“The Color of Water” by James McBride, elucidates his pursuit for his identity and self-questioning that derives from his biracial family. McBride’s white mother Ruth as a Jewish seek to find love outside of her house because of her disparaging childhood. The love and warmth that she always longed from her family, was finally founded in the African American community, where she made her large family of twelve kids with the two men who she married. James was able to define his identity through the truth of his mother’s suffer and sacrifices that she left behind in order to create a better life for her children and herself. As a boy, James was always in a dubiety of his unique family and the confusion of his color which was differ than …show more content…
James McBride demonstrates that one can learn about his own identity through others opinions of him in his society. Generally, youngsters often do not care about each other’s races unless someone wants the kids to distinct between the two races. At an early age, James realized that his race has something to do with his Identity. He noticed that both black and white people glare at his white mom and her black kids with an obscene expression on their face, letting James know that his family is different than other families which the society considered more acceptable than his family. James started to compare his skin tone with his mother’s skin tone and noticed that she was white however he was black. “When I asked her if she was white, she’d say, “No. I’m light skinned,” and change the subject again.” (Ch.4, pg.15) Ruth’s changing the topic of racial issues caused even more perplexity and insecurities within James. Because of his uncertainty, it was very difficult for James to decide how he fits into his conservative society. Also, in his community it was only the McBride siblings who seemed to come from the interracial family which made them partially feel like
As James McBride finalizes the last chapter, readers become more informed on the topic of race which serves as a major recurring theme throughout the book. Specifically, McBride delves into his mother’s hardship as a wife of a black man and the vitriolic responses she received from a mostly segregated society. Infact, readers also see how after leaving behind her family, Ruth took refuge by almost identifying as black, as it was the only group that accepted her. Therefore, it appears evident that Ruth being sedulous and determined to erase her past that she considered as a unwanted stain or blemish in her life, contributed to allowing an identity crisis to ferment within James. As shown in previous chapters, James recognized his struggle as
"The Color Of Water" is a memoir, written by James McBride about a biracial man, his white Jewish mother, their family, and their struggle from the early 1900s till the mid 1900s. The main characters in the memoir are the author and his mother; they tell their stories and alternate chapters throughout the memoir. the memoir begins with the author's mother explaining her earliest memories of her parents, the details of their marriage, and their coming to America. James's life was a chaotic mess, the only order in his life came from his stepfather, who was named hunter, Hunter was a strong good natured man who was the only father figure James had ever known.
In The Color of Water, author James McBride writes both his autobiography and a tribute to the life of his mother, Ruth McBride. Ruth came to America when she was a young girl in a family of Polish Jewish immigrants. Ruth married Andrew Dennis McBride, a black man from North Carolina. James's childhood was spent in a chaotic household of twelve children who had neither the time nor the outlet to ponder questions of race and identity. Ruth did not want to discuss the painful details of her early family life, when her abusive father Tateh lorded over her sweet-tempered and meek mother Mameh.
The story The Color of Water is a memoir by a young boy who lives with his 11 black siblings and his white mother. The book was written by James McBride later in his life after he had been successfully raised by his mother Ruth, despite the fact she was the only white person he knew. James credits Ruth with molding him into the excellent man he grew up to be, in his early years he viewed her as unable to understand him but in reality she was trying to do the best she could for him. Thought the memoir James slowly transitions into a stellar young man who takes advantage of the opportunities life hands him. James biological father had died when he was young and therefore James did not have a strong memory of him.
The theory being applied to James McBride’s family is Sigmund Freud’s Psychodynamic theory. This theory is based on the grounds of the importance of early childhood experiences that shape personality and behavior (Lifespan). Applying this theory to James’ family we can begin by looking at the time period in which the children grew up. The family grew up in a time where black and whites did not marry and it was unacceptable for them to be together. This caused some of the family members to develop a defense mechanism.
Jon is a twelve-year-old boy, currently in 6th grade. He is the youngest of two children in a biracial family here in Pennsylvania. His father is African American and his mother is Caucasian. He lives in the suburbs of Allentown in a predominately white neighborhood. The demographic in his school he attends is twenty-seven percent non-white students.
In the memoir, The Color of Water, McBride uses events from his childhood to explain why his adulthood turned out the way it did. McBride went through many things in his childhood. McBride had eleven other siblings, and he was the eighth one. From him losing his father, to his mother never really recovering from his death. That is when everything started going downhill for him.
Throughout “The Color of Water”, James Mcbride experiences a life questioning about his mother and who they really are. Mcbride seeks for answers that he can’t find which leads them to search elsewhere. As the story goes along, James meets Aubrey Rubenstein in which he learns that he has answers towards his family. James always wanted to know why his mother never answered any of his questions. For example, “ She picked that life for herself and she lived it, that’s all,” (McBride 227).
In the story “Color Of Water” Ruth and james both change when Hunter died. James became the opposite of what he was. He began to snatch purses and he would smoke as much as he could with his friends. “ Which we smoked in as much quantity as possible. I snatched purses” (McBride 9).
The decision to attend a white school is a tough one and Junior understands that for him to survive and to ensure that his background does not stop him from attaining his dreams; he must battle the stereotypes regardless of the consequences. In this light, race and stereotypes only makes junior stronger in the end as evident on how he struggles to override the race and stereotypical expectations from his time at the reservation to his time at Rearden. How race and stereotypes made
James McBride, author of the memoir The Color of Water, grew up in a dangerous time period for people of his color. Throughout the early to mid-1900s people that were African American or mixed were not treated the same as they are now. Many lives were taken during that time purely for the reason that their skin was not white. Although some individuals had a lighter skin tone, despite being mixed, many were not bestowed that “blessing”, as it would have been deemed in that time.
In McBride’s The Color of Water, James McBride the narrator tells a story of his own past and his mother, Ruth McBride’s past. Throughout the book James was conflicted with his racial identity due to being half African-American and half Jewish and the environment and society in the 1960s. On the other hand, James’s mother Ruth was also conflicted in finding her own racial identity, family and religion.
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.
‘God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color’”(McBride 51). Ruth is a very wise person. In this excerpt, she teaches her son that skin color doesn’t matter by telling him that God doesn’t have a skin color. Because James is bi-racial, during his childhood he was confused about where he belonged.
Moreover, demonstrate consequences are taken to oppress racial and ethnic minorities to keep them in a subservient position. Overall, this film has provided me with a visual depiction of how stereotypes are a mental tool that enforces racial segregation and self-hate. The label of “White” became a necessity for Sarah Jane to achieve in society. To attain it she needed to move to a new city, change her name and deny her mother.