The Color of Water Essay

James McBride, author of “The Color of Water” and many other great novels. He also worked as a journalist for several companies such as Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and People Magazine. James McBride’s “The Color of Water” retells his life as a black boy along with his mother’s life as a white woman and how she raised her 12 black children in prejudice America. The story unravels his mother’s secretive life as a lonely Jewish girl.
Ruth, James’s mother, never spoke of her past to her children. This perhaps was an attempt at forgetting her past and to keep the kids focused on what they had to do with their life. Though, in the last chapter she seems content about her life, as if everything that had happened in her life was nothing but a story she had once read. Also in not telling them, she helps them to find themselves instead of finding her. They know that they are alive and that that is all that matters.
Ruth begins to tell her story by stating that she is “dead.” When she says this, she is referring to her existence in the eyes of her Jewish family. When she married a black man and took in the religion of Christianity, they saw her as dead and shunned her. This tells her son James that she is no longer the person she used to be, but a new person entirely.
Ruth had many contradictions on life, like how she felt that whites were cruel towards whites while she sent her kids to all-white schools and how blacks were the kinder people though she still believed that anything involving blacks was most likely substandard. These contradictions were truthful to her, and they were all donators to her children’s rearing. She knew that in the society they lived in, the best education would be in white schools, so she knew that she must send them there. Also, she had a “live and let live” policy towards life and she knew that many black organizations could be all violence and could harm her children.
When Ruth was young, she changed her name 3 times. Her birth name was “Ruchel Dwajra Zylska”. When she moved to America her name was changed to “Rachel Deborah Shilsky.” Later when she turned 19 she changed her name to Ruth, and after her 2 marriages, her name became “Ruth McBride Jordan”. She changed her name at 19 as a symbolic way of showing her rebirth into a new life. She was no longer a Jewish girl in the Shilsky family, but was a Christian woman running the McBride and Jordan family.
Ruth’s father, called “Tateh”, and Ruth herself both ran their families is a “tyrannical” way. The difference between the two is that Ruth succeeded in raising her family while Tateh failed. Ruth cared deeply for her children, unlike Tateh who only saw them as workers for his shop. She wanted her children to have the best education so that they could make it in the world on their own. She loved her kids while her father did not really care for his. Ruth and Tateh both enforced their rule though, they expected their kids to listen to them and to respect them. In a way, they were kind of alike.
When James finds out more of his mother’s past, he sees that despite her skin color, she is like black people in the way she was raised. She too had to deal with prejudice and racism for being Jewish. He realizes that being black really doesn’t matter, people are people no matter what their religion or skin color is. He finds a sense of comfort in knowing his past and his roots, knowing that not only is he part black but also part Jewish and part white.
In one part of the novel, James asks his mother what color God is in his confusion of race. Ruth replies, “He is the color of water.” Water has no color, and neither does God. This shows that in God’s eyes, color isn’t important. God is not black or white God is who he is. The same goes for people. One is not simply black or white, he is what he makes himself to be. God loves all people the same in her eyes, and people should do the same.
James uses historical references to describe the racial tensions in the US and the relations to race. He makes references to Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Bob Gibson, and many other famous black people in that time. These people mark the end of segregation and the beginning of change. Many famous black athletes and musicians arose, giving inspiration to James. These people also affected his siblings` behavior and the views of the United States on racism.
The book was very interesting, it is rare to have an interesting summer reading book. I highly recommend this book to anyone, especially those who are trying to find who they are. I thoroughly enjoyed it and how it switched off from James’s life story to his mom’s. This novel enabled you to dive into the lives of two different worlds in the 1900s of the US, when racism was prominent. It is a story about knowing who you are.
Makenzie Matthews