Analysis Of The Color Of Water By James Mcbride

James McBride’s The Color of Water is a dual narrative of both his and his mother, Ruth’s, life. McBride weaves the tribulations of his mother’s childhood and adolescence with his own. And what is created is a memoir of lost innocence and necessary rebirth told through the lens of a white Jewish woman and a biracial man. Although McBride’s autobiography illustrates the beauty in facing adversity, there are moments at which those certain adversities are downright uncomfortable for the readers. Experiencing Ruth’s abusive childhood, McBride’s disillusionment with his life, and the crumbling household Ruth grew up in through this narrative is both powerful and painful; this “sometimes uncomfortable” content reminds readers that good and bad nuances

What is most upsetting about this scenario is perhaps the extreme imbalance of power and the emotional abuse. Ruth describes her account of her parents’ crumbling marriage to McBride; she explains that Tateh would use her as his talking piece for the divorce only he wanted and that “[Mameh] refused, and [Ruth] could understand her dilemma. She was in her early forties then, and there was nobody to look out for her. She was handicapped. She was sick. She had no other home” (199). Although the marriage was not one of love but one of convenience, it is Tateh’s complete disregard for the emotional and physical well-being of another human that is most upsetting. After relentless attempts at cajoling Mameh into signing the divorce papers, Ruth reveals that “He came back to Virginia and said, ‘Tell your mother we’re divorced,’ and that was it. But nothing changed in my house. We all still lived together, and we were all miserable…” (200). The utter lack of empathy, or simply the lack of humanity, this supposed head of the household displays towards his wife and his children are completely unbelievable; it beckons the question of how can one be so self-absorbed in order to abandon the health, let alone happiness, of