the color of water essay

Minority Issues in The Color of Water by James McBride Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The color of water by James McBride is an epitome of struggles, trials, and tribulations that minorities undergo in New York. This memoir talks of James’ real life story together with her Jewish mother in New York.

Through his mastery in writing, James McBride brings out his story in a well-crafted manner whereby, the portrayals of theme, setting, struggles, and triumphs fall in place accurately, and they precisely depict the people involved in this story; that is, James McBride and his mother; Ruth McBride. The accuracy in this book brings out clearly the story of James McBride as he tries to understand the realities of life.

It may be a story; however, one can easily identify it with McBride’s situation; firstly, born of a white mother who seems to have everything wrong from religion to race, and then two black stepfathers; a situation that leaves McBride torn between his true self and where he belongs in the society. It is probably out of this confusion that he says, “Mommy’s tears seemed to come from somewhere else, a place far away, a place inside her that she never let any of us children visit, and even as a boy I felt there was pain behind them.

I thought this because she wanted to be black like everyone else in church, because maybe God liked black people better, and one afternoon on the way home from church I asked whether God was black or white.” (McBride 20).

Firstly, the setting perfectly adds meaning to this memoir and sheds light on James and his mother. The setting is in New York where there is a mixture of both white and black people. Born Ruth Jordan in Poland, Ruth McBride together with her family moved to Suffolk in Virginia.

Here, there is a mixture of both white and black people as aforementioned and this setting accurately depicts Ruth’s situation as narrated in the story. As the story unfolds, the setting shifts to Harlem where James was born and brought up. Through experience, the writer knows that New York is full of black and white people; therefore, this setting is a true depiction of what happens in New York.

The portrayal of the themes in this story is very accurate. For instance, the principle theme here is segregation because of racial or religious differences. Ruth’s father is a racist and he even overcharges black customers simply because they are not of his race. Moreover, Ruth had to bear with isolation and derision as a Jew in South where Judaism was uncommon.

Both Ruth and James had to live torn between their identities. Particularly; as a white woman living amongst black people especially during the black power movement, Ruth had to struggle. James witnessed the brutality that black people in his family and neighbors by the white people. This theme comes out accurately. This is a true depiction of what the minority black people went through in New York for many years.

The other theme; past versus present is also depicted clearly. Both James and Ruth are caught up in the same turmoil of striking a balance between the past and the present. They both want to cling to some parts of their past while letting go of the others.

For instance, Ruth has to conciliate her Polish culture and Judaism religious background and this can only happen by marrying a black man and leaving Judaism for Christianity. James and Ruth both want to respect their past and learn from it; however, they also want to move on with their lives and live abundant life void of legacies of traditions that bound their early families.

The encumbrance of secrets comes out clearly in this memoir. From his childhood, James knew very little about his mother’s background. On the other side, when Ruth becomes pregnant by Peter, her boyfriend, she keeps it to herself without telling her family. Moreover, even though Tateh abused her, she keeps mum about the issue. On the other side, she does not know why her two aunts have never spoken to each other for years on end.

The theme of American dream comes out clearly also. After immigrating to America, the Shilskys finally finds peace from the hustles and bustles of Europe in Virginia. Eventually, after Ruth starts her own family, she starts to live American life whereby she can determine her destiny (SparkNotes Editors para. 6).

This is true American Dream. As the story unfolds, Ruth, together with her family moves to Red Hook Housing Project in Brooklyn, a place she describes as ‘the real American life.’ However, the theme of American Dream comes out clearly, when Ruth keeps on thinking of how her twelve children will grow up; succeed in college; secure good jobs as teachers, musicians among others and establish their own families. This is a true depiction of American dream and it comes out accurately in this memoir.

The struggles and tribulations of the people involved in this memoir are depicted accurately in the book. From the beginning, struggles of Ruth are evident. She is struggling to overcome her abusive racist father who once assaulted her sexually. She struggles with her Jewish religion amidst Christian culture of the South.

On his part, James struggles to understand his place in the society. He cannot understand why some people are black while others are white. He cannot decipher the color of God, whether black or white. These incidences come out clearly in the book. There is no doubt; James McBride did a good job in putting out his story. This is san easy to read book recommend to everyone.

Works Cited

McBride, James. The Color of Water. New York, 1996.

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on the Color of Water.” SparkNotes LLC. n.d. Web.

• Myth of Individual Opportunity
• Adolescent Moral Development in the United States
• Beauty and Harmony in Cultural Studies and Social Tastes
• “Shame” By Dick Gregory: What Does Gregory Mean by Shame?
• The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
• War and the Meaning of Home
• Richard Wright - The Man Who Was Almost a Man
• “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey: Chief Bromden’s Character
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, February 7). Minority Issues in The Color of Water by James McBride. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-color-of-water-2/

"Minority Issues in The Color of Water by James McBride." IvyPanda , 7 Feb. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/the-color-of-water-2/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Minority Issues in The Color of Water by James McBride'. 7 February.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Minority Issues in The Color of Water by James McBride." February 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-color-of-water-2/.

1. IvyPanda . "Minority Issues in The Color of Water by James McBride." February 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-color-of-water-2/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Minority Issues in The Color of Water by James McBride." February 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-color-of-water-2/.

