...In the book, “The Color of Water” , the main character, James McBride, suffers from his father's death. However, he is not the only person who grieves over Hunter’s death. Ruth, James’s mother also grieves over her lost husband. In the following essay, The way that these characters grieve will be contrasted in this essay. Throughout the book, James make reference that his step father to him was always like a daddy. After his death, James takes on very bad traits and activities. “ I virtually dropped out of high school after he died, I spent the year going to movies on Forty-second street in Times Square with my friends.” (McBride 6). Moreover, James admits to, “snatching purses, and shoplifting, I even robbed a petty drug dealer once.”...
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...The Color of Water by James McBride is an amazing autobiography that gives insight to what it was like to be black during a time when it was bad to be black. What makes his story even more amazing, however, is the account of his white-skinned mother. It’s difficult to say how many white people chose to take on a black lover when it meant endangering the lives of both in the relationship, not to mention their offspring, but the account of McBride’s mother, Ruth, in his book makes it worth that much more. He dedicates the book to her, and I feel that the value attributed to The Color of Water is second only to the treasure that is James McBride’s wonderful and inspiring mother. The story told within The Color of Water is very personal and thus...
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...involve race, Jesus is considered the answer since it is an immense overlapping between the two conflicting diversities. In “The Color of Water” by James McBride, the main character, Ruth who was a Jewish mom and wife to two African-American men, brought up twelve children and gave them the best education all because of her God. She dealt with many biracial questions and one day when her son pressingly asked her if Jesus was black or white she responded the he was the color of water. The central idea is that identity is not based on color however it is plainly the color of water while who we really are is the choices we make in life....
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...In the book The Color of Water by James McBride uses satirical techniques to criticize the struggles Ruth faced throughout her life. A satirical technique is a technique in which a writer ridicules or criticizes a person, group, institution or event using certain literary devices. As Ruth described the struggles she faced as a child, the author uses satirical techniques such as irony, incongruity and reversal. For example, in the passage it states, “Anytime he had a chance, he’d try to get close to me or crawl into bed with me and molest me.” (McBride, pg. 42). This quote conveys how ironic it was to know that the father of Ruth treated her like that, due to the fact that he was a rabbi or priest who travelled around. In the outside world he...
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...The Color of Water by James McBride shows how interracial marriages can succeed despite disapproval from others. In history, people tend to be hostile and unfair towards people of a different skin color than them. As a result, people during the 1960s and 1970s tend to stay within the norms of marrying people who are similar to themselves, but this book shows how norms can change and new history can be created. The main character of the book, Ruth, is expected to marry a white Jewish man, and her father attempts to arrange a marriage for her: “Daddy arranged for me to meet several young men from Brooklyn’s Jewish community. Most of them were hardworking, studious boys, but they didn’t appeal to me” (77). Despite the expectations set for her...
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...Summary & Response #3: McBride James McBride's inspiring memoir, The Color of Water, describes his hardships living as an interracial child and later how he was able to become a talented musician and writer. In one scene, James describes how music and literature became his escape from reality. For example, he remembers “Music arrived in my life around that time, and books. I would disappear inside whole worlds comprised of Gulliver's travels, Shane, and books by Beverly Cleary” (McBride 90). Later in the scene, James begins to get lost in the music while trying to improve on his musical skills. For instance, McBride vividly recalls, “I took piano and clarinet lessons in school, often...
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...pressure from others. In the novel The Color of Water, written by James McBride, he delineates self-motivation as, “The constant learning and yearning for knowledge…” (pg. 270) James McBride’s view on self-motivation is emphasized through his use of rhetorical terms such as: tone, parenthetical, point of view, and many other rhetorical terms. The attitude of a writer toward the subject or audience is helpful in identifying said writer’s views. In this case, views on self-motivation are being identified. James McBride’s tone in The Color of Water can be described as matter-of-fact. As James describes things his mother, Ruth, does in her retired years he states, “But that’s not enough to keep her busy.” (pg....
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...that the author will expose his or hers life in a truthful manner. Therefore, The Color of Water by James McBride to its full extent can be consider as an autobiography. On the other hand, The Autobiography of Malcolm X to an extent can’t be consider as an autobiography. The novel The Color of Water by James McBride allows the reader to learned the hardships of McBride himself had to suffer throughout his life. For example, “I was lost. My house was two blocks away… I stood on the corner and bit back my tears,” (McBride 9).This specific line is important because the character is full of fear and realizes that he is going to have to learn to walk home by himself without his mother. In addition McBride acknowledges the reader of his abominable life by “To further escape from painful reality, I created an imaginary world for myself. I believed my true self was a boy who lived in the mirror,” (McBride 69). Young McBride created this world in order to escape his real life which was all about hunger and suffering. The boy in the mirror represents the entire opposite life McBride wanted. That quotation “I kissed her and got on the bus quickly to hide my own tears…she hated Delaware and I had talked to her into staying there, now I was leaving,” (McBride 146). This moment is when McBride is departing to college it shows sadness because he is leaving his mother but it also shows a new phase on McBride life. Overall the novel is based upon the author life events full emotions which he...
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...In the story of Color of Water, Ruth and James both dealt with their grief over Hunter Jordan’s death similarly; both of them having in common of dealing with their grief of it making them unaware of what is occurring, not having a care. As you can see, “blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person in a black world. She saw none of it,” (McBride 8), Ruth was unaware of the danger she could’ve faced, because whites and blacks did not like her for being a white person in a black neighborhood. Another example of how Ruth dealt with her grief was riding “in slow motion across...Murdock...only white person in sight,” (McBride 7). Ruth’s way of dealing with her grief was by distracting herself, that being outside, enjoying nature...
