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Abortion In James Mcbride's The Color Of Water

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resting in the hands of men is incredibly absurd. Of course, new technology has strongly influenced controversy and debate over reproductive rights today. People are becoming more aware of abortion and of its consequences due to media coverage and also due to President 45’s very strong viewpoints regarding abortion and women themselves. A very popular argument against abortion is that involving the idea of Personhood. Personhood grants human rights to embryos (Stabile 334). However, I think that Stabile’s article words it best when asking the important question, “Will the rights of embryos take precedence over the rights of women?’’ (Stabile 334). The answer should be no, but pro-life individuals think otherwise. Returning back to the way technology …show more content…

In James McBride’s, “The Color of Water”, he addresses issues of race and interracial relationships, abortion, and poverty. Rachel explains in her italicized reflections on her own life that she was truly in love with Peter, a black boy in her neighborhood. Rachel says that it didn’t matter to her that their races were different because their love was real and they would risk anything to be together (McBride 111). Rachel already feels so belittled and afraid of her father due to him sexually abusing her as a child (McBride 42), and so she is petrified to tell anyone of her love with Peter. When Rachel becomes pregnant, she tells her Aunt Betsy because that is the only person she feels like she can tell, due to her parents’ religious views. Aunt Betsy takes her to have an abortion and they don’t discuss it any further (McBride 134). Rachel’s abuse from her father and his hatred of Peter causes her to treat her own biracial children differently than other white women may have later in her life. This illustrates that she was highly affected by her abortion as well as her parent’s religious views and political views about sex and about interracial relationships. Rachel’s transformation into the mother that James knows, Ruth, can easily be tied to the theme of “The Bluest Eye”, and that sexual and social traumas can influence strong opinions and behaviors. If people today were able to realize that abortion is an option that needs to be available for those who need it, then it wouldn’t be so controversial. If abortion contradicts someone else’s religious views, then they should acknowledge that someone else’s choice to have a child or to not have a child does not directly affect those views. If their abortion does not affect you, then their choices shouldn’t directly interfere with your religious

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In McBride’s The Color of Water, James McBride the narrator tells a story of his own past and his mother, Ruth McBride’s past. Throughout the book James was conflicted with his racial identity due to being half African-American and half Jewish and the environment and society in the 1960s. On the other hand, James’s mother Ruth was also conflicted in finding her own racial identity, family and religion.

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Although she had children, sometimes many, she was completely desexualized. She "belonged" to the white family, though it was rarely stated. She had no black friends; the white family was her entire world.” She is also stereotypically uneducated, though good at managing the household and teaching the white children. However, historians Kimberly Wallace-Stevens and Cheryl Thurber argue that this image is a “one dimensional caricature” which “proslavery authors use as a symbol of racial harmony within the slave system”.

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The Color of Water contributes to the readers’ understanding of the author’s subject, which is about racism. Through this book, the readers were able to see the struggle of being in a very strict Orthodox Jewish family and some of the struggles of being mixed. Although, it should be noted that this does not apply for all Orthodox Jewish families and mixed people, but does give insight to some of the possible struggles those people could go through. There were other struggles such as being a white woman in a black community during that time and being in an interracial marriage back in the 1940’s, but those weren’t as important to the story as the other issues. In Rachel’s family (not Ruth, because Ruth is no one to them while Rachel is the daughter who died), readers see that Ruth’s mom did not marry for love.

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Being light skinned and mixed blood her aunts always managed a way to make her know she was a Negro. Her aunts forbade her to talk about her colored skinned friends forcing her to suppress her feelings and desires to be with her own kind. At a very young age Clare started to figure out that she wasn’t bad looking and she could possibly pass. When Clare finally passes and marries John Bellew the father of her child a wealthy racist white man she easily gains all her wealth and material needs from him, so she wonders why Leon 2 other women like her don’t try and pass like her in order to get all their material needs and riches. Irene Redfield on the other hand married a respectable middle‐class African‐American physician named Brian and has two kids.