The Color of Water

75 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Before You Read

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-22

Chapter 23-Epilogue

Key Figures

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Summary and Study Guide

The Color of Water is a nonfiction autobiography published in 1996 by the American author and musician James McBride . Subtitled A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother , The Color of Water chronicles the author’s challenges growing up in the 1960s and 1970s as a child with a white Jewish mother and Black father. Interspersed with the author’s recollections are interview transcripts describing his mother’s abusive upbringing as an Orthodox Jewish woman living in the Jim Crow South. Upon its release, the book was an immediate critical and popular success, remaining on The New York Times Best Seller list for two years.

This study guide refers to the 2006 10-year anniversary edition published by Riverhead Books.

Get access to this full Study Guide and much more!

• 7,750+ In-Depth Study Guides
• 4,800+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries
• Downloadable PDFs

Content Warning: The source material depicts racism, discussions of racially motivated violence, and racial slurs, including the n-word, which is obscured and replicated only in quoted material. Additionally, it depicts domestic violence and abuse and recuring sexual assault of a minor.

Plot Summary

The SuperSummary difference

• 8x more resources than SparkNotes and CliffsNotes combined
• Study Guides you won ' t find anywhere else
• 175 + new titles every month

Born Ruchel Dwajra Zylska in Poland in 1921, Ruth is the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi she calls Tateh . At age two, Ruth immigrates to the United States with Tateh, her mother Mameh , and her four-year-old brother Sam. After moving around the Northeast for a few years, the family settles in segregated Suffolk, Virginia, where Tateh opens a general store serving the town’s Black clientele, even though he is virulently racist. Tateh is emotionally abusive toward Mameh, whose physical health is impacted from a childhood battle with polio. He also sexually abuses Ruth, routinely raping her from an early age.

When Ruth is in high school, she falls in love with a young Black man named Peter and becomes pregnant with his child. Terrified of what will happen to Peter in a town like Suffolk, where lynchings and other acts of anti-Black terrorism are common, she spends the summer in New York City, where her Aunt Betts arranges for her to have an abortion. Shortly after her return to Suffolk, Ruth learns that Peter is engaged to a young Black woman whom he also impregnated.

The day after she graduates high school, Ruth takes a Greyhound bus to New York, where she lives with her grandma Bubeh. She spends most of her time in Harlem, hanging out with a man named Rocky who grooms her for sex work. Ruth stops returning Rocky’s phone calls after meeting and falling in love with Andrew “Dennis” McBride , a deeply Christian Black man who works in one of her aunts’ factories. By 1942, the two live together as partners, causing Tateh to disown her. That same year, Ruth learns that Mameh is dying in a hospital in the Bronx. When she calls Aunt Betts to find out which hospital, Betts tells her that Ruth is dead to the family because she married a Black man. In her grief, Ruth finds solace by becoming a devout Christian.

Over the next decade and a half, Ruth and Dennis have seven children. They also establish the New Brown Memorial Church near the Red Hook Projects in Brooklyn, where they live during most of the 1950s. In 1957, Dennis is hospitalized with a bad cough. A few weeks later, he dies of lung cancer, leaving Ruth with seven children and one more on the way: James, the author and narrator.

Throughout his mother’s recollections of her youth, James weaves in his own life-story. Shortly after James’s birth in 1957, Ruth marries Hunter Jordan , who works for the New York City Housing Authority and is the only father James ever knows. James grows up deeply confused about his racial identity. Ruth, meanwhile, refuses to talk about her family, her Jewish heritage, or race more generally. Her attitude is exemplified by her insistence that God is neither Black nor white—he is the titular “color of water.” One illustrative example of the psychic distress James feels as a child with Black and white ancestry comes in the mid-1960s, as the Black Power movement grows and his older siblings embrace its philosophy and fashion trends. Having seen white newscasters express panic about the rise of Black nationalism, James fears that Black Panthers will kill his mother because she is white.

After having four more children with Ruth, Hunter dies of a stroke in 1971. This leaves 14-year-old James with little direction. He channels his anger into alcohol, marijuana, and various criminal activities , including breaking into cars and snatching purses. Within a couple years, however, James refocuses his energies on school, music, and Jesus, graduating from high school and earning admittance to Ohio’s Oberlin College on the strength of his writing and musical abilities.

After earning a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, James enjoys enormous professional success throughout his twenties, working highly coveted jobs at The Boston Globe and The Washington Post . However, he still struggles mightily with his racial identity. In an effort to better understand his heritage, James decides to write a book about his mother. Unfortunately, Ruth buried her past so deeply that she claims to remember almost nothing from her childhood. Only after nearly a decade of interviews does Ruth finally open up about growing up in an Orthodox Jewish household in Virginia and experiencing abuse at the hands of her cruel father. 

