In the memoir, The Color of Water, McBride uses events from his childhood to explain why his adulthood turned out the way it did. McBride went through many things in his childhood. McBride had eleven other siblings, and he was the eighth one. From him losing his father, to his mother never really recovering from his death. That is when everything started going downhill for him. James relationship with Hunter was good. James referred to Hunter as strong and good-natured. When James was just adolescence Hunter suffered from a stroke. When Hunter finally left the hospital, he had a one-on-one talk with James. They had a rare moment of intimacy and expression and expression. Hunter was urging him to take care of Ruth and his siblings. When Hunter …show more content…
James loved it in Louisville because of all the freedom. James liked hanging with “Big Richard”, which was Jack’s husband. During his time in Louisville, James spent most of his time with Big Richard, and Chicken Man at “the corner”. Out of everyone on “the corner” Chicken Man was the brightest. Chicken Man saw something in James that nobody else did. “Everybody on the corner is smart, you ain’t no smarter than anybody here. If you so smart, why you got to come to this corner every summer? Cause you flunkin’ school. You think if you drop out of school somebody’s gonna beg you to go back? Hell no! They won’t beg your black ass to go back. What makes you so special that they’ll beg you? Who are you? You ain’t nobody! If you want to drop out of school and shoot people and hang on the corner all your life, go ahead. It’s your life” pg. 150, said Chicken Man to James. Chicken Man just wanted the best for James. After visiting the corner that summer, James knew he had to get his life together. “I was ready to move… I needed to see some new faces, a fresh start”, said James. James was ready to start over and get himself together. When James moved to Delaware, he got into Oberlin College in Ohio. He had a strong background in music and writing, but had poor grades and SAT scores. James had become involved with Jazz and got sponsored by the Dawsons. He had went on a trip to Europe and worked for Mrs. Dawson in
Do you know who James Madison is? James Madison was a Founding Father of the United States. He was also the fourth President of the United States, which is a great honor. He did many great things for this country while he was President. James Madison is a very interesting person.
Davis attended a great deal more schooling than the average person in his time period. Jefferson was a student at a boarding school in Bardstown, Kentucky. Soon after he completed boarding school in Kentucky, he enrolled at Jefferson College in Mississippi. He soon transferred to Transylvania University, returning again to Kentucky. By President James Monroe’s request, sixteen year old Jefferson enrolled at the West Point Military Academy (“Who Was Jefferson Davis?”).
BACKGROUND In 1943, Dr. Elijah Anderson was born in the Mississippi Delta in the middle of World War II. In his family of five, Dr. Anderson was the middle child. His grandmother resided with them, serving as the midwife. During this time, his parents were southern sharecroppers that picked and chopped cotton for a living.
James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” tells the story of two brothers living in 1950s Harlem. The story depicts the relationship of the brothers as the younger brother, Sonny, battles to overcome a heroin addiction and find a career in jazz. In “Sonny’s Blues”, Baldwin’s shifting portrayal of Harlem mirrors the changing relationship of the two brothers: while both the city and the relationship were originally with dark uncertainty, by the end of the story, the narrator has begun to find peace both within his surroundings and his relationship with his brother. At the beginning of the story, before Sonny returns to Harlem, the narrator never describes his surroundings, only the people in them.
James McBride demonstrates that one can learn about his own identity through others opinions of him in his society. Generally, youngsters often do not care about each other’s races unless someone wants the kids to distinct between the two races. At an early age, James realized that his race has something to do with his Identity. He noticed that both black and white people glare at his white mom and her black kids with an obscene expression on their face, letting James know that his family is different than other families which the society considered more acceptable than his family. James started to compare his skin tone with his mother’s skin tone and noticed that she was white however he was black.
(“Jonestown”). Jim had everyone wrapped around his finger, the ones that weren’t, were afraid to speak up, which, eventually, led to their own
Character analysis essay of the short story “Sonny’s blues” by James Baldwin James Baldwin is considered as the most well-known writer of the 20th century. His writings were mainly concerned by the problem of racism in America since he was one of the figures of the civil rights movement. “Sonny’s blues” is one of his greatest literary works, where we will notice how the persistent racism the writer experienced has had a great impact on his devoted writings. “Sonny’s blues” takes place in Harlem, an Afro-American neighborhood in New York City. Harlem plays a crucial role in this short story, because it is depicted as place where the narrator and his brother must struggle to escape the hustle and bustle of their own reality.
This proves that although James is trying to or into his family, his emotion(s) put a major roadblock in his path. Another reason that supports this idea is on page 4. While and after the kitten is dying, he lets his emotions pour over and doesn’t care what his family sees of him, only about the dead kitten.
(McBride chapter 2). Another way that exemplifies how James was affected by Hunter Jordan’s death was finally by picking up smoking. He explains what he would do rather than attending his classes and school as he was supposed to such as “Superfly, Shaft, and reefer, which we smoked in as much quantity as possible.” (McBride chapter 2).
James then meets Aubrey Rubenstien who was very kind and treated him as if he was just like him, in some way that was indeed true. Aubrey was really surprised to see him. He got on the phone with a family member to let him know that he was there. it only showed how surprised
An awareness of one’s past is essential to the establishment of their personality and identity. James McBride’s, The Color of Water, is both a memoir and tribute to his mother, Ruth McBride Jordan. Throughout most of James’ life, he questioned who his mother was behind all her secretiveness and failure to educate him on her past life. Soon enough, she agrees to being interviewed by her son and continues by revealing every aspect of her identity. While being interviewed, she talks about the three names she’s lived by.
As one can see he was pretty unstable for a twelve year back then to deal with a family death. In addition, another way James took his father 's death was by protecting his mother from the outside world. She was the white woman living in a black world and no one was comfortable with that fact. Because of his father’s death there was no one to protect her and he always stayed there watching her replacing his father 's position “ I thought black power would be the end of my mother. ”(McBride 26) because James clearly realized that black and whites never got along and his mom was in both, so it put her in danger.
Hunter was referred to as “Daddy” by James because he was the closest dad James had ever had since his father died when he was very young. Also after Hunter died James was caught shoplifting and his mother, Ruth, finally found out that James was skipping school. After Hunter Jordan died James said “I wanted to tell him that I loved him, that I hoped with all my heart that he would get better, but I could not form the words in my mouth. ”(Pg. 128).
For example, the narrator talked about how Sonny stayed at his sister-in-law's house and played his heart out on their piano. This flashback showed his love for music anywhere he was. It helped him escape the pain he was feeling in Harlem and some of his responsibilities of school by staying home and playing. Baldwin also used stereotypes to get his message across. Harlem was not a friendly, rich, white town, so the fact that he chose this setting it made the reader automatically assume that these brothers did not grow up in a stable environment.
Through this conversation, the narrator gained respect and insight on Sonny's life in the times that he was not there. Sonny was cryptic in his speaking at first but eventually made it very clear to his brother and even said, "the reason I wanted to leave Harlem so bad was to get away from drugs" (89). The narrator does not have much to say, but ultimately blames all of this on the "vivid, killing streets of [their] childhood" (73), that neither of them had truly escaped. He once thought they both had, him by becoming a teacher and Sonny by simply not living in Harlem for years, but in this moment, he realizes that not much has really changed - they still faced those streets, the only difference now was that they knew what they inherit. Sonny convinced his brother to come watch him play - the narrator knowing he could not possibly say no.