James McBride's The Color of Water Essay

Aristotle once theorized, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” The book, “The Color of Water” describes the lives of James and Ruth McBride and their journeys to find this happiness. Both of these characters, among other characters in the book struggled for the majority of their lives with the issues of race. They felt as if they were caught between two different worlds; the world of blacks and the world of whites. These struggles left all of the characters feeling forlorn. In McBride’s memoir it is made clear that in order to find happiness, the characters must first be able to confront and then overcome the racial divisions that were so prominent in their lives.

Black son, white mother. Living in Brooklyn, which is a predominantly black neighborhood, during the 1950’s. Just by analyzing the two main characters and the setting we can conclude that a recurring theme in James McBride’s The Color of Water is racial prejudice and injustice. Racial prejudice and injustice are still present in today’s society. All you have to do to see it is turn on the news.

James McBride has faced many obstacles in his life and that consisted of facing discrimination throughout the majority of his youth, having an overall sense of being lost, being embarrassed by his mother’s appearance (being white), and questioning life in general. As the novel progresses, James begins to overcome the obstacles he has faced by embracing God and Jazz. He turned to Jazz in order to escape his drug use and drinking. James’ life has proven to be highly inspiring because he grew up during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. There were many conflicts surrounding interracial marriages and anything against Black Culture.

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.

The book begins talks about other conflicts that arose with James and Ruth. James took a downward spiral during his teenage years,

A main facet of James’ youth was his isolation from Jews and whites in general at the hands of his mother Ruth. On the few occasions that James encountered Jewish people, he stared in fascination as his mother haggled with them in Yiddish. Confused and amused, James always pondered how his mother learned the unique language. Despite these random brushes with them, James was mostly shielded from the Jewish religion, and began to infer that his mother disliked Jews for a reason, and that he too should not associate himself with them, claiming that he “never felt any kinetic relationship to Jews” (McBride 86). For a young

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.

Philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Whether individuals are silly or wise, studying incidents from their history provides them valuable lessons. By unrolling their memories, people can draw wisdom from prior errors and safeguard their futures. James McBride typifies this notion when he weaves his mother Ruth’s old times and his new world in his memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother. Via James’s quest for his mother's heritage as a struggling biracial kid, McBride portrays the strength of Ruth who endures social and economic hardships raising twelve biracial children. Despite Ruth’s reticence on her painful upbringing, the author discloses that

He got into a boy band after the death and made new friends, but he did illegal acts with them “ My new friends and I shoplifted. We broke into cars. We snuck onto the nearby Conrail/Long Island Rail Road tracks and broke into freight cars, robbing them of bicycles, television sets, and wine”. I can say that without the influence of a father James can’t handle, anything especially knowing when to do the right thing. This shows what type of adversity James went through, when turning into a teenager, and how vulnerable and desperate he can

Prompt:What evidence does the narrative he writes offer for each of these roles? Discuss the statements that his mother typically makes and that McBride uses as evidence of these roles (page 9) as connected to Ruth McBride Jordan’s eclectic philosophy of life.

He becomes frightened and seeks God’s comfort. In Chapter 17 (Lost In Harlem), Ruth returns to New York to live with her grandmother Bubeh. While working at her aunt Mary’s factory she suddenly encounter’s James father, Dennis. After refusing her Aunt’s disapproval upon everything; Ruth quits her job and starts to anticipates finding a new job. After searching she starts a new job at a nail salon. Rocky, Ruth’s manager was being awfully kind to Ruth. He even helped her find a place to stay. Although, Ruth didn’t realize Rocky had bad intentions. He wanted her to be his prostitute. After understanding this she abruptly left Rocky and cut off all her connections with him. In Chapter 18 (Lost In Delaware), James soon realizes the family can’t afford living in New York any longer. Due to lacking in sufficient money the family ends up moving to Delaware. James describes how active he becomes there. He finds a job as a gardener and recently get’s very involved with music and band. James soon falls in love with music and is very determined to create a career with it. Working really hard, James get’s accepted to Oberlin university. In Chapter 19 (The Promise) Dennis introduced Ruth to his

I even robbed a petty drug dealer once”(McBride 6). James has started going down the wrong path in life. He James also, dropped out of high school and failed out of all his classes. For instance, when James stated “I virtually dropped out of high school after he died, failing every class” (McBride 6). There are many ways he could have handled the death, but he chose to become a delinquent.

Ruth and James both had similar and different experiences while they attended school. Ruth had not had anyone she was really able to interact with while she was at Suffolk. There was three schools they had for whites, blacks, and jews at Suffolk. The jewish school did not meet the state requirements so she attends as her father calls it a “gentile school”(chapter 9). Ruth felt as if nobody liked her until she met her friend Frances (chapter 9). Ruth remembers the poverty that inflicted both white and black people. Unlike his mother James did not have that one true friend he can rely on when he felt depressed. Instead he took on a hobby, and that hobby was playing jazz music and it was used to help him escape his painful memories (chapter 10).

He is still broken from the death of his step-father and is getting caught up in some bad things. “My new friends and I shoplifted. We broke into cars,” James explains, “Once, a cop caught us up there looking to steal but we had no goods on us,” (139). Here, James is making new friends who are not very good influences. He is not making good choices, and he is finding his identity in what his friends think of him. Everyone at one point or another has done something to fit in. James is struggling with the same thing, he wants to fit in. In the last part of the book, James is an adult still struggling in where his identity should be

Every picture shows the pain that African Americans who where suffering through out the years of inequality. Through it they kept are help above water to live and fight another day. These pictures signify what we had to go through in order to get what they wanted. Ultimately what they wanted was rights and to be treated fair and equal. To tell a story that is more impactful than words and they hit it on the nail with pictures.