Identity In The Color Of Water By James Mcbride

In The Color of Water by James McBride, James’s Mother, Ruth’s unique perspective as a mother of black children though being white herself and a convert from Judaism to Christianity works to shape James's understanding of his identity and guides him through discovery of himself. Despite their differences in race and religion, James and Ruth share a strong connection that allows James to find his own identity, helping him to be who he wants to be and shape his own life. The memoir's story mainly focuses on the struggles and upbringing of James McBride, a black man from Brooklyn, and his white mother, a former orthodox jew turned Christian from Virginia who moved to New York. The memoir tells the stories about each one of them and how they would

The following scenes from the memoir take place from the perspective of James talking to his mother about god and how the church made her feel one day after services. James had described it as if “Mommy’s tears seemed to come from somewhere else, a place far away, a place insider her that she never let any of us children visit, even as a boy I felt pain behind them.” (Page 50). The scene reflects how the mother wept after singing one of her favorite songs in church and it works develops the thesis as it goes to explain the influence brought unto Ruth’s life by the feeling of god and how she felt that as a place of solace where she could feel what she wanted to feel and display her emotions. James was able to show how he was able to develop an idea and feeling for god through how he saw his mother feel about them; “I never understood why God would climb into these people with such fervor until I became a grown man myself and came to understand the nature and power of God’s many blessing, but even as a boy I knew God was all-powerful because of Mommy’s utter deference to him” (Page 50). This passage showed how James felt inspired and safe with god because of how they would impact his mother, he saw how it was one of the few things that could bring her joy, one of the few things she may listen to and reason with, and even as a child if he didn’t understand his mother's

In this part of the story James is thinking back to how his white mother always felt at ease with black people, “As a boy, I often found Mommy’s ease among black people surprising. Most white folks I knew seemed to have a great fear of black. Even as a young child. I was aware of that.” (Page 31). Through seeing and experiencing how his mother felt, James was able to develop a sense of trust in black people knowing his mother found them to be safe but; he also knew his mother was different that other “white folks” as she didn’t feel differently among black people. The way she felt at ease with those of another race helped James feel more comfortable with who he is. This part of the memoir shows as James could never truly find where he fits in a college seeing it as he “always found myself squeezed between black and white” so he took after what he had seen from his mother in this part, “I fled to the black side, just as my mother had done, and did not emerge unless driven out by smoke and fire. Being mixed is like that tingling feeling you have in your nose just before you sneeze--you’re waiting for it to happen but it never does. Given my black face and upbringing it was easy for me to flee into the anonymity of blackness” (Page 262).