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...Throughout the book, The Color of Water, Ruth’s family had experienced many miserable events including deaths of both her spouses and her dad. Ruth’s family consists of 12 children and with the death of her first spouse, Andrew McBride, it was really hard for her. However, she was able to continue on with her life and ended up being married to her second husband, Hunter Jordan. Fortunately, he was able to continue on the care and love for the children after McBride. Sorrowfully, he passed away due a stroke. With this in mind, Ruth and her son James had diverse ways in dealing with the grief of Hunter Jordan’s death. To begin with, Ruth dealt with Hunter’s death by riding her bicycle in slow motion across the street. For example, James says, “..as cars swerved around her and black motorists gawked at the strange, middle-aged white lady riding her ancient bicycle..it was her way of grieving..” (McBride 7). Moreover, she grieved Hunter’s death by taking up a new hobby, playing the piano. To illustrate, James expresses, “now she seemed intent on playing the piano..” (McBride 7). In addition, another way Ruth dealt with her spouse’s death was by going to church, where she felt...
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...Thonpson English 10 15 March 2015 Color of water The book Color of water by James McBride is about his mother Ruth McBride and her struggles with cultural and racial differences. Color of water is set in the early 1930’s through the late l960’s in both the southern town of Suffolk, Virginia and the city of Brooklyn, New York. Many important symbols appear throughout the story, including Ruth’s bike, flying birds, and clear water. These symbols were important in Ruth’s life. Ruth rides an old blue and white battery-powered bike to maintain a connection with her dead husband. Her second husband , Hunter Jordan, found this bike abandoned in Brooklyn and brought it home. “The contraption would be a collector’s item now, probably worth about five thousand dollars, but back then it was something my step father found on the street in Brooklyn and hauled home a few months before he died.” (page 5). Ruth would ride this bike up and down the street as a form of grieving the loss of her late husband. The loss of her husband was one of the difficulties that Ruth encountered during her life and it took her several years to move on. The symbol of how water has no color is made when Ruth and her son are in church. Ruth’s son asks her what color god was because their family is “mixed”. He asked this because Ruth is a white Jewish woman (now Catholic) who married a black man and had mixed-race children. “God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color.” (page 51). This symbol was significant...
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...Quarter 1 American Dream Essay Charles B. Rangel once quoted “The promise of the American Dream requires that we are all provided an equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to our nation. The American Dream is the ideal that every U.S citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. The poems “I,Too,Sing America” by Langston Hughes, “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska, and the novel “The Colors of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His Mother” by James McBride all represent how race influences the pursuit of the American Dream. Race influences the pursuit of the American Dream because based on your race determines if you are treated as less than or above others. As stated from the poem “I,Too,Sing America” by Langston Hughes on page 13 in the Springboard book “I,Too,Sing America, I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes, .... Tomorrow I’ll be at the table when company comes, Nobody’ll dare say to me, “Eat in the...
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...analyzing the past provides valuable lessons for people. They can draw wisdom and fix their present behavior as the way in The Color of Water. The memoir The Color of Water is McBride’s tribute to his mother. In the novel, McBride goes back and forth between stories between himself and his mother. We see how their life progresses and who they eventually become. Although she initially imposed, Ruth McBride eventually discusses her difficult childhood while James discusses who his mother eventually became. We see how she used her past to learn and thrive from it. The theme of how one’s past can affect their future develops throughout the novel. Body Paragraph #1: We can see throughout the novel that Ruth doesn’t dwell on her past she learns from it. She doesn’t want to be another version of her parents so she changes. She had difficult childhood who had a hard time dealing with certain things such as race and religion. Despite Ruth’s painful upbringing, McBride discloses that by learning Tateh’s values and by avoiding his...
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...she helped us analyze each argument and apply concepts that mimic real life situations. For example, we discussed the situation in the book where James’ mother Ruth born into an orthodox Jewish family explains that she has become, in her own words, “dead” to her family as a result of her marriage to Andrew Dennis McBride, James’ African American father . Contrasting her depiction of the hardships she had to endure because of her marriage to a black man was a sobering reality for some of my classmates because they fully understood and can empathize with what James had to endure as a child of an interracial...
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...brothers running across the roof, flying their kites...I wondered how free a daughter could ever be”(Yousafzai 26). Her father and mother had a respectful and loving relationship, as well as her father owning a school that of which she grew up in. Seeing how most females in her country did not share this luxury, Malala was inspired. Malala’s story shares a connection with the second memoir I read, The Color of Water, by James McBride. The Color of Water is a story that follows McBride’s childhood and the mystery behind his white mother. McBride, growing up in the early ‘60s, faced much racial discrimination. McBride’s mother, Ruth, who grew up in the south, also witnessed this aspect of cruelty, saying she “ always felt that way about the South, that beneath the smiles and southern hospitality and politeness were a lot of guns and liquor and secrets”(McBride 95). McBride, despite facing discrimination, is proud of his skin, saying that his “siblings had already instilled the notion of black pride in [him]”(McBride 90) and that “ as a kid, [he] preferred the black side”(McBride 91). This connects with I am Malala as even though it would feel as if the world around them was against them, the two narrators still manage to find pride and achieve excellence in who they...
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