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now

Related Titles

By James McBride

Deacon King Kong

James McBride

Miracle at St. Anna

Song Yet Sung

The Good Lord Bird

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Featured Collections

African American Literature

View Collection

American Literature

Black History Month Reads

Civil Rights & Jim Crow

Common Reads: Freshman Year Reading

Community Reads

Religion & Spirituality

SuperSummary New Releases

The Color Of Water - Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

The Color of Water is a memoir by James McBride, exploring his biracial identity and his mother’s experience as a Jewish immigrant in the United States. Essays on this book could delve into themes of identity, race, religion, and the American dream through the lens of McBride’s narrative. Discussions might also explore the literary techniques employed, the historical and social context of the narrative, and the broader implications of the memoir on discussions of race and identity in America. A substantial compilation of free essay instances related to The Color Of Water you can find in Papersowl database. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

In James Mcbride’s the Color of Water, it Tells the Story of Ruth

In James Mcbride's The Color of Water, it tells the story of Ruth, James' mother's family immigration to America, and both her early childhood and adulthood in New York City. Ruth's childhood was pretty difficult. As a teenager, Ruth gets pregnant with a black boy named Peter, which later leads to an abortion. Ruth then becomes upset at a Southern culture that would not let her marry someone she loved because he was of a different race. After graduating high […]

James McBride, Author of the Color of Water

"Here is her life as she told it to me, and betwixt and between the pages of her life you will find mine as well" (pg. xvii). Unveiling the incredible journey of Ruchel Zylska to Rachel Shilsky and finally settling into Ruth McBride-Jordan, readers are allowed a glimpse into the lives of twelve black children and their white, Jewish mother. With locations in the U.S.A. such as New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina we see Ruthie's strength and […]

The Color of the Water by James Mcbride

" I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" This quote is from Martin Luther King. Jr's speech of I Have A Dream. He is an American civil right movement leader famous for having a voice in equal right for all people and all races. This is very relevant to the book, Color […]

We will write an essay sample crafted to your needs.

The Color of Water a very Touching True Novel

The Color of Water written by James McBride was a very touching true novel about a son's perspective of his Jewish mother. Throughout the book James searches for his own placing in society as he passes through life. There are many hardships that he, his eleven other brothers and sisters and mother go through to get there, but in the end everything seems to justify means to how they got there and why events had happened in that particular way. […]

Ruth’s Experienced in Life, the Color of Water

Ruth’s experienced in life, The Color Of Water. These qualities that Ruth expressed are what TV scene called to my attention. They are spiritual, such as compassion, unfailing devotion, respect, grace, honesty, integrity, and generosity. She had twelve children born to two husbands, Andrew Dennis McBride sr. and Hunter jordan sr. More than anything else in her life, Ruth values her children and her relationship to God. a white women who married two black men and gave birth to twelve […]

James McBride Explores his Mothers and his own Identify

James McBride explores his mother's and his own identify in her novel "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother." He writes from the point of view of whatever age is at during that part of the story. Navigating through his childhood and his interview with his Jewish mother. He talks about not only his childhood struggle with not knowing his identity or his mother's identity, but also discusses issues of poverty, racism, and just his […]

The Color of Water an Engaging

The Color of Water by James McBride was an engaging, relatable, and overall triumphant novel about the life of a mother and her twelve children, told mainly from the perspective of her son James, but we also get views from the moms perspective. This novel goes back and forth from the mothers perspective of growing up and James'. The mother, Ruth, takes us through her life as a child and how her family were Polish immigrant Jews looking for a […]

The Color of Water: a Black Man’s Tribute

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride serves as an opportunity for McBride to talk about his own story as a biracial child. Alongside this, just as if not more importantly, this book also serves as a platform in which he can honor his mother Ruth. Ruth McBride Jordan, a white Jewish woman raised 12 successful biracial children, while facing down an intense life that involved navigating through complex racial divides. In […]

The Idea of Race Makes our World Go Round

In today's society, the idea of race makes our world go round. It allows us to have an identity- making us who we are. But, imagine if you didn't have that identity of race. Imagine living in a gray area in between where you couldn't really define yourself. That feeling of not knowing is exactly what James McBride experienced for most of his life; being half white & half black, being Christian with some Jewish roots. The Color of Water […]

The Color of Water is an Autobiography

The Color of Water is an autobiography written by James McBride based on the life and struggles of his Jewish mother, Ruth Deborah Shilsky, born Ruchel Dwajra Zylska in Poland, as she grows up in America. In the book, we see the transformation from a woman who purposely neglects her past and is scared to share it with her son, to a woman who faces self-doubt head-on and expresses her inner self. Ruth has dealt with diversity her entire life. […]

Exploring Identity through the Lens of a Jewish Mother in ‘The Color of Water’

The novel "The Color of Water" by James McBride, is a beautiful heartfelt dedication to a white Jewish mother by her African American son. The novel educates the reader about James McBride's life growing up with the life that was bestowed upon him, the life of a biracial Jewish man and the confusion that was his identity during an era in which people of color were held to a standard of stereotypes nothing more. The novel also covers the treacherous […]

Shepherding Water of the Upper Colorado River Basin

With the growing populations of the cities in the South Western United States and increased agricultural needs, the demand for water placed on the Colorado River has be increasing dramatically. Pair this with reduced inflow to the Colorado River basin caused by the current eighteen year drought and the region is quickly coming to a breaking point where water demand is much greater than the supply. In their paper Shepherding Compact Security Water in the Upper Colorado River Basin, Lawrence […]

