James loved to read and play the flute, he even received a scholarship. Ruth was a mother of twelve so it was hard for her to dedicate her time to just one child, James craved for her attention and love. He loves to visit his older sister Jackie’s house, he even got kicked out of summer school three times in a row just to go over there. Also, he was a cautious person he knew what he was doing was wrong but he still did it anyways. Ruth was a Jew deep down inside but converted over to christianity right along with her kids.
During the great depression, the midwest underwent a long drought. Exposed dry earth swept away with the wind and caused huge dust storms that prolonged the dry weather. With the lowered selling prices and the lack of crops the farmers had some major economic trouble. In Black Blizzard and John Steinbeck 's Grapes of Wrath, the literature develops the ideas of the poor distribution of wealth within the populations and the social aspects of people of different economic class. Social differences arise in the wealthy, the employed, and the unemployed throughout this period of hardship.
After talking to Aubrey Rubenstein James Mcbride learns that all jews had moved out of the area says Mcbride. Also he learns that his family has taken over the slaughterhouse that james mother’s family owned as a child ( Mcbride 224). James also learns that not all white people treated blacks like if they weren’t the same. He says “ I found it odd and amazing when white people treated me that way, like if there was no barriers between us” (Mcbride 224). When James learned that all the jewish people had moved out he asked a lot of questions.
In this chapter, you are introduced to Floyd Knowles, a man the Joads meet while setting up tents for shelter, a Hooverville, as they are on the move along with many other families. Knowles warns them of how the police are treating certain groups with harassment. Casy decides to leave the Joads’ group because he insists that he is a burden to them, but decides to stay an extra day. Later, two men, one is a deputy, show up in a car to the tent settlement to offer fruit-picking jobs, but Knowles refuses which provokes the men. They try to falsely accuse him of breaking into a car lot so they can arrest him.
Ruth and James both deal with the grief and death of Hunter Jordan in very different ways. Both characters are changed. James took the death of his father figure very roughly. For instance, James states that “I virtually dropped out of high school after he died, failing every class.” (McBride chapter 2).
James was struggling to understand who he even was, at one point he even said, “All of my siblings, myself included, had some sort of color confusion at one time or another. ”(52). This shows how not only James, but also his siblings struggle with their identity. James began to question his racial background and how to accept himself. Because James was living in “two worlds”, it made it difficult for him to be accepted in either world, and while James’ siblings also felt the same pressure of living in “two worlds” they chose to embrace the “black power” they held.
Ruth tells James about her past although she avoided and ran away from it for many years. She passed on her actions and reactions to her children, especially James, as she formed a family. James learning about his mother's past made him realize that he resembles Ruth in many ways. They both grieved on their own, but how they grieved was similar. Whether it was drugs or a bike ride, they both had their own way to run.
In the end James is faced to question himself by telling himself what he was doing in this place that just seemed so lonely. That is when he realizes that all that his grandmother had to go through in order so that he could get to where he is today was not worth nothing. He finally understands that his place in the world is to continue on, and to not let his grandmother’s suffering and pain not go to waste. “A penetrating loneliness covered me, lay on me so heavily …” “ I left for new york happy in the knowledge that my grandmother had not suffered and died for nothing.”
Growing up, the only father, James knew was Hunter Jordan. James biological father died before he was born. Hunter was the stable male of the family and was James role model. On weekends Hunter would come home and provide them with food and supplies they needed. In The Color of Water James states “He came home only on weekends, striding into the living room with bags of groceries, Entenmann’s cakes, a pocketful of dough, and a real live automobile
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.
In the penultimate chapter of the book, James reflects on his life. He hated that his skin color seemed to determine everything about his identity in the eyes of the world. Yet, his mixed heritage allowed him to witness that black people as they proclaimed that white people had it
In the beginning of the book, James finds that he is often embarrassed by his mother, Ruth, due to the fact that she is the only white in a black community. After her second husband dies, Ruth copes with it by riding a bicycle around town, which embarrasses James even
Intercalary Chapter Literary Analysis During the Great Depression, the nation as a whole was stripped of financial security and forced into a survivalist way of living. This changed the ways that people interacted with one another and the overall mentality of society. In the Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is torn from their land and find themselves with nothing, a common story for migrant farmers of that time, derogatorily called “Okies” by Californians. But this is not the only group that is struggling, the entire county was in a state of panic and bruteness, no matter how “well off” they seemed to be.
Both characters reveal their true selves throughout their life’s conflicts. Through facing their obstacles, James and
James is very much like his father which is in part of the reason that he cannot stand his father. The attachment and love he demands from his mother is usually toiled by his father who, “disturbed the perfect simplicity and good
