Analyzing The Past In James Mcbride's The Color Of Water

George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Studying history is necessary for people to avoid making the same mistakes. Whether it is about a country’s glory or personal misfortune. Analyzing the past provides valuable lessons for people. They can draw wisdom and adjust their present behaviors. In the memoir, The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, James McBride illustrates this concept when he questions his mother Ruth about her past. At the beginning of The Color of Water, James McBride’s mother Ruth goes on to introduce particular aspects about her upbringing. She mentions how she grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family and begins to describe both her parents. Ruth’s father

Ruth would do this daily and her children found it embarrassing and odd that she would do that in an all black neighborhood. Her bike was blue which is the color of peace and trust as well. When she was on her bicycle she would feel at peace with her self and with the world. This bike also meant that she had a desire to embrace movement as in terms of negotiating reality and trying to escape reality. In James's chaotic household, a flurry of activity and movement was the standard state of affairs. His mother kept her twelve children constantly active so that they would learn how to be productive members of society, and so that they would not dwell on the difficulties of being in America and living in 2 worlds because they were both black and

Ruth ignored her surrounding when she was on her bike and gave complete trust to God. “The image of her riding that bicycle typified her whole existence to me” (James 7). This movement of Ruth was a symbol of her trying to forget where she came from as well as forgetting her current situation. Both of her husbands that she deeply loved had died, she was left to raise her twelve kids by herself and she was all alone left for her thoughts to eat her alive. Ruth was also on the run from her father. She stated “Of course I had something to run from, my father” (Ruth Shilsky 42). Her father was a main cause as to why she would run. Her father would molest her and abuse his power as father to make her fear him. Ruth got away from Virginia whenever she got the chance to. For example when she would go up to New York for the summer and spend it with her mothers side of the family. Even though they didn't treat her well she still enjoyed going up there and escaping the brutal wrath of her very strict