The Color of Water- Taylor Neuburg

The Color of Water, written by James McBride is a tribute to his white mother. It is a novel where James tries to figure out who he is by exploring his mother's past, which helps him in the struggle of understanding the conflict of his racial identity. The novel is uniquely organized. It alternates chapters of James talking and telling his story, and then his mother talking in the next. The novel discusses and covers the lives of Jame's mother, Ruth McBride and James McBride. Ruth was born in Poland as an Orthodox Jew. She had a hard time fitting in and excepting herself as a child. She had a rough childhood as a result of her family and being Jewish. Racism had a major impact on her life. She fell in love with a black man, against her family's wishes and was shunned from the family. Even though it was a terrible thing to get kicked out of her family, marrying Andrew McBride was the first time she felt loved, excepted, and happy with her life and herself. She felt like it was a new beginning and she excepted Christ into her life. She had eight children with Andrew before his tragic death. James was the youngest of the eight. Growing up James had a challenging life as being a mixed black child with a white mother. His mother kept to herself about who she was and her past which impacted Jame's life dramatically. Money was always an issue for the family. Ruth later re-married and had four more children. The novel talks about the hardships of a large family growing up and there mother pushing them to be successful. James McBride is an award-winning author, composer, and screenwriter. So far, he has written three books: The Color of Water, Song Yet Sung, and Miracle at St. Anna. He first got his degree in music composition from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He also got a second degree from Columbia University in journalism. Later on he received the 1993 American Music Festival’s Stephen Sondheim and the 1996 ASCAP Richard Rodgers Horizons Awards for his music writing. The Color of Water is a enlightening book about the struggles of two peoples lives during the era of racism.

Ruth McBride grew up living a rough childhood. She experienced many things at a young age such as dealing with racial discrimination as a result of being a Jew, enduring the hardships of having a crippled mother who could not speak English, her older brother dying in the war, sexual abuse from her father, emotional and physical pain from having an abortion at age fifteen, and being shunned from her family. She was not proud of her past and the things that she had experienced. Even though these events made her the strong woman she was, she kept her past an secret and did not talk of it. Because her children did not know about her and her experiences growing up, it was hard for them to understand who they were because they did not know their own mother's past. She did not expose her past because she wanted her children to love her for all the good things she did and not the bad things she had been through.

Ruth McBride begins her story by saying that she is "dead". She says this because she feels like her life and everything that she was is over. Things for her are over and her live is coming to an end. This statement relates to her identity because everything that she knew as a child was gone. Her family had shunned her when she ran away and married a black man. From the day that she met Andrew her life changed and it was like a new beginning to her. And from that day on everything that she knew in the past was "dead".

Ruth contradicted herself a lot in the novel. Her main goal for her children was for them to be successful and make something of themselves. Because she had this goal, she set high standards for her children. To accomplish these goals she sometimes had to go against what she believed to achieve them. I believe that the contradictions that she had helped contribute to the balanced view of humanity that James possesses. I think this because he got to view how Ruth felt about things, but then he also got to experience the other end of her contradiction. Overall it made him and all the other children stronger people.

Throughout Ruth's life she changes her name several times. Her name changes represent the different stages of her life. Her first name, Ruchel Dwajra Zylska, was her orgional name. She had it when she lived in Poland. During the second stage of her life she moved to America. When she came she changed her name to Rachel Deborah Shilsky in hopes of fitting in better with the other Americans. During the third stage of her life she changed her name to Ruth Jordan McBride. This represented the final, adult stage of her life where she finally felt happiness and raised her large family.

Taeh and Ruth both ran their households in a “tyrannical” manner. Ruth succeeded while her father failed. This occurred because even though Ruth was very strict, she only acted that way out of love for her children and wanting them to succeed. Her father was just selfish and did what benefited him. Some of the things that they did the same were that they both wanted respect from their children and wanted them to be hardworking. But they also did things differently. Ruth did not sexually abuse her children like Taeh did. She also encouraged them to get an education, last she taught them to be respectful of others no matter what religion or skin color they were.

When James McBride recounts on his mother’s past, it helps him discover himself and answer questions of race and identity that had troubled him for his entire life. Learning about her life helped him understand where he came from and in a way what his life was built upon. He finally got a better understanding of how hard his mother’s life was and why she kept it a secret. Because of what he found out he was better able to understand who he was and his identity because he now knew where he came from.

The ti tile of the book, The Color of Water is significant with respect to questions of race and religion. It is like this because it means that people should not judge someone by the color of their skin or what religion they are. They should all be equal and treated the same. Water is a comparison that McBride uses. He feels that people should be like water, the same throughout. It does not have a color. Therefore people would not be able to categorize it.

The lives of James and his family members were marked by historical events and people related to race relations in the United States. Some things that had an impact on their lives were the works of Malcolm X and The Black Panther. James was happy that black pride was dominant and being pushed. But, he was also worried that if things were to change it would threaten the life of his mother.

I think the Color of Water is an amazing book. It is very straight forward with its concepts and was easy to follow. It was one of those books that you get really into and feel as though you are in the story. I was able to get a lot of mental pictures of what was going on while reading the book, which made it enjoyable for me to read. I would recommend this book to anyone that's looking for an interesting read. It has a lot of real life situations and overall a really enjoyable book.

-Taylor Neuburg