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Lynching was very common in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Although slavery was no longer legal, people did what they could to promote racism and inequality. “Rachel” sold lynching from the African American perspective. Distraught mothers and young women who vowed to never have children were a large part of the play. The reason being that they would rather kill their newborn baby boy instead of giving another victim to lynching.

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She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man.” (272) This shows how interaction with blacks is interpreted in their society. They are expected to not have any romantic relationships that intermix. This thought that the two groups of people are different and on is worse or better is just people passing on their own ideas to others. The prejudice towards blacks is very heavy in the book and is shown through many aspects.

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A male master, viewing his female slaves as his property, often did as he pleased with them—resulting in many biracial children running around the plantation, whose existence disintegrated a mistress’s trust in her husband. Additionally, these biracial offspring and their mothers were frequently the recipients of the utmost hatred and jealousy from their mistress. Jacobs writes that white women of the time had high hopes of joyful and flowery marriages, but in reality, most husbands disregarded the vows of marriage and pleasured themselves by their slaves—leading to bitter, broken wives (60). The prime example of the resulting jealousy in the narrative is Dr. Flint’s wife, Mrs. Flint, who is driven to emotional instability by her husband’s scandalous behavior towards Linda. The uncontrollable suspicion and antipathy from another woman causes Linda to fear for her life, as it is out of Linda’s hands to appease the situation—or Mrs. Flint’s growing resentment (Jacobs 58).

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Linda, the protagonist of Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Sethe the protagonist of Morrisons Beloved both experienced the intersecting cultural myths of motherhood and blackness that shaped them into who they are. Black women were ultimately viewed as inferior and unfit to be mothers by society at the time, which led to their end of the social hierarchy. However, despite the chains society has placed on them, Linda and Sethe were able to break off the chains of slavery and the ideologies of motherhood that plagues the stigma of how women and mothers are treated through maternal acts. Linda had a problematic experience as at the time she was a slave.

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In June of 2022, The United States Supreme Court ruled for the overturn of Roe v. Wade - a decision that was made in January of 1973 that is responsible for the decriminalization of abortion across the whole United States. For nearly 50 years, this ruling has guaranteed the women of America a constitutional right for an abortion. Since the verdict, there have been many legal battles concerning its overturning with people who are more in favor for women in America to be able to have an abortion and those who choose to stand with the most recent verdict. An abortion is the termination of a human pregnancy, and has definitely been the most heated debate topic of our time. Abortion should remain accessible and allowed for women for many

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Abortion one of the most controversial issues, its ongoing controversy continues to affect America today. The movement includes two dominant sides, “pro-choice”: those who are for the option of abortion or not and “pro-life”: those who are against abortion. The debate has trespassed over many territories including political, ethical, and moral. Though the area is of little comfort there are many positives that could potentially follow the debate and conversation. Abortion in ancient times was practiced to control gender, population, and property rights of patriarchies.

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Abortion Abortion is a topic that seems to be out of our hands now after the hard fought battles by our passed generation. Until the mid-1800 abortions were legal and totally available in the United States. During that time the newly formed “American medical association” began a campaign to professionalize medicine and banned “quackery”, who was people that performed abortion and women birth control for centuries. During the second half of the 19th century the Victorian Society condemned women who wanted to get abortion and called them selfish, and called them people who wanted to avoid a mother’s duty. During that time the legislation restricting abortion spread rapidly, both abortion and birth control was illegal in most of the States.

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It is possible to argue that Mary Logan plays a key role in revealing African American history for children in blunt facts rather than through familial stories. Indeed, she unveils the horrific history of slavery formally at school. Although this subversive act was eventually interrupted by her suspension from work, it surely contributed to the children’s awareness of their identity and their environment as well as their ability to recognize the real from the fabricated. Correspondingly, the African American history is demystified informally for Cassie by her mother after the Strawberry incident. Instead of being overwhelmed by such depressing facts, Cassie decides to upturn the whole situation.

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