The Color of Water is a memoir written by James McBride that portrays his life growing up, as well as his mother Ruth’s life. This book explains James’ life from the beginning of kindergarten to a recent college graduate and all of the great and tragic things he went through during his childhood and young adult years. This memoir is a great and fascinating story of how James McBride, a black child, coped with his white mother and honored her for all of the discrimination she faced.
This memoir included many characters. The main character is James McBride, who is an innocent kindergartener, has a kind and caring personality and has to deal with eleven other siblings, him being the eighth one, picking on him and bossing him around. Throughout James’ life he goes through drastic changes. At one point he turned to drugs to satisfy himself after the death of his stepfather, which took a huge effect on all of his family members. “At one point I was embarrassed to even go to the local supermarket with my white mother because I didn’t want people to see me with her,” James quoted. After becoming a very independent person, James then becomes faithful in his strong Christian religion which helps him to cope with his troubles.
Ruth, James’ single mother is a very intelligent, determined, spiritual and brave woman. As a mother she enforces many strict rules and has a hard time providing daily needs like food and care for her twelve children. As a child, Ruth grew up through many hardships included sexual abuse from her unloving father. “Tateh was a threat to me. I never wanted to see that man again.” Because of her past, Ruth has been able to overcome many difficult situations that have helped her raise twelve children of her own.
This book is written in first person as if it was a long journal entry. The narration switches off between James telling us about his childhood, to his mother Ruth explaining her life as a child, an abused teenager, to a happy, proud and married mother. In the beginning of the book, it tends to get confusing because you can’t exactly tell who is narrating, but towards the middle of the book you will be able to figure it out by the content stated in the stories.
After reading this book I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is over the age of twelve because I feel that anyone below that age would have a difficult time understanding the book. I think that this book is a great read for anyone over twelve because I think that this story should be read to show people that interracial marriages are okay now as opposed to the hard times they were given during the early and mid-century 1900’s. All in all I think this book was a great read and should be read by others to show that black and white people should be accepted for who they are and seen as a human just like rest.
This memoir included many characters. The main character is James McBride, who is an innocent kindergartener, has a kind and caring personality and has to deal with eleven other siblings, him being the eighth one, picking on him and bossing him around. Throughout James’ life he goes through drastic changes. At one point he turned to drugs to satisfy himself after the death of his stepfather, which took a huge effect on all of his family members. “At one point I was embarrassed to even go to the local supermarket with my white mother because I didn’t want people to see me with her,” James quoted. After becoming a very independent person, James then becomes faithful in his strong Christian religion which helps him to cope with his troubles.
Ruth, James’ single mother is a very intelligent, determined, spiritual and brave woman. As a mother she enforces many strict rules and has a hard time providing daily needs like food and care for her twelve children. As a child, Ruth grew up through many hardships included sexual abuse from her unloving father. “Tateh was a threat to me. I never wanted to see that man again.” Because of her past, Ruth has been able to overcome many difficult situations that have helped her raise twelve children of her own.
This book is written in first person as if it was a long journal entry. The narration switches off between James telling us about his childhood, to his mother Ruth explaining her life as a child, an abused teenager, to a happy, proud and married mother. In the beginning of the book, it tends to get confusing because you can’t exactly tell who is narrating, but towards the middle of the book you will be able to figure it out by the content stated in the stories.
After reading this book I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is over the age of twelve because I feel that anyone below that age would have a difficult time understanding the book. I think that this book is a great read for anyone over twelve because I think that this story should be read to show people that interracial marriages are okay now as opposed to the hard times they were given during the early and mid-century 1900’s. All in all I think this book was a great read and should be read by others to show that black and white people should be accepted for who they are and seen as a human just like rest.