The Color of Water

The Color of Water, by James McBride, gives a historical insight of a black family ran by a white mother. “James is a native New Yorker and a graduate of New York City public schools. He studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and received his Masters in Journalism from Columbia University in New York at age 22. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. He is married with three children.” The Color of Water is a novel of a banished-white-Jewish woman married twice telling her life’s story of bringing her black children into a racist world. The family suffers through grief, the struggles of staying together, racism, values being tested, and perseverance. James McBride reveals his mothers family torn past and her never ceasing array of misfortune and fortune in life. (www.jamesmcbride.com).
Ruth was obviously embarrassed about her past, a majority of the time she concealed her history from her children always avoiding the subject. She felt ashamed of being exiled from her hardcore Jewish family, having an abortion, and being a failure at life in her teen and early adulthood years. However, by concealing her past it gives the children a much confused placement in the real world. By not knowing your family’s history it gives you an uneasy feeling of being displaced with everyone else in society. This is a special case given the fact the mom is white and the children are black and the fact that many disliked Jews complicated matters. The children felt unique, different, and unordinary from the normal cycle of society. When Ruth broke from her Jewish traditions and family her family members considered her “dead” or separate from the family. Ruth’s old Jewish identity is dead…gone. Her new identity is a new revolutionized Christian woman with zero ties from her Jewish family. From my own opinion, that is also why she doesn’t talk about her past. When her family considered her dead, that also means her everything from that point before is also dead. Ruth then separated herself from her “dead” Jewish past and onward towards a new life with a different history. She now has a new identity.
They contributed to the balanced view of humanity that James McBride possesses. Ruth gives her children both points of view from two different sides of the situation. She teaches her children the original principles and good intentions at first at how life was. There are always going to be pros and cons towards any situation. White people may have been racist, but they held top quality schools while blacks maybe more trustworthy, but do not have the same necessities as the white man. It teaches the children the craziness of the world. Sometimes things just don’t make sense, but that you can’t change what is…and that is the natural craziness cycle of human society. The changes to her name are significant because it reveals her transformation of her as a person and her beliefs. When Ruth was “Ruchel Dwajra Zylska” she abided by the Jewish law and to her family. She was strictly Jewish and was forced to put her family and duties first before anything else. When it went from “Ruchel Dwajra Zylsk” to “Rachel Deborah Shilsky”, it went from a Jewish name to a more American fitting name. Ruth became more American like in society and rebellious against Tateh. This is the beginning of her transformation from separating herself from her Jewish ties. When it went from “Rachel Deborah Shilsky” to “Ruth McBride Jordan”, this is the final transformation. Ruth at this point has completely separated herself from her Jewish family and is leading a new life severing her ties to her Jewish family.
Ruth succeeded because she allowed more freedom and was able to instill family values. Ruth loved and cared for her children while Tatheh did not. Ruth ran her household by having her children learn to depend on each other. She used the “King/Queen System” and thus instilling respecting to the eldest of children and respect towards one another. Ruth was demanding, but fair at how things were brought up and organized. She was open to opinion rather than making everyone does what she says. She did do that most of the time, but was lenient and flexible to making changes to what the children liked. Tateh failed because he was strict and didn’t care about his family. He believed that the family should concentrate on their shop business and nothing else. He had no sympathy towards his family, especially his wife. By discovering his family’s past history it lets James McBride give a feel of his place in society. It answers all the questions that have been avoiding him in his life. It allows him to know who he is as a person. He is black, but does have residing Jewish heritage in him as well. James is a mixed person with his own identity; he fits in with white people, but just as well as black people. James is a hybrid.
The title of the book in reference to race and religion means that everyone despite color and different beliefs are equal. There may be different variations in what people believe, but the basis and values of each religion are very similar into what everyone believes. The vision offered to Americans is that everyone in the world will be equal. There will be no hatred, racism, or prejudice to another person because of slightly different beliefs or the color of their skin. Water has no color, therefore in my own opinion, that when we all die, color doesn’t matter and everyone has the opportunity to gain entry into heaven. Color doesn’t matter. When James was a young boy, he didn’t like the Black Panther group. He felt that his mother was in danger because she was white. When he was filing into a school bus to go to a camp, he noticed that one of the fathers was a Black Panther. He was instantly scared and punched the Black Panther’s son. James feared and disliked the Black Panther organization.
The novel was very informative on the struggles of what the McBride family went through. It also gave multiple insight opinions of what people thought on certain situations in the book. I’m touched and bewildered by what Ruth had to go through in her life and the hardships the family faced. I recommend this book to anyone that has suffered through hardships and look to this book as a sign of hope to the future.

William Fancher