Chapter Summary: The Color Of Water By James Mcbride

Deciding how we react in moments of triumph represents us at our best or worst. Although we can't control what irrational situations we are placed in, we do have a say in how we react and feel towards those situations. In the novel “The Color of Water” written by James McBride the tone of the passage in chapter four is most definitely anxious. The reason being that the word anxious can mean many things and in this case it does. James is anxious in an excited way because his people finally have a voice and they are realizing that they have rights and that they should be treated no different than non-blacks. On the other hand, James is anxious in a fearful way because although James is black, his mother is not, and he feared for her life during

In the passage James speaks of seeing the liberation colors everywhere. They were plastered on public buildings, monuments, statues, and even trees. As James was describing everything he was seeing as a 9 year-old boy, I found his tone to be anxious-excited. He witnessed people celebrating their skin color because they were proud of it, not because they wanted to hide it. He also talked about how even his siblings got involved by reciting poetry from a new rap group called the Last Poets. I'm sure that this made him feel like he and his siblings had something to bond over. The Revolution, as they called it, was the talk of the town. Black Power was at its peak, people were rocking Afro hairstyles, and the Black Panthers were a force. Things were looking bright for African Americans at the time so there's no doubt that James was feeling excited, while also feeling a bit

He would speak of going down to watch local drag races on Saturday mornings with his friends. He would watch people ride over a dip in the road and the cars would go soaring like birds. However, there was this one particular moment that really caught my eye about his tone in this section. He spoke of a car that had “Black Power” written across the hood and top of it. After the racer was done racing, he'd perform some tricks for the kids and once he did he would whistle and cheer while chanting “Black power!” James mentioned that he thought this man was God. This tells me that James believed God would chant something like “Black Power!” which means that James was hoping for Black Power to continue rising so that he would finally be free and be treated as an equal. In addition to this, James speaks of Malcolm X having passed away the year before. Since his death brought this new way of life to its climax, James was most likely hoping for another role model as inspiring as him to lead this revolution to a higher