Otherness In James Mcbride's The Color Of Water

Throughout the book, The Color of Water, the author- James McBride depicts how females in mid-1900’s were experienced “otherness” in the society. As Dr. Zuleyka Zevallas states in “What is Otherness?” that, “otherness...is controlled by groups that have greater political power. He also says, otherness is the construction of social identities which are “often thought as being natural or inhale…” In other words, the society is controlled by a group or groups of people who have greater political power. They are the one who decides what should be or what should not be allowed in the society. In The Color of Water, we see women are not treated equally to men. Women are beaten and they can’t say a word to their abusive husbands. As the Feminist theory concludes that our culture are inherently patriarchal, meaning characteristics of a system of society or

For example, “she was the commander in chief of my house.”(McBride, 112) “Playing in the street was discouraged and often forbidden… get your butt in this house before dark.” (McBride, 112) Ruth now applying the same formula to her children as her father, Tateh had applied to his children. Now, Ruth becomes the leader and controlling her family. As the generation pass by, the society gets better. Sexism and otherness reduces and equality becomes more transparent in the society.

In conclusion, as we can see, “otherness” has a great impact in the society. In Society, men and women are never been treated equally. Women always have less rights in the society. But as the time passes by, conservative ideas are fading, and women are getting more rights in the society. As we have seen, Ruth is now controlling her family like her father did when she was a kid. All in all, there are more work to be done in this world. And Hopefully society will treat men and women equally in the near