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Section 1: How Benjamin Established the Public Library in Philadelphia At the age of 21, Benjamin was a printer at Philadelphia and a great intellectual. Franklin and a few of his friends established a group which had mutual objectives of improving each other’s reading culture, which was known as the Junto. The held discussions every Friday on politics, philosophy, and matters on moral. They later started to meet at a quieter place of one of the friends who was wealthy. […]

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson was a well-known black lawyer in the literary world. He wrote a text on the life of a man of color in the USA (The autobiography of an ex-colored man). The text was published in anonymity from the 1900s because the author was afraid for his career in the public service. It was published a second time during the Harlem Renaissance under the name of James Weldon Johnson and laudatory analyzes. The author begins his autobiography by […]

Additional Example Essays

• The short story "The Cask of Amontillado"
• Representing of Imperialism in Heart of Darkness
• Victorian gender roles in The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Who is the Worst Character in The Great Gatsby
• How are Women Portrayed in The Great Gatsby
• Books vs. Movies: Comparing and Contrasting "Lord of the Flies"
• Dialects in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Reasons Why I Want to Study Abroad
• Comparison Of Introverts VS Extroverts
• Research Paper #1 – The Trail of Tears
• The Cask of Amontillado Literary Analysis
• Colonism in Things Fall Apart

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

The Color of Water Summary, Characters and Themes

“The Color of Water” is a memoir by James McBride, exploring some complex themes of race, identity, and family through the lens of his own life and that of his mother, Ruth McBride. 

Ruth’s story is a testament to the art of human resilience; a Polish Jewish immigrant who becomes the matriarch of a large, biracial family, her journey marked by adversity, transformation, and unwavering love.

Born into a family of Polish Jewish immigrants, Ruth’s early years are shaped by hardship and abuse at the hands of her father, Tateh, a failed rabbi turned store owner in Suffolk, Virginia. 

Tateh’s store, situated in a predominantly black neighborhood, becomes a source of contention and shame for Ruth, who is appalled by her father’s racist attitudes and predatory business practices. 

Escaping a life of abuse, betrayal, and the constraints of her rigid family and community, Ruth leaves everything behind, including a hidden pregnancy, for a new beginning in Harlem.

In New York, Ruth’s life takes a turn towards hope and renewal. 

She meets and marries Dennis McBride, a black man, with whom she finds happiness and starts a family. Together, they defy societal prejudices and lay the foundations for a life built on faith, education , and equality. 

Their union, however, is not without its trials; Dennis’s untimely death leaves Ruth with eight children to raise alone, a challenge she meets with remarkable strength and resourcefulness. Ruth later finds love again with Hunter Jordan, adding four more children to their blended family.

James McBride’s narrative weaves seamlessly between his mother’s past and his own journey of self-discovery. 

Growing up in a home where race and identity were secondary to moral values and education, James struggles with his own place in the world. His mother’s steadfast beliefs and the rich, albeit complex, heritage she passes down serve as his guiding light. 

From a troubled youth to his eventual success as a musician and writer, James’s path reflects the lessons of resilience and faith instilled by his mother.

Ruth McBride

Ruth McBride is the matriarch of the McBride family and the central figure of the memoir. Born in Poland and raised in the United States within a strict Polish Jewish family, she endures a childhood marked by abuse and racism. 

Ruth’s resilience is evident in her decision to leave her past behind, including her family and Jewish heritage, to embrace a new life and identity in New York. Marrying a black man and converting to Christianity, Ruth breaks societal norms and faces prejudice with courage. 

Her character is defined by her strong moral convictions, unwavering faith, and dedication to ensuring her children receive a quality education and understand the value of hard work.

James McBride

James McBride is the author and a principal character, offering insights into his personal journey of self-discovery and identity. 

Born to Ruth and her first husband, Dennis, James grows up in a large, biracial family, struggling to understand his racial and cultural identity. 

His journey is fraught with challenges, including the death of his stepfather, Hunter Jordan, which leads him into a period of rebellion. However, inspired by his mother’s strength and guided by her values, James eventually finds his path through music and writing , achieving academic and professional success. 

His character embodies the complexities of biracial identity in America and the quest for personal understanding within a diverse family dynamic.

Dennis McBride

Dennis McBride, Ruth’s first husband, is a figure of stability and love in the memoir. His marriage to Ruth signifies a bold stand against the racial prejudices of the time. 

Dennis is depicted as a kind, loving husband and father who supports Ruth’s conversion to Christianity and shares her dedication to family and faith. 

His untimely death from lung cancer has a profound impact on Ruth and their children, marking a pivotal moment of loss and transition for the family.

Hunter Jordan

Hunter Jordan is Ruth’s second husband and a stabilizing force for the McBride family following Dennis’s death. 

A good-hearted and hardworking man, Hunter’s marriage to Ruth represents a new chapter of hope and resilience for the family. He loves Ruth’s children as his own and contributes to the family’s well-being until his death. 

Hunter’s character underscores themes of love, resilience, and the complexities of blended family dynamics.

Tateh, Ruth’s father, is portrayed as the antagonist of her early life. An abusive, racist, and unfaithful husband, his treatment of Ruth and her family contrasts sharply with the values Ruth later instills in her own children. 

Tateh’s character serves as a backdrop to Ruth’s transformative journey, highlighting the courage it takes to escape a toxic environment and forge a new path.

Mameh, Ruth’s mother, is a silent sufferer in the memoir. Disabled and abused, her plight deeply affects Ruth and shapes her understanding of strength and resilience. 

Mameh’s character, though not extensively developed, represents the sacrifices mothers make and the impact of maternal influence on children’s lives.

1. The Complexity of Racial Identity

James McBride’s memoir masterfully explores the intricacies of racial identity through the prism of his own life and that of his mother, Ruth. 

As a biracial individual growing up in a predominantly black community, James grapples with questions of belonging, identity, and self-acceptance. 

His mother’s refusal to conform to racial stereotypes – a white Jewish woman who marries black men and raises her children in a predominantly African American culture – further complicates these questions. 

The memoir underscores the fluidity of racial identity, challenging the binary notions of race and encouraging a deeper understanding of identity as multifaceted and evolving.

2. The Power of Family and Maternal Love

At its core, the book is a tribute to Ruth McBride’s strength, resilience, and unwavering love for her family. Despite facing societal prejudice, financial hardships, and personal tragedies, Ruth’s love remains her children’s constant, guiding them towards success and fulfillment. 

Her sacrifices and determination to provide her children with a better life, emphasizing education and moral values above all, highlight the profound impact of maternal love and the strength of family bonds. 

The narrative celebrates the idea that family is not just defined by blood or race but by the love and commitment that bind individuals together.

3. The Intersection of Faith and Identity

Faith plays a pivotal role in shaping the lives of Ruth and her children, serving as a source of strength, guidance, and transformation. Ruth’s conversion from Judaism to Christianity marks a significant turning point in her life, symbolizing not just a change in religious belief but also a rebirth of self. 

For James and his siblings, faith becomes a foundation for understanding their own identities and values. The memoir illustrates how faith can transcend racial and cultural boundaries, offering solace, community, and a sense of purpose. 

Through the lens of faith, this memoir explores the complex interplay between religion, identity, and the search for meaning in life.

Final Thoughts

Ruth McBride’s legacy, as depicted in “The Color of Water,” is a powerful reminder of the enduring strength of family and the transcendent nature of love. 

Her life, marked by sacrifices and a relentless pursuit of a better future for her children, stands as a beacon of hope and a bridge between worlds. Through her story and James’s tribute, we are invited to reflect on our own identities and the myriad ways in which love and understanding can transcend the deepest divides.

Sharing is Caring!

A team of Editors at Books That Slay.

Passionate | Curious | Permanent Bibliophiles

The Color of Water

By james mcbride, the color of water themes, death and rebirth.

Ruth begins telling her story by insisting that she is "dead": her Orthodox Jewish family "sat shiva" and "said kaddish" after she married a black man, thereby effectively disowning her. Ruth, however, states that "the Jew" in her only died completely upon her mother's death. Soon afterwards, she was "born again" in the Christian faith. Her husband stood alongside her, and together they created a new family. Ruth tells her son that Rachel Deborah Shilsky "had to die in order for me, the rest of me, to live" (2). When Ruth's son James decides to explore his mother's history and origins, the original Rachel Deborah Shilsky figuratively comes back to life within the pages of memoir.

When James asks his mother whether God is black or white, he is a boy living in a predominantly black community with a mother who looks white, and is simply expressing his personal confusion about race. To add to the confusion, however, his mother simply responds that she is "light-skinned". When his mother explains that God doesn't have a color, and that God is "the color of water", the image converges questions of racial and religious division into an essence that is clear and universally spiritual - in other words, "human".

The American Dream

When the Shilskys immigrate to America, they find a safe haven from the turmoil of Europe. The immigrant experience is also marked by the pursuit of the American Dream, as the family eventually settles in Suffolk, Virginia. Tateh opens a store, and the generational rift between the parents and the children intensifies. The division is particularly strong between Tateh, who can speak English, and Mameh , who cannot.

When Ruth's name is changed from Ruchel Dwajra Zylska to Rachel Deborah Shilsky, she undergoes a formal "Americanization". In high school, when she first begins going by Ruth instead of Rachel to appear less outwardly Jewish, she also undergoes another kind of change. When she moves away to New York, marries, and begins raising a family of her own as Ruth McBride Jordan, she becomes the kind of American who actively chooses her own destiny.

Ruth moves with her husband and their four children to Brooklyn's Red Hook Housing Projects, a place that she describes as exemplifying the "real American life" she has always dreamed of. As each of her twelve children finish college, become teachers, doctors, musicians, and businessmen and raise families of their own, another kind of "American Dream" comes true for Ruth.

According to James, his mother denied her Jewish history, but sought a Jewish-style education for her children nonetheless. When the brief window of opportunity came, Ruth seized the chance to choose predominantly Jewish schools for each of her children to attend. In the house, the emphasis lay on grades and on church. She consistently drummed into their minds that money was nothing without education, and that education was the only avenue to making something of themselves. Being the token black students in their Jewish public schools, James and his siblings learned to survive in the world by performing well.

To supplement his formal education, James sought a "street education" in Louisville, Kentucky, where he stayed during the summers he was in high school. In Louisville, he frequented "the Corner", where Chicken Man offered him good advice, dispelling his naive belief that being a man on "the Corner" was a desirable life. Chicken Man insisted that he concentrate on his education, and that he try to pursue a better life.

The book contrasts Ruth's own experience with those found in the two communities to which she has belonged. On the one hand, her cold Orthodox Jewish family disowned her, turned all the mirrors in the house face-down, and declared her "dead". They refused to give her aid when her husband passed away, leaving her with eight children to raise alone. They felt that they were no longer responsible for her fate, since she "died" in the eyes of their community when she married a black man.

The black community, on the other hand, wholeheartedly embraced Ruth. Ruth describes how, when she returned from burying Dennis's body in North Carolina, she discovered the mailbox stuffed with checks and money orders and cash from many of the people who had known them. Aunt Candis and Jacqueline also arrived to help. Ruth's household was its own microcosm, a private space where her children could grow up surrounded by the members of their own unique community.

Household Governance

Tateh ruled his household without love: he did not love his wife, he sexually abused Ruth, and he practically enslaved his son Sam . Ruth ran her household with a similarly tight rein, disciplining her children with the belt and instituting an informal "king/queen system" where the eldest reigned over the other children and answered directly to her. She, in turn, deferred to God. In the end, however, the key difference that separates Tateh's rule from Ruth's is that Ruth ruled over her household and each of her children with love.

Memory and Vision

Ruth tells James that his father Andrew McBride , a reverend, was a man with "vision". She sighs and then states that the times are different. Circumstances are different; they make for different men. It is hard to find a good minister with "vision" these days, according to Ruth. She states that it has something to do with "foresight", and James admits to his mother that he does not have it.

The irony is that while memoir-writing and the act of "remembering" constitute a journey back in time, what is found there generates a possible source of new strength. Crucial to any idea of the future, the remembered history becomes a part of a person's identity, adds depth to the experience of living, and serves as a link between the present and the future. While James may not have the kind of "vision" that Ruth admires, he has the kind that is, perhaps, the necessary starting place for any fresh imagining of the future.

The Color of Water Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Color of Water is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

The color of water

I think drag races to watch his stepfather.

What is the ache inside James that gets bigger as it grows?

That would be his mother's white skin.

What event is related to Ruth’s claustrophobia?

I think it is her grandfather's death.

Study Guide for The Color of Water

The Color of Water study guide contains a biography of James McBride, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Color of Water
• The Color of Water Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Color of Water

The Color of Water literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Color of Water.

• Constructing an Identity: James McBride and Richard Wright
• Discerning Racial "Color": Ruth's Role in The Color of Water
• Finding Yourself: Emotions and Origins in The Color of Water
• Literacy v Bigotry

Lesson Plan for The Color of Water

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Color of Water
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Color of Water Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Color of Water

• Introduction

The Color of Water

James mcbride, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Almost every scene in The Color of Water takes place against a backdrop of anti-Black racism in America. Much of the book occurs during the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights Movement, a time where black Americans were regarded as second-class citizens and policed through a series of racist laws and restrictive social norms. This affects the opportunities, self-esteem, and even human rights of the central black characters, but also affects characters like Ruth , who is white but lives in close proximity to blackness, and as a result must deal with bigotry from those who do not understand why a white woman would marry a black man and raise a mixed-race family. The text critiques racist attitudes, but also explores the internalized racism of some of its black characters, and the ways in which black and white people can overcome strict racial boundaries through love and friendship.

Blackness is a source of pride for Ruth’s children, but also a source of trauma and confusion. James ’s older siblings are invested in the Black Power Movement, many having their own private revolutions, some even going so far as to paint local statues in the red, green, and black of Black liberation. But their visible blackness also makes them targets at school, where their white teachers round down their scores, and in the streets, where they are arrested at astounding rates. James’s brother Richie , a college student home for the summer, is arrested because he has a lot of money in his pocket and the police assume that because he is black and carrying cash he must be a drug dealer. Although he is guilty of nothing but walking down the street at the wrong time, Richie must go to court. Another brother, David , who is a doctoral student at Colombia at the time, is arrested in Delaware for an illegal U-turn. These encounters enrage Ruth, and convince her children that with the exception of their mother, white people are at best unreliable and at worst actively dangerous.

Ruth also deals with anti-black racism in her love life, as she attempts to date and marry black men. Her first relationship with a boy named Peter ends with an abortion, because she knows she cannot marry him and the town will not accept them (and Peter could even be killed if their relationship was made public). Ruth’s relationship with her first husband is then so offensive to her family that they entirely cut her out of their lives. Her father explicitly tells her that if she marries a black man there’s no point in ever coming home again. When Ruth eventually does marry Dennis , her family sits shiva and acts as though she has literally died. Unfortunately, her mixed-race marriage garners negative attention from people of all races. A group of white men try to kill her and Dennis with bottles when they’re out on the street one night, and a black woman punches Ruth in the face because she disapproves of Ruth and Dennis’s relationship. Although white fear of black people is the most dangerous type of racial policing in the book, many people, both black and white, strictly monitor the boundaries of their race and see interracial relationships as threatening.

Still, though she is surrounded by racist and segregationist attitudes for much of her life, Ruth is not racist, and sees no reason why she should not marry and befriend people across racial lines if she loves them. Over the course of his life James, too, realizes that although it has traditionally been safer for him to affiliate more with other black people, just because a person is white doesn’t mean they will discriminate against him. In high school he spends summers working for a white couple to pay off a scholarship, and he recognizes that they are genuinely interested in helping him learn, grow, and succeed musically and academically.

If The Color of Water is trying to say one single thing about race, its thesis is that race in America is complicated. Although racist attitudes are prevalent, and have the potential to literally end the lives of the book’s black protagonists, cultural racism can be combatted on a personal level. James and Ruth have many loving, fulfilling relationships across racial lines, and Ruth raises twelve successful, self-confident mixed-race children, their existence a rebuke to the racists she encountered in her early life who couldn’t fathom a white woman marrying a black man, and their success a testament to their own drive and intellect in the face of great discrimination.

Race and Racism ThemeTracker

Race and Racism Quotes in The Color of Water

The image of her riding that bicycle typified her whole existence to me. Her oddness, her complete nonawareness of what the world thought of her, a nonchalance in the face of what I perceived to be imminent danger from blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person in a black world. She saw none of it.

Mommy, after all, did not really look like me. In fact, she didn’t look like Richie, or David—or any of her children for that matter. We were all clearly black, of various shades of brown, some light brown, some medium brown, some very light-skinned, and all of us had curly hair. Mommy was by her own definition, “light-skinned,” a statement which I had initially accepted as fact but at some point later decided was not true. My best friend Billy Smith’s mother was as light as Mommy was and had red hair to boot, but there was no question in my mind that Billy’s mother was black and my mother was not. There was something inside me, an ache I had, like a constant itch that got bigger and bigger as I grew, that told me. It was in my blood, you might say, and however the notion got there, it bothered me greatly. Yet Mommy refused to acknowledge her whiteness. Why she did so was not clear, but even my teachers seemed to know she was white and I wasn’t. On open school nights, the question most often asked by my schoolteachers was: “Is James adopted?” which always prompted an outraged response from Mommy.

Yet conflict was a part of our lives, written into our very faces, hands, and arms, and to see how contradiction lived and survived in its essence, we had to look no farther than our own mother. Mommy’s contradictions crashed and slammed against one another like bumper cars at Coney Island. White folks, she felt, were implicitly evil toward blacks, yet she forced us to go to white schools to get the best education. Blacks could be trusted more, but anything involving blacks was probably slightly substandard. She disliked people with money yet was in constant need of it. She couldn’t stand racists of either color and had great distaste for bourgeois blacks who sought to emulate rich whites by putting on airs and “doing silly things like covering their couches with plastic and holding teacups with their pinkies out.” “What fools!” she’d hiss.

…One afternoon on the way home from church I asked her whether God was black or white. A deep sigh. “Oh boy…God’s not black. He’s not white. He’s a spirit.” “Does he like black or white people better?” “He loves all people. He’s a spirit.” “What’s a spirit?” “A spirit’s a spirit.” “What color is God’s spirit?” “It doesn’t have a color,” she said. “God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color.”

Nobody liked me. That’s how I felt as a child. I know what it feels like when people laughing at you walking down the street, or snicker when they hear you speaking Yiddish, or just look at you with hate in their eyes. You know a Jew living in Suffolk when I was coming up could be lonely even if there were fifteen of them standing in the room, I don’t know why; it’s that feeling that nobody likes you; that’s how I felt, living in the South. You were different from everyone and liked by very few. There were white sections of Suffolk, like the Riverview section, where Jews weren’t allowed to own property. It said that on the deeds and you can look them up. They’d say “for White Anglo-Saxon Protestants only.” That was the law there and they meant it. The Jews in Suffolk did stick together, but even among Jews my family was low because we dealt with shvartses . So I didn’t have a lot of Jewish friends either.

To further escape from painful reality, I created an imaginary world for myself. I believed my true self was a boy who lived in the mirror. I’d lock myself in the bathroom and spend long hours playing with him. He looked just like me. I’d stare at him. Kiss him. Make faces at him and order him around. Unlike my siblings, he had no opinions. He would listen to me. “If I’m here and you’re me, how can you be there at the same time?” I’d ask. He’d shrug and smile. I’d shout at him, abuse him verbally. “Give me an answer!” I’d snarl. I would turn to leave, but when I wheeled around he was always there, waiting for me. I had an ache inside, a longing, but I didn’t know where it came from or why I had it. The boy in the mirror, he didn’t seem to have an ache. He was free. He was never hungry, he had his own bed probably, and his mother wasn’t white. I hated him. “Go away!” I’d shout. “Hurry up! Get on out!” but he’d never leave.

…I myself had no idea who I was. I loved my mother yet looked nothing like her. Neither did I look like the role models in my life—my stepfather, my godparents, other relatives—all of whom were black. And they looked nothing like the other heroes I saw, the guys in the movies, white men like Steve McQueen and Paul Newman who beat the bad guys and in the end got the pretty girl—who, incidentally, was always white.

The question of race was like the power of the moon in my house. It’s what made the river flow, the ocean swell, and the tide rise, but it was a silent power, intractable, indomitable, indisputable, and thus completely ignorable. Mommy kept us at a frantic living pace that left no time for the problem.

As I walked home, holding Mommy’s hand while she fumed, I thought it would be easier if we were just one color, black or white. I didn’t want to be white. My siblings had already instilled the notion of black pride in me. I would have preferred that Mommy were black. Now, as a grown man, I feel privileged to have come from two worlds. My view of the world is not merely that of a black man but that of a black man with something of a Jewish soul. I don’t consider myself Jewish, but when I look at Holocaust photographs of Jewish women whose children have been wrenched from them by Nazi soldiers, the women look like my own mother and I think to myself, There but for the grace of God goes my own mother—and by extension, myself.

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 in my life I began to smile. I was loved, I was loved, and I didn’t care what anyone thought. I wasn’t worried about getting caught, but I did notice that Peter’s friends were terrified of me; they stayed clear anytime I came near them. They’d walk away from me if they saw me walking down the road coming toward them, and if they came into the store, they wouldn’t even look at me. That started to worry me a little but I didn’t worry much. Then after a while, my period was late. By a week.

You know, the thing was, I was supposed to be white and “number one,” too. That was a big thing in the South. You’re white, and even if you’re a Jew, since you’re white you’re better than a so-called colored. Well, I didn’t feel number one with nobody but him, and I didn’t give a hoot that he was black. He was kind! And good! I knew that! And I wanted to tell folks that, I wanted to shout out, “Hey y’all, it really doesn’t matter!” I actually believed folks would accept that, that they’d see what a good person he was and maybe accept us, and I went through a few days of thinking this, after which I told him one night, “Let’s run off to the country and get married,” and he said, “No way. I don’t know where that’s been done before, white and black marrying in Virginia. They will surely hang me.”

“They’re making me marry her,” he said. “My folks are making me.” “Did you get her pregnant?” “Yeah.” Oh, that messed me up. I told him I didn’t want to see him anymore and walked back through the black neighborhood, into the store, and went upstairs and cried my heart out, because I still loved him. I went through this entire ordeal and here he was getting busy with somebody else. The fact that he was black and the girl he was marrying was black—well, that hurt me even more. If the world were fair, I suppose I would have married him, but there was no way that could happen in Virginia. Not in 1937. I made up my mind then that I was going to leave Suffolk for good.

I kept in touch with her for many years. She helped me through college and helped me get into graduate school as well; she didn’t pay my way, but if I had an emergency, she would help. One morning a couple of years later when I was at Oberlin College, I went to my mailbox and found a letter from her telling me that her husband had died suddenly of cancer. Later that day I was standing on the street with a group of black students and one of them said, “Forget these whiteys. They’re all rich. They got no problems,” and I said, “Yeah, man, I hear you,” while inside my pocket was the folded letter holding the heartbroken words of an old white lady who had always gone out of her way to help me—and many others like me. It hurt me a little bit to stand there and lie. Sometimes it seemed like the truth was a bandy-legged soul who dashed from one side of the world to the other and I could never find him.

“I know you’re gonna marry a shvartse . You’re making a mistake.” That stopped me cold, because I didn’t know how he learned it. To this day I don’t know. He said, “If you marry a nigger, don’t ever come home again. Don’t come back.” “I’ll always come to see Mameh.” “Not if you marry a nigger you won’t,” he said. “Don’t come back.”

Like most of the Jews in Suffolk they treated me very kindly, truly warm and welcoming, as if I were one of them, which in an odd way I suppose I was. I found it odd and amazing when white people treated me that way, as if there were no barriers between us. It said a lot about this religion—Judaism—that some of its followers, old southern crackers who talked with southern twangs and wore straw hats, seemed to believe that its covenants went beyond the color of one’s skin. The Sheffers, Helen Weintraub, the Jaffes, they talked to me in person and by letter in a manner and tone that, in essence, said “Don’t forget us. We have survived her. Your mother was part of this…”

There was no turning back after my mother died. I stayed on the black side because that was the only place I could stay. The few problems I had with black folks were nothing compared to the grief white folks dished out. With whites it was no question. You weren’t accepted to be with a black man and that was that. They’d say forget it. Are you crazy? A nigger and you? No way. They called you white trash. That’s what they called me. Nowadays these mixed couples get on TV every other day complaining, “Oh, it’s hard for us.” They have cars and television and homes and they’re complaining. Jungle fever they call it, flapping their jaws and making the whole thing sound stupid. They didn’t have to run for their lives like we did.

Doctors found squamous cell cancer in a small mole they removed from Ma’s face, a condition caused by too much exposure to the sun. Ironically, it’s a condition that affects mostly white people. To the very end, Mommy is a flying compilation of competing interests and conflicts, a black woman in white skin, with black children and a white woman’s physical problem.

Mommy’s children are extraordinary people, most of them leaders in their own right. All of them have toted more mental baggage and dealt with more hardship than they care to remember, yet they carry themselves with a giant measure of dignity, humility, and humor. Like any family we have problems, but we have always been close. Through marriage, adoptions, love-ins, and shack-ups, the original dozen has expanded into dozens and dozens more—wives, husbands, children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces, nephews—ranging from dark-skinned to light-skinned; from black kinky hair to blonde hair and blue eyes. In running from her past, Mommy has created her own nation, a rainbow coalition that descends on her house every Christmas and Thanksgiving and sleeps everywhere—on the floor, on rugs, in shifts; sleeping double, triple to a bed, “two up, three down,” just like old times.