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

James McBride’s claim in The Color of Water is that family does not define a person. He exemplifies this in expressing the stories of his mother and himself; where Ruth grew up with a terrible family and ran away to give herself a better life, James grows up in a great family. Neither one is defined by their family, even though they are both encouraged by them one way or another.

Ruth was emotionally abandoned she wanted someone to return the love she had been giving out. The mere idea of her having to go the rest of her life in that state frightened her. If she was emotionally supported by her husband she would have been happier. This shows that her mental state shows abandonment of women.

In the book, The Color of Water, Ruth’s past is very unknown and hidden to all of her children. James wants to find out more about his mother’s past so he decides to go to his mother’s old synagogue. In Chapter 22, James travels to downtown Suffolk in search for the Shilsky’s family to furthermore reveal his mother’s secretive past.

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,

This section in chapter ten really opened up how Ruth feels about her mother and how she left them with no explanation on why she is leaving them or what they should do now. Ruth does not see the world as a beautiful place like many others do, she views it as a surrounding that takes the people she loves the most away from her. Even thought her mother has been gone for so long their relationship is not at peace, she is still angry. The conflict was never resolved between Helen and Ruth and never will be. Helen cannot come back to Ruth and rationalize her reasoning for abandoning her children; it is Ruth’s responsibility to became okay with how the story of her life was written the way it

Although she is happy with mama’s decision to buy a house, Ruth is more concerned with receiving the affection of her husband and keeping him happy than the consequences or the moral implications his decisions will have. Ruth maintains the apartment they live in and most of the time, goes along with whatever Walter says. This is where Ruth and Mama differ; Mama wants Walter to be happy but not at the cost of doing something morally wrong, Ruth will do whatever it takes to make Walter happy. We see this when Ruth is contemplating having an abortion in order not to complicate living arrangements in the apartment and to allow Walter the financial means to pursue his goals. She also intends to keep it from Walter so spare him the burden of having to make a decision like that. When Mama find out about the abortion, she is appalled and says, “…we a people who give children life, not who destroys them.” Mama also succeeds in expressing her rich values and nurturing nature in Act III, Scene Three, when it is discovered that Walter has lost the remainder of the insurance money when his liquor store investment partner disappears with the money. Beneatha goes into a rage and openly expresses her hatred and contempt for her brother, and says, “He’s no brother of mine.”(Hansbury 3.3)

In the end, the relationship Ruth had with her mom played a big part in the person

Ruth’s dreams of living in better conditions shows how desperately she wants to fill an unfulfilled dream. She is even willing to work several jobs in order to ensure that the family can move and make ends meet when they move to the new house. This shows her determination to improve their situation despite the fact that she is pregnant. Her husband does not offer to lighten her burden by taking on more jobs. Furthermore he makes a sexist remark saying that Ruth just wouldn’t understand because money is a man’s domain and this highlights how he sees that women are not intellectual enough to understand finances. By putting his wife down is a sign of verbal abuse and I posit that he does this in order to feel more powerful as a man. He dreams

This passage talks about how Ruth’s father, Tateh, ran a household. He did’nt show any love to his wife or kids but he put them to work. Sam got so upset about having to work in his Tateh’s store that he ran away. Running a household is a very important factor to Ruth and James. Ruth tends to run a very strict household with grades and if they don’t listen to Ruth they get punished by a belt. Ruth’s household tactics are similar to her Tateh but she shows love for them too. Ruth would even put a king or queen in charge over their siblings. In this passage, Mcbride is describing how Ruth and her siblings hated being treated as slaves to their Tateh. This also relates to what James and his siblings go through. Some of the siblings such as Helen

In conclusion, Ruth Younger’s personality has a lot to do with her dream. It takes a while for happiness to arrive but usually those who are patient get the greatest outcome. Ruth isn’t the type of woman to be extremely aggressive or the type to state her opinions. Most of the time she had kept to herself. She’s the type of person to keep her emotions to herself which explains the abortion. It almost seems like she’s depressed all the time, she is just really hoping for the best. When Mama announced the new home, Ruth was the one to lighten up the most. Ruth knew that the leading source for the start of a happy life, was to move. Her dream consists of a step by step process to reach her goal of a happy family. She was the one who caused

That’s what she wanted to talk to you about. This isn’t for me to be telling-but you ought to know. I think Ruth is thinking about getting rid of that child(Hansberry pg. 62).” Ruth is in a tough situation where she doesn't know to kill the child or keep it alive. She believes that she won't have enough money to keep the child alive. This problem stresses Ruth out a ton. This causes trouble between Walter and Mama. Walter is not really caring if she might kill the baby and this makes Lena very upset. Lena thinks that every child should be welcomed into the world. Ruth finally decides she is going to have the baby and this makes Mama very happy.

Ruth is the catalyst for Grange to change his ways in his third life. After Grange's son, Brownfield kills his wife he is sent to jail, and his three children are orphaned. Grange takes the youngest child, Ruth, under his custody, while the older two are sent up north to live with their other grandfather. When Ruth comes into Granges life, he gains a whole new perspective on things. His priorities shift and Ruth becomes number one. His second wife, Josie doesn't understand this close bond that forms between grandfather and granddaughter or why Grange sees so much hope in Ruth.

The identity of person makes them who they are. In Rebecca identity is one of the themes the author choose to focus on. Some of the characters in Rebecca struggle with identity issues, but the narrator and heroine of the story is struggling with her identity the most.

Ruth is known as a woman of noble character in the Bible. In the book of Ruth, even after her husband, Makon died, she stayed faithful to her mother-in-law Naomi. She trusted the God was in control and eventually she was remarried to a man named Boaz. She found favor in his eyes when she was picking barley from his fields. Soon after she was married to Boaz. The named Ruth means companion or friendship which is exactly what she showed to Naomi and even though she didn’t know it, God would reward her for her obedience. Ruth had role in the genealogy of Jesus. He is the mother of Obed, who is the grandfather of King David. Trusting God is so important because God can use people in ways they could never imagine.

The story of Ruth is more than a romantic story seeking to give hope to the community in need of finding a husband. The book of Ruth contains a story of oddities and redemption through the interaction of Ruth, a Moabitess, Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law and Israelite, and Boaz, a man related to Elimelek. The story starts out by telling the readers the current lineage that is present in the story. Elimelek and Naomi, from Bethlehem, have two songs named Mahlon and Kilion. Those two are married to Ruth and Orpah. They lived in Moab but during that time all the three of the men of this family died. The three woman are left by themselves and the mother tells them that they should leave her in order to reestablish life in their homeland. She was now worthless to them as they would only be burdened. Orpah returns back out of logical decision, which respected the head of the household and general survival. Ruth on the other decides to stay, respect, and obey whatever Naomi may need from her. This extends to respecting and following the cultural laws that belong to Naomi’s character. Ruth works the land to provide food and marries Boaz in order to redeem Elimelek and Naomi’s line. The story has many points that seek to be explained but I would like focus on the concept of Ruth’s identity from the beginning to the end of the story. Ruth helps the people in the story to reach happiness but she does necessarily not accept the relationship/devotion to the God figure. The story itself