The Color Of Water Questions

he book I read over the summer is called “The Color Of Water” by “James McBride” This book tells the story of the author's struggles growing up with racial identity issues. He struggled as a child finding out whether he was black or white, but choose to identify as black. He once questioned his mother what color God was, and she replied that he was the color of water. James had many tough times dealing with household struggling with money and twelve children, but when his stepfather, Hunter Jordan died he fell into a void of drugs, alcohol and thievery. He was sent to Kentucky where his sister lives, and was educated by a man nicknamed “Chicken Man’ on how James was wasting his life. James listened, turned away from his old life and became

In Chapter 15 (Graduation) of The Color of Water, Ruth reveals how her period of being young was cut short due to falling in prohibited love. Despite all the hostility Ruth is receiving from the outsiders she continues to complete high school. After returning to Suffolk to finish the rest of high school she visited Peter, Ruth’s first boyfriend. Since Peter and Ruth shared a genuinely close relationship she insisted on meeting him. Ruth explains that Peter conveyed he still had feelings for Ruth during their encounter. Although, as Ruth was at work she overheard an unfamiliar person say Peter and another black women were conceiving a child and he was going to wed her due to the accidental pregnancy. In Chapter 16 (Driving) Ruth has a difficult

The Color of Water by James McBride started its first chapter with Ruth McBride and the book is dedicated to her. Thus, it only seems appropriate to start the summary of the book telling the storyline involving Ruth first. Ruth McBride Jordan was born as Ruchel Dwajra Zylska in an Orthodox Jew family in Poland. When she was 2, her family moved to America from Europe and this point in time is mostly likely when her named had been Americanized into Rachel Deborah Shilsky. Ruth described how their lives revolved around the job contracts her father had. If work (as a rabbi) was, they would move there. During their time going around constantly, Dee-Dee, Ruth’s younger sister was born. Eventually, Ruth’s father had the family move to Suffolk, Virginia.

James McBride 's memoir, The Color of Water, demonstrates a man 's search for identity and a sense of self that derives from his multiracial family. His white mother, Ruth 's abusive childhood as a Jew led her to search for acceptance in the African American community, where she made her large family from the two men she marries. James defines his identity by truth of his mother 's pain and exceptionality, through the family she creates and the life she leaves behind. As a boy, James questions his unique family and color through his confusion of issues of race. Later in his life, as an adolescent, his racial perplexity results in James hiding from his emotions, relying only on the anger he felt against the world. It is

In this memoir, the author chooses to have two narrators, himself as one, and his mother as the other. This style makes for quite an interesting story, skipping back and forth in time, from the child's life, to that of his mother. Although many time changes occur, they are quite easy to keep up with, as the two narrator's of the book, James, and his mother, alternate chapters. For this reason, it is also very easy to compare the childhood of each of the main characters. Although the chapters aren't always during the same time periods of the respective characters, they are close enough that similarities can be seen, and parallels can be drawn. This is one of my favorite parts of the novel, seeing the

In The Color of Water by James McBride, Ruth and James both struggled with issues of identity. Both were conflicted about their identity as they tried to figure out where they belonged. These identity issues led to alienation, internal conflict, and social mistrust. Eventually, they were both able to find their way in life. James and Ruth both perceived identity in contrasting ways.

James grew up as a black child living in a black neighborhood with a white mother during one of history’s biggest era’s for civil rights movements. The title “The Color of Water” correlates to the issues about religion and race that occur in the book with major characters such as Ruth and James. The aspects that had the most significant impact on James’ identity is environment because of the racist and segregated times, the poor neighborhood he was raised in and his mother, Ruth.

James McBride's memoir, The Color of Water, demonstrates a man's search for identity and a sense of self that derives from his multiracial family. His white mother, Ruth's abusive childhood as a Jew led her to search for acceptance in the African American community, where she made her large family from the two men she marries. James defines his identity by truth of his mother's pain and exceptionality, through the family she creates and the life she leaves behind. As a boy, James questions his unique family and color through his confusion of issues of race. Later in his life, as an adolescent, his racial perplexity results in James hiding from his emotions, relying only on the anger he felt against the

In The Color of Water, author James McBride writes both his autobiography and a tribute to the life of his mother, Ruth McBride. In the memoirs of the author’s mother and of himself, they constantly face discrimination from their race in certain neighborhoods and of their religious beliefs. The trials and tribulations faced by these two characters have taught readers universally that everyone faces difficulties in life, but they can all be surmounted.

James McBride and his mother often dealt with racial prejudice in their daily lives whether it be during dinner or even church. One day, James noticed his mom crying when at church. James did a lot of thinking on why she cried during a church service and he came to the conclusion that his mom was sad she wasn’t black because maybe God liked black people better. This prompted him to ask whether God was black or white. Her response dealt with an age old argument as well as racial prejudice. She said, Oh boy… God’s not black. He’s not white. He’s a spirit.” She later added, “God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color.” This discussion occurs on page 51. The question of “What color is God?” is less about God himself and more about racial prejudice. The question could justify Ruth’s crying in church because if God was black, people would assume God likes black people better. Similarly, if God was white, people would assume God likes white people better. The problem with that is people would start claiming God as their own based on race. Ruth gave a great answer that ignored

It’s hard to look at our parents and see how they grew up from their past. In The Color of Water, James changes his viewpoint on his mom because of her past, present, and future. Throughout the book, James learns a little more about his mom each chapter and about her past. As he learns about what religion and race means to his mother, and as he learns more and more about Ruth’s past, he learns to understand and appreciate his mother.

At the beginning of The Color of Water, James McBride’s mother Ruth goes on to introduce particular aspects about her upbringing. She mentions how she grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family and begins to describe both her parents. Ruth’s father was a very cold and hard individual who didn’t care too much for his children’s overall well-being, while her mother was very sweet and kind in nature. She also goes on to talk about how her family was originally from Poland but decided to move to the United States from fear of oppression from the Russian government. Along with outside forces that proved to be a problem for Ruth’s family were similarities in oppressive behaviors in their family as well. Since Ruth’s family were Orthodox Jews,

In The Color of Water, James writes how his mother faced many hardships throughout her life. Ruth McBride Jordan, James’ mother, was a foreign immigrant who came from poland. As a young jewish girl, ruth faced many adversities throughout her early stages of life. The racism and racial prejudice really hit Ruth hard from the first moment she moved to the United States of America. Ruth is made fun of and shunned for being a small jewish girl in school. Also, ruth has seen the worst of racism through all the African Americans who visit her fathers store. She watched the Ku Klux Klan visit the ghetto towns of Virginia and terrorize the whole black community. Then later on in her life, Ruth is forced to run away to New York for an abortion after getting pregnant from her African American boyfriend whose life was in extreme danger during that period in time. Ruth then falls in love and marries Andrew Dennis McBride The only way for ruth to somewhat get away from racism is to leave the white world behind and adapt the the black world. She chose to do this because the white community was not pro interracial marriages at that time. Also, the black community did not judge Ruth and was very accepting of her, despite her being

Ruth offers James confusion as he grapples with his racial identity as a younger boy, but she offers him clarity as a young adult. When James was young, Ruth would answer any of her questions and that bothered him but he knew not to push her to her limit or he would get the belt. He does not know what half of his race is, he know he was black from his father but knew nothing about his mother’s race. Ruth was not ashamed to be a Jew, but she did not support Judaism because of her father, Tateh. She was not hiding the fact that she was a Jew from James but she did not want to think about everything that she ran away from when she

In The Color of Water James McBride struggles to discover who he truly was as his mother explains to him the difficulties that she had to overcome as a white, Jewish woman and later on marrying a black