disruptive at first, after refusing to open her book and openly chastising Mr. Wicher. However, she becomes the authority of the class, keeping the other boys in the class subdued. This is where my interest stems from. I am trying to understand her relationship with the other boys in the class. At the beginning of the class Mr. Wichen had the perspective that precious was loud and disruptive, stemming from the fact that Precious couldn't open the book to the page because she is illiterate. He allows her to remain in class after she affirms her intent to learn in class. However she views the boys through a similar lens that society views her. She does not say that perhaps the boys are also disruptive because of their inability to read, or other factors that can lead to improper classroom conduct. She uses words like native, coon, and nigger (6-7)that make me recognize the irony behind it all. The irony being her misunderstand of the rowdy young men in the classroom.