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Racial inequality in education system
Cultural identity and self identity
Cultural identity and self identity
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In the story The color of Water, by James McBride, James learns a lot from a new person. In chapter 22, James meets a character named Aubrey Rubenstein. They talk for a while. Rubenstein gives James a lot of knowledge that he will learn from. To begin with, James first meets Aubrey Rubenstein on a synagogue’s steps.
In chapter 22 of The Color of Water, James Mcbride is wanting to see inside of the synagogue because of his family history. James is interested on his family history because he is writing a book about it. “My family has a history there, because there's a part of me, whether I, or those that run the synagogue, like it or not” (221). James does not know much about his history and is trying to get to know himself and understand himself more as well. He wanted to know the truth.
As James McBride finalizes the last chapter, readers become more informed on the topic of race which serves as a major recurring theme throughout the book. Specifically, McBride delves into his mother’s hardship as a wife of a black man and the vitriolic responses she received from a mostly segregated society. Infact, readers also see how after leaving behind her family, Ruth took refuge by almost identifying as black, as it was the only group that accepted her. Therefore, it appears evident that Ruth being sedulous and determined to erase her past that she considered as a unwanted stain or blemish in her life, contributed to allowing an identