The Influence Of Ruth's Childhood In The Color Of Water

* 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.

In the book, “ Color of Water” by James Mcbride, Ruth and James dealt with their stepfather’s death differently. Ruth used the bike he rode on to remember him while James acted rebellious. Both James and Ruth suffered at the end due to their stepfather’s death and they both showed that losing a family member is horrible to overcome.

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

They began to question their lives and surroundings. McBride writes, “‘Does he like black or white people better?’ ‘He loves all people. He’s a spirit.’ ‘What’s a spirit?’ ‘A spirit’s a spirit.’ ‘What color is God’s spirit?’ ‘It doesn’t have a color,’ she said. ‘God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color,’” (McBride 50). Ruth raised her children to believe that everyone is equal and that it does not matter what your skin looks like. This conversation between mother and son demonstrates her desire for integration. She taught her kids that God loves them and people and spirits shouldn’t be categorized by appearance or skin color. The example she gives explaining the water lets the reader understand her thoughts about segregation and how it shouldn’t matter. This allowed them to build a strong mindset that wasn’t affected by discrimination. Because of the strength in the McBride Jordan family, The Color of Water portrayed the topic well in the aspect of family integration, but also of community.

Six million. Sons, daughters, husbands, wives. During World War Two, this number represented the amount of Jewish people exterminated in a period a little over a decade. At the base of this genocide was the idea of anti-semitism, or hatred of the Jewish people, which was a major theme in the book The Color of Water by James McBride. While this prejudice is present in many spots in the novel, the author does not intentionally present a clear dislike of Jews, but rather gives an honest account of the story, which contains parts that might come off as anti-Semitic. These biased views are a result of James’ conflicts with Judaism as a child, and Ruth’s inability to follow her childhood intentions at the hands of Jewish authority. This book is also displays a lack of anti-Semitism because the benefits of Judaism are clearly exemplified multiple times in the book.

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

Sometimes in life people make great sacrifices, which cause them to value what they have even more. What we value can only be only by what we sacrifice. In the novel, The Color of Water, by James McBride, Ruth McBride made many sacrifices and surrendered her family and culture to pursue a new life. Ruth was a Polish immigrant and her father was a rabbi. Ruth’s father was very prejudiced and this caused her to sympathize with African Americans.

James McBride was a black boy that had a white mother. You can imagine that going to an all-white school that he was going to get teased in school and that he was going to question himself. If it wasn’t for a change in perspective, you would never grow. But James had needed to change his perspective faster than others. James has gone through a huge change in perspective in the book, “The Color of Water.” It is shown in his book from the beginning, middle, and end of the book noting on how by changing his perspective he was able to grow and mature into someone better. As teenagers we always think that our parents have no idea about what we go through and everything is different than when they were our age but in a sense

James’s mother provided the best education to her children. That meant attending schools that were located in Jewish neighborhoods. James and his siblings were often the only black children in their classes. I am unsurprised James felt uncomfortable in a class full of students with the same skin color. Students must have stared at him like he was an alien and made prejudice remarks. Yet, I understand Ruth’s decision for only wanting the best for her children. She is a mother and like all mothers around the world, she will do whatever she possibly

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,

The Jews known as particularist believed that God desired them to separate themselves from others (Wilcox, 2014). This belief led to the racial purity laws enacted during the post-exilic period, due to the belief that only Jews were able to partake in the divine covenant with God. However, universalist Jews believed that it was their duty to share God with other nations and cultures and that other ethnicities could share in the divine covenant. The writer of Ruth likely held the universalist view, hence the story of intermarriage and Ruth’s eventual belief in God. Consequently, during the post-exilic period, many Jews were living outside of Palestine, and the Jews left behind had intermarried with other cultures (Tullock, & McEntire, 2012).

The Color of Water by James McBride was a story about a young boy trying to figure out his racial identity but his mother would not talk about her past or what race she was. All James knew was that she was white living in a black power neighborhood and that fact terrified him. He thought that to grow up he had to know his racial identity but through all the trouble and hard times he went through he learned that his race did not matter. It was his education that was the most important. Ruth attitude about her race effected James through his childhood and as a young adult, she negatively affected his racial development, and Ruth eventually clears up his questions that he has been

In the novel The Color of Water Ruth's life choices are affected by her childhood and the attitudes she observed from her father. She recognizes all her life that her Jewish faith separates her from the society a little bit. She grew up in a time period of great prejudice against Jews, yet she still had great friendships with non-Jews. As she gets older, she ends up living as a Christian woman married to a black man. (McBride 236) This was due to the fact that she didn’t want to grow up to be anything like her father.

Ruth’s mother set a feminine guiding line that was characterized by a serious devotion to principle, righteousness, duty, and her husband.