The Color Of Water Journal Entries
Chapters 1-3 :
[1] Ruth's memory of her childhood includes the explanation of her drastic separation from her family, that explains why she always avoids the topic of her family when it's brought up. Ruth is hesitant to remember the memories of her painful past.
[2] In the second chapter, James introduces his own voice. He begins by describing his mother's strange traits, which are both likable and embarrassing, and explains her difference from his friends parents and other adults. James first reveals one of the reasons for writing this memoir, which is to find explanations for his mother's behavior in the events that went on in her life.
[3] Ruth describes her parents arranged marriage. Her father was only able to come to America from his wife being in a higher class. She describes the strictness and specific rules of Orthodox Judaism. She also explains that she believes
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When he asks his siblings about his race or his background, they tease him, lie, or dismiss him. When he asks his mother about herself, she avoids the question or answers briefly.
[5] Ruth's description of her childhood allows James to understand how she decided to live her own life. Living being surrounded buy black people and interacting with them every day, she witnessed their lives and struggles. She saw her father treat them horribly, just like he treated her badly. Ruth often ignored her father's racist beliefs, like she ignored many parts of her father's personality and his treatment of his family.
[6] James describes his mother's embrace of Christianity and black churches. Ruth believes that no matter anyone's race, hard work determines your worth. She believes that God loves all races equally, and that goodness and devotion, not a certain race or class, make people worthy of God's grace.
Chapters 7-9
family would not survive. Ruth’s aspirations are hindered due to the fact that she is
In chapter nine Ruth was discussing the type of schooling she had received as a child. In her small town they had three schools, each designated to a group; whites, blacks, and Jews. According to Ruth, “, “The Jewish school didn’t really count for the white folk’s so [she] attended the white school” (page 61).She
Ruth’s Jewish background, her conversion to Christianity, and James’ childhood influence James’ confusion with his identity. Ruth was born Jewish and lived her life experiencing multiple situations of discrimination growing up. Jews and Blacks were hated upon during that period and by her marrying a black man, it attracted even more discrimination towards her. James experienced discrimination when he was younger because he was black. James knows nothing about Ruth’s past because she had kept it a secret from him and his siblings since they were young. Ruth had taught them a mindset that is set to focus only on education and religion, not focusing on anything else so they couldn’t question other ideas Ruth did not want them to see. When Ruth was living in New York with her husband Andrew McBride, Ruth found out that her mother
* This chapter was written in Italics because it was written from a different point of view which was Ruth’s perspective who talks about her past as a child.
James grew up in a racist and segregated part of history. Often times racial slurs were used to describe people of African descent during the time James was growing up. Even during school James would be called these horrendous names: “...someone in the back of the class whispered, “James is ni**er!” followed by a ripple of tittering and giggling across the room” (McBride 89). The fact that small school children call blacks these names shows how racist the many people are and the hatred and discrimination that blacks face. These experience taught James how people treat those that appear to be different. Another experience that taught James this was when he and his family went to the Jewish store and were discriminated against. McBride had many experiences in which he and his family were discriminated against whether it was by the police or store owners: “Some of these Jews can’t stand you” (86). All in all, incidents with people who have a particular dislike for blacks shaped James into the way
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
One of the themes was the burden of secrets that were kept. As a young boy, James knew very little about his mother’s childhood background. James’s mother Ruth discouraged his curiosity about her past and her background. She really never wanted her kids to know the things that she went through as a child and as a young adult. She was ashamed of the things that she went through, so she kept everything inside.What I think is going to happen is that James is that he is gonna have to realize that he can not be out doing drugs and skipping school. also he is going to have to grow up really fast.
Ruth was a source of knowledge that James trusted growing up. James, being a mixed child, is confused about what skin color God would have, so he asks his mother,”
Throughout the whole novel, Ruth is a tough and brave woman, yet she has a big
Ruth and James had different experiences when they attended school. Back in the days, when Ruth attended school in Suffolk, there was a split between “white folks’ school and a black folks’ school and a Jewish school,” (McBride 79). The school Ruth attended was not actually a real school, but instead a synagogue, where they did not get a good education compared to what other students were learning in school. In contrast, James “was the only black kid,” (McBride 89), attending in his classroom and he would get called many names because he was the only black kid.
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
One day after James and Ruth were arguing over whether James was black or white, Ruth told him a story. The story involved a teacher asking her class to tell her about different kinds of beans. The children told the teacher different names of beans and one little girl said that “we’re all human beans!” She told James the story to tell him that despite having different races we are all human beings.
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 middle of the book takes more of a look of some of the prejudices that both Ruth and James went through during their upbringing. Ruth begins to talk about the difficulties that came with being Jewish and living in the South during that time period. She was always the target for mockery by her peers, but fortunately met a girl named Frances who truly accepted her for who she was. They would spend a lot of time together, most of the time at Frances’ house due Tateh’s discern for gentiles. James also faced similar prejudices at school. Since his mother put so much of an emphasis on schoolwork, James and all of his siblings would have to go to predominantly Jewish schools and were the objects of ridicule for the other students. There was one instance in particular in which James was asked by his classmates to dance because of a predisposed idea that because he was black he could dance. He danced for the class, but conflicting thoughts were rushing through his mind. He felt accepted by his peers, but also ashamed that he stooped so low to gain that acceptance. This example as well as other instances that occurred with his siblings showed the racial tensions that were filling the air at that time.
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