What color is the water ? : The Color Of Water

   The Color Of Water  By: James McBride, 2006, Penguin Group Inc.


  Summaries

     The "Color Of Water" is about the life of James McBride and the life of his mother Ruth. Throughout the book, both James and his mother Ruth try to find their selves . "The Color Of Water" is an eloquent exploration of what family really means. The book begins by James's mother Ruth talking about the early years of her life. Ruth talks about how her and her family came to American. Ruth was born an Orthodox Jew. In the book James questions his mother. He always wonder why his mother was lighted skinned and he and his siblings were not.
      When ever he asked his mother where she was from she would say "God made me" and she would change the subject. James and his mother have a gap between them based on his mother keeping secrets from her children.
       
      In the book, Ruth describes the Ku Klux Klan in the south, and her brother Sam. Her brother Sam ran away from home at the age of 15. For a while, Ruth finds out that her brother Sam was killed when he was in the army to fight in World War 2. In the book, in chapter 8, James talked about his 12 siblings and their life they lived at home. They lived in poverty. In the book, Dennis James’s older brother is the role model to all the younger siblings. Also James’s older sister Helen quits school and moves out of their house.
        
      In the book Ruth meets a boy name Peter. They both start to fall in love with each other. In the book, Ruth starts to feel different. To her, her whole life changed because of Peter. Her parents didn’t want her and Peter to see each other. But Ruth didn’t care. Soon Ruth becomes pregnant and her parents soon later find out that she is pregnant. James starts to question his mother about his biological father.  He learns that his father died before he was born. In the book James was close with his step farther. At the end of the chapter, his step father also dies.

   Quotes

    "When I was a boy, I used to wonder where my mother came from, how she got on this earth. When I asked her where she was from, she would say God made me and changed the subject." (McBride, 21)
    
      

“You know death was always around Suffolk, always around so hot and everyone was so polite and everything was all surface but underneath it was like a bomb waiting to go off.”

     

    “You know my whole life changed after I fell in love. It was like the sun started shining on me for the first time and for the first time I began to smile. I was loved.”

  Reaction

    As I was reading the book, I was surprised that Ruth nevers answer James's question. I think that Ruth hides this from her children because she feels ashamed and insercure about her family and race. I think she doesn't want to tell James this because she doesn't want James to go through the same things she went through as a child Ruth feels unloved by her own family and by being Jewish. She wants to change herself and feel happy about life. She doesn't want the shame following her for the rest of her life!