Summary Of Chapter 15 Of The Color Of Water

In the Color Of Water Ruth and James deal with Hunter Jordan’s death in a very differently . The way Ruth handles her husband’s grief was strange . When Hunter died James mother picked up a habit of riding a bicycle . She would ride her bicycle around the streets of Queen . For example , her son James would watch her ride her bicycle. “ She would ride in slow motion across our street , Murdock Avenue..It was her way of grieving. “ ( McBride 7) . James would find it odd that she would this. Sometimes James mother would ride her bicycle to ignore her husband old car. For instance , James said “ Daddy’s old car sat out front for weeks...every day she rode her bike right past it , ignoring it ( McBride 7 ). Moreover , ridding a bike seemed

As, he becomes older he realizes, he needs to understand who his mother is and where she came from. Knowing who she his will help him understand himself and find his true identity. James really struggled for a long time trying to find his identity. After many years he came to a realization, “There are two worlds bursting inside me trying to get out. I had to find out more about who I was, and in order to find out who I was, I had to find out who my mother was.”(McBride 266) He finally realized that it was because of his mothers hidden past that he was struggling with his identity. This is important because here, he was enlightened and was very motivated to find out where his mother came from and who she was. Ruth’s hidden past throughout James childhood made it difficult for him to understand himself. In the begging in the book Ruth tells the reader, “You want to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty years… They want no parts of me and I don’t want no parts of them.”(McBride 1) Right off the bat Ruth blocks her family out of her life, she is “dead” to them. This is important because James knows nothing of her past. He doesn’t know anyone from his mother family or even where they once lived. He knew nothing. She has no past to share with James and this doesn’t help along with being biracial and his mother was open, maybe James wouldn’t have had such a hard time growing up trying to find his

Ruth led a life broken in two. Her later life consists of the large family she creates with the two men she marries, and her awkwardness of living between two racial cultures. She kept her earlier life a secret from her children, for she did not wish to revisit her past by explaining her precedent years. Once he uncovered Ruth 's earlier life, James could define his identity by the truth of Ruth 's pain, through the relations she left behind and then by the experiences James endured within the family she created. As her son, James could not truly understand himself until he uncovered the truth within the halves of his mother 's life, thus completing the mold of his own

Aristotle once theorized, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” The book, “The Color of Water” describes the lives of James and Ruth McBride and their journeys to find this happiness. Both of these characters, among other characters in the book struggled for the majority of their lives with the issues of race. They felt as if they were caught between two different worlds; the world of blacks and the world of whites. These struggles left all of the characters feeling forlorn. In McBride’s memoir it is made clear that in order to find happiness, the characters must first be able to confront and then overcome the racial divisions that were so prominent in their lives.

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

The book begins talks about other conflicts that arose with James and Ruth. James took a downward spiral during his teenage years,

Ruth just want to get out of poverty and to have a happy family. She doesn’t want to lose her opportunity to get out of the too small dilapidated apartment of which her family is forced to live in do to their lack of finances.

The theme for chapter six is to never take life for granted because anything could happen and it could change you. I know this because in the book, Blue Skin of the Sea, it states, “...there was no dogs, no birds, no chickens clucking, no nothing, but a small window filled with gray clouds...” This tells the reader that anything could happen randomly out of nowhere. Than in the chapter it states, “Aunty pearl was quietly crying listening to the radio as more gray clouds rolled in.” This tells the reader that anything could affect you in many different ways like feelings. Than, in the chapter it states, “The news person sounded excited but very scared.” From this, the reader could tell that not only the characters that were stated in the book

On average, women do more unpaid work, such as household chores and childcare, than men. This trend remains constant around the world and all throughout history (“Is the Gender Pay Gap Real?”). The women in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun are no exception. This story follows the Youngers, who are an African American family living in Chicago during the 1940s. Beneatha, Lena, and Ruth, the story’s main female characters, are the main source of strength for their family.

The book of Ruth is about an intimate love story written around 1000BC. The book is written about Ruth during a dark period when Israel was with out a leader and the people did what they wanted (Judges 21:25) and as result consistently fell. The story of Ruth opens with the picture of a desperate situation for a women named Naomi, who lost her husband, two sons and was in the immediate care of two daughter-in-laws. Naomi plans to leave Moab in head back to the only place she could possibly seek refuge. Bethlehem or the City of David was her destination and at first she had no plans of taking her daughter-in-laws with her, but as fate would have it, one of her daughter-in-laws would cling to her and follow Naomi to her homeland. Ruth shows a great example of fidelity (Ruth 17) by renouncing her faith and picking up the faith of Naomi and following her to

Ruth, a wise gracious house keeper, has made the astute decision to keep Patty’s secret about Anton mum because of the love and respect Anton pours out into Patty and Ruth. She sees Anton run out into the streets to stop Mr. Bergen from hitting her and afterwards, she mentions it to Patty. When Patty establishes that she is housing Anton, Ruth decides he is a nice man and will help keep Patty’s secret. When Anton, Ruth, and Patty are in the Kitchen, Anton invites Ruth to sit down with them. “[Patty] was sure no white man had ever before offered [Ruth] a chair” (Greene 138). Ruth concludes that Anton is a pleasant man who has proven to admire and adore Patty.

In the Color of Water, Ruth Mcbride has an important significance, because her complex past is what propels the book. Without her, the book would not be nearly as interesting. James Mcbride, Ruth’s son and author of the book, portrays Ruth as a secretive, un maternal like, and spiritual woman. Ever since James was a child, he remembers his mother never mentioning her past or her racial identity. James notes:”She had a complete distrust authority and an insistence on complete privacy which seemed to make her and my family odder .... Matters involving race and identity she ignored (9) Ruth keeps her past hidden away from her children, so that she doesn’t have to relive painful memories or inquire her past. In doing so, Ruth also doesn’t label

Aunt Nanette takes him to Harlem because that is where Uncle Romie grew up as a little boy. James becomes enamored of bustling Harlem, where he plays stickball and partakes in a rooftop barbecue. On his birthday, Aunt Nanette has to go to old aunt's funeral, so Aunt Nanette was not there for his birthday. James felt so bad because Uncle Romie didn't know about his birthday except his paintings.

a. Reading James McBride’s novel brought on a plethora of emotions. I sometimes forget just how trying life can be for “minorities.” For Ruth I mostly felt empathy and sadness. During her childhood, the white kids were mean to her, her father molested her and showed absolutely no respect for her mother, teen pregnancy/abortion, and then she finds the courage to leave where she finds true love not once, but twice only to have that ripped away from her. Ruth’s life is one struggle after 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.