Young women on screen learn to teach themselves

When we first meet them, the heroines of the popular films “An Education” and “Precious” seem to have very little in common. Jenny, a product of early-1960s middle-class England, is a sparkling, hyper-articulate schoolgirl on track to study at Oxford. Precious, a child of 1980s New York, is 16, illiterate, expecting her second child by her father, and living with an impossibly monstrous mother. Her life is so aggressively awful that, by comparison, Jenny’s life seems like heaven on earth.

But as the stories progress, an affinity emerges between the two young leads. The films are wildly different, but they are both stories about young women discovering themselves. “Precious” is a story of a successful escape from a toxic living environment. Despite Precious’ initial lack of confidence, once she learns how to read she clings to her education as though it is the only thing keeping her alive. And, in reality, it is: Physically, Precious could survive without her schooling, but she would be a mere shell of the young woman she has glimpsed within herself . In her quest to break away from her mother, she suffers several major setbacks, but it is clear to the audience that she is on the rise. There is nowhere for her to go but up.

Jenny, like Precious, wants nothing more than to escape her parents, though unlike Precious’, they at least mean well. She dreams of Paris—not in the wistful way that most girls do, but with a fervid romantic drive that cannot not be ignored. Unlike “Precious,” however, “An Education” depicts its heroine’s descent into a world much colder than the one she had previously known. It tells the story of Jenny’s unhealthy relationship with David, a much older man whose lifestyle is fueled by illegal business and who turns out to be a phenomenal and destructive liar.

Both films are, more than anything, stories about education and the harm and good that knowledge can do to a person—in particular, to teenage girls. There is perhaps no stock character taken less seriously in the media today than this type: we need only to think of any young woman on any program on the Disney Channel or the CW to confirm this statement. These girls have become static characters despite the fact that the defining characteristic of adolescence is its constant fluctuation.

Jenny and Precious are both girls who illustrate this paradox. As young women they have much less control over their own lives than their male counterparts would. Jenny’s own parents encourage her to drop out of school to get married. Precious’ two children—products of both incest and rape—bring her joy, but they also act as weights, pulling her further and further away from the independence she so desperately needs.

It is all the more moving, then, to see the extraordinary changes wrought in both women as their stories progress. By the end of “Precious,” the heroine is practically unrecognizable from the cowed, nearly mute girl who first appeared on the screen. We love her because, like her, we have all realized that we are capable of brilliant things. As she learns how to read, she discovers herself as well.

Precious’ life is without question more difficult than Jenny’s, but I personally find Jenny’s story more moving. The conclusion of “An Education” is a cop-out that paints her future as untainted by her experiences, but the rest of the film tells a very different story. When Jenny discovers that David has been lying to her throughout their relationship, we are not so surprised, but she is. And with that revelation something within her dies. You can see it happening as clear as day on her broken face. Her journey has not been to self-discovery, but rather to the realization that the world is a harsher place than she had imagined—a lesson that is just as important.

Morgan Davies is a Barnard College sophomore majoring in English. A Film of Her Own runs alternate Thursdays.w