Tateh greatly influenced the identity of Ruth through his unrighteous controlling acts and moral beliefs. Tateh was the father of Ruth, whom originally married Mameh in intentions to bring himself to America. As a man of greed and of complete selfishness, he caused great damage to Ruth’s esteem and general view of herself, which later trailed off to affect the esteem of Mameh as well as Sams'. Causing such great damage to many of his close ones, ultimately lead to their own independent removal of the family, finding that the hatred Tateh was unbearable to be correlated with. Tatehs' great influence to who Ruth was identified as is seen in Chapter 5 were Ruth states, “ Anytime he had a chance, he was tried to get close to me or crawl into bed …show more content…
As it is noticed, throughout the book she profoundly continues to battle this behavior such like when her purse was stolen or when she thought the priest inconsiderate for not mentioning her the founder of the church. In both of these situations, she remains in a state of complete silence, presuming her voice not valid in the evaluation of complete wrongdoing. Another way which Tateh influences Ruth's change in identity is through his moral beliefs and values. In Chapter 7 it states, “ Tateh hated black people” ( McBride 61). This great example further reasons why Ruth ended up leaving off with Dennis, a black man, to go against the beliefs Tateh had intended for Ruth to follow. Ruth not only stops there but continues with this occasionally acts of rebellion against his father's will, by converting religion, correlating with a pimp and even refusing to listen to the commands of her own father. Ultimately Tatehs’ unrighteous morals invoked Ruth to follow a path where the morals of her own, at which shaped her identity, were ones that she genuinely believed and aspired