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
Firstly, Ruth is a mature woman who can make decisions on her own. Ruth tries to get an abortion, “I think Ruth is thinking bout getting rid of that child”. Ruth is an independent mature lady, she makes a decision to get an abortion which was unlikely for Ruth to other family members. Ruth’s family has been struggling with money and relationship with each other, bringing
Ruth’s dream is to improve her family’s lifestyle and move into a house where she can raise Travis and the new baby. To realize her dreams she should not put everyone else’s wants and needs in front of hers all of the time. She should express her feelings more often so that her family will listen and help her to reach her goals. The play supports this view by showing how Ruth often neglects her feelings and pays great attention to her family’s feelings, wants, and needs.
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
The movie begins with Ruth being sold for service to Chemosh in order for her family to be fed. After being sold, she is required to worship and serve Chemosh. The Moabites, to appease Chemosh, have an annual sacrifice of one of the children. Ruth is chosen by the priest to be sacrificed and suddenly a blemish appears on the crook of her elbow causing the priest to select a different sacrifice. The blemish suddenly vanishes after the priest selects another girl to be sacrificed. The blemish’s quick appearance and disappearance demonstrate that Ruth is destined to be used by God for something greater and that He will not have her die for a false god. Upon meeting Mahlon, she is slowly converting to Judaism through Mahlon’s teaching of creation, prayer, and love. She begins to question the ways of Chemosh and the annual sacrifice, leading to her eventually leave the kingdom to follow God. Elimelech and Chilion die at the hands of the Moabite army while Ruth and Mahlon are held captive. After the escape, Mahlon lives just long enough to marry Ruth. Ruth
The Book of Ruth Ruth is a story about loyalty, love, and faith. The simple love story
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.
There was only one good thing that Ruth took away from her father; She needed to be strict with her children about their education, but still loving at the same time. This parenting style became a part of Ruth, and shaped her identity of how to act as a mother and a member of society. Tateh was a terrible and hypocritical father, but he did help shape Ruth’s identity by showing her all of his flaws.
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
The line “Then Naomi, bereaved of her two sons as well as of her husband, got ready to return to her own country…” shows that once Naomi had no more family ties to Moab, and the famine in Judah had ended, she had motive to return to her own country, where she did have family. The importance of family ties, now in reference to ones created through marriage, can be seen when one daughter-in-law, Ruth, refuses to return to her own land and wishes to go with Naomi to Judah. At first, both daughters-in-law wanted to stay when Naomi spoke of returning to her home country. “They wept aloud and said, ‘No, we shall return you to your people.’” However, in the end Orpah returned home, remaining with her family of birth and Ruth stayed, remaining with her family of marriage. Another reference to the importance of family ties appears when the man Boaz, who is kin to Naomi, is speaking to Ruth, saying “You are proving yourself more devoted to the family than ever by not running after any young man, whether rich or poor.” Family can be assessed as being central to life in the Book of Ruth, as loyalty to family is mentioned several
Although the book does start out with sorrow of the death of the men in Ruth and Naomi’s life, the story ends with happiness and blessings. Ruth represents a kind, caring and hardworking individual. Because she had a devotion to her mother-in-law and followed her instructions faithfully, Naomi and Ruth are blessed. Ruth is a gentile but God recognizes Ruth’s faithfulness and devotion and blesses her. Boaz is also named as a man faithful to God (Duvall, Hayes, 2012).
It’s about how even though God is greater than life, He is still interested in seemingly insignificant people. ‘The Book of Ruth’ can be shown to interpret that it is by using ordinary people that God brings about remarkable events. That’s a good message because it gives ordinary people a positive view to approach life
The book of Ruth opens with the death of Naomi’s husband and sons. Socially, Naomi was left nameless. During this era, any social significance or worth came from the men in her life. These dire circumstances rendered her invisible and marginalized in the eyes of the other Moabites and Jews. In our world today, although we do have different constructs that govern the way we treat men and women, there are certainly examples of individuals that surround us who are so low on the social ladder that we barely assign them a name or identity. The millions of starving orphaned, or dying people in the developing world sympathize and mimic the identity crisis and marginalization Naomi faced. However as the book unfolds, Ruth her widowed daughter in law,
of God in the story of Ruth, as well as in modern society, is eliminated.
I can't explain what happened that summer. I just know that Ruth came into my life just when I needed her the most. The next time I went to visit her, the cottage wasn't there anymore. It was just a circle of trees. I know that she's still with me today because the lessons she taught me are in everything I do. I hope someday, when I'm in a rocking char remembering all the big things in my life, I can share these pearls of wisdom with my
The different types of contributions that the Book of Ruth made to ethics and racial issues are acceptance of being an alien in a foreign land and that God’s covenant are not limited by any boundaries no matter where you come from or what your background may be. Ruth married a man name Boaz. Ruth was constantly mentioned as the Moabitess because she was from a strange land. Her background teaches that even this Moabite woman can live in covenant and have faithful relationship with him.