Identity In Mcbride's The Color Of Water By James Mcbride

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

According to Brenda Shoshanna, an author and psychologist, “Unless we base our sense of identity upon the truth of who we are, it is impossible to attain true happiness” Everyone on Earth has their own unique identity, and if they do not have an identity they will always be struggling to find it. In The Color of Water by James McBride, the author tries to understand his mother’s identity in hopes that it will help him find his own as well. After learning his mother’s life story and going back to her hometown, James finds that Ruth’s family made the most impact on her identity because of her hypocritical father, kind mother, and her evasive siblings.

James retorts, " I never knew who I was. It wasn 't ' so much of a question of searching for myself as it was my own decisions not to look." It was only when James uncovers the life of his mother does he begin to understand the complexity within himself, noting that, "the uncertainty that lived inside me began to dissipate; the ache that the little boy who stared in the mirror felt was gone." By uncovering Ruth 's earlier life, James could understand his own singularity, thus creating the identity he sought his life to achieve.

This is fueled by, not only the changing emotions that teenagers typically endure, but also by the death of his stepfather, whom he saw as his own father. After his death, James cannot bear to see his mother suffer, for she no longer knows how to control the dynamics of the family and "wandered in an emotional stupor for nearly a year." James instead turns to alcohol and drugs, dropping out of school to play music and go around with his friends, which James refers to as "my own process of running, emotionally disconnecting myself from her, as if by doing to I could keep her suffering from touching me." Instead of turning to his family and becoming "the king in the house, the oldest kid," James "spent as much time away from home as possible… absolve[ing] [himself] of all responsibility…" As a result, Ruth sends James to live with his older half sister and her husband, in an attempt to straighten her out her son's life. James distracts himself with the life he found there, spending the summers on a street corner with his half sister's husband, Big Richard, whom he adores, and the unique men that frequented the area. During these summers, James discovers "[He] could hide. No one knew [him]. No one knew [his] past, [his] white mother, [his] dead father, nothing. It was perfect. [His] problems seemed far, far away." Instead of facing the realities of loss and anger in his family, James seeks distractions

Whenever Ruth or James McBride face any forms of racism, especially for being related to each other, having different skin colors, they can always look to religion to aid them through these tough times. It appears so that in the book, religion knows no race, and therefore is very accepting

There are many ways that Chicken Man influenced James’s identity. One of those ways was how Chicken Man prevented James from going down a road that involved drugs, jail, and a waste of his life. When James gets harrassed by a man at his job, he punches him in the face. Because of this incident, James got fired. He then ran his idea to shoot the guy that got him fired by Chicken Man, he is confused at the answer he got. Chicken man asked if that is ,” how you want to end up, Goin’ to jail for him?” (McBride 149) illustrating how Chicken Man is trying to influence James not go down the path that will ruin his life. James

Despite the fact that he respected his mother, James grew to question her unorthodox strictness and unusual teachings. Eventually, he graduated college to become a press writer and a jazz musician, yet he still felt incomplete. James says "Play sax, write books, compose music, do something, express yourself, who the hell are you anyway? There were two worlds bursting inside me trying to get out. I had to find out more about who I was..." (330). Even though James has a great job that pays well, he still quits because he wishes to figure out who he is. By saying this, he proves that he wants to find his identity and reason for continuing his line of work. I chose this quote because it clearly demonstrates how James feels about finding his identity.

In the book The Color of Water, the author, James McBride not only takes us through his own journey, but also gives us a perspective on the life of his mother, Ruth. James’ admiration for his mom reflects throughout the story while showing the readers the growth and development her character experienced as she went through life. Ruth McBride-Jordan endured many heartbreaking hardships throughout her life, but nevertheless, had an innumerable amount of cheerful and zestful moments. She grew to be a remarkable woman; however, it was a long journey before she became that woman. Separating from her family, and leaving the South was one of the hardest choices she ever made, yet it was best for her, in order to move on and adjust her future for the better. A main factor in Ruth’s life prosperity was her first husband, Andrew Dennis McBride, who taught her many important things and, in a sense, changed her entire lifestyle and outlook on the world. The last large impression that altered her life immensely in a way that led her character to mature, was the death of her beloved “Dennis”. These elements all highlight a point in this woman’s life that caused a development in her personality.

McBride utilizes anecdote to illustrate the theme that Ruth tried to change to be more American.Through Ruth’s narration, her desire to be normal is made evident in her attempt to change her name to fit in. Ruth explains, “my real name was Rachel...but

James is confused and does not know how to choose between writing and music and also whether to identify himself as black or white. An example of him overcoming this situation is when he says “there are two worlds bursting inside me trying to get out. I had to find out who I was and in order to find out who I was, I had to find out who my mother was” (266). This is important because James wants to know what the right decision to make is. He wants to make the decision that will make him find his path in life and make him happy and successful. At the end James chooses both careers and identifies himself as biracial, which makes him feel

It is important to find out who you are. In order to find out who you are, you must start you’re roots and if you have no roots or are unable to reach them, finding where you came from to help find yourself becomes really difficult. Also it’s hard to find yourself when you have others telling you who you are and who you are supposed to be. These two put together makes it extremely hard to find yourself. In James McBride’s memoir The Color of Water, James McBride has conflicting feelings of being biracial illustrates how important it is to know where you came from and who you are in order to move forward in your life.

James was an orphan and he was living with a thief, Jacko, so he was in the vicious circle, like if he was meant to become a thief and live a bad life. Ballantyre took him under his wing by offering first saving him from starvation, he gave him food. Then, he talked to him about his future, how brighter it could be if someone better than Jacko would take care of him. That’s when Ballantyre offered him a job, a place to stay and a remuneration. James said yes, and then Ballantyre made sure he was going to grow into a respective man.

Ruth and James both had similar and different experiences while they attended school. Ruth had not had anyone she was really able to interact with while she was at Suffolk. There was three schools they had for whites, blacks, and jews at Suffolk. The jewish school did not meet the state requirements so she attends as her father calls it a “gentile school”(chapter 9). Ruth felt as if nobody liked her until she met her friend Frances (chapter 9). Ruth remembers the poverty that inflicted both white and black people. Unlike his mother James did not have that one true friend he can rely on when he felt depressed. Instead he took on a hobby, and that hobby was playing jazz music and it was used to help him escape his painful memories (chapter 10).

James and his mother’s public school experiences were quite difficult. Similar, by that they were separated or discriminated. But Ruth was able to express herself in school and James expressed himself through his talents. And differently was a white, black, and Jewish schools. When choosing a public school for her children to attend, Ruth ensured that they attended predominantly Jewish public schools (McBride 87) Even though it was very far to arrive to it. The children were nearly always the token blacks in their classes, and as James grew older he became increasingly confused about his own racial identity. “I was the only black kid in my fifth-grade class at P.S. 138 in the then all-white enclave of Rosedale, Queens, and one afternoon as

The desire to find where we come from plagues humanity even today. People go out into the world to find answer to the question about their existence they desperately seek. James needed answers to the question the plagued him his whole life ‘who am I’. Ruth finally gives in and a door opens that leads James on a journey to understand the person he taught he knew. The Color of Water becomes the answer the James seeked and needed to move on with his life. That burning need to know left James after Ruth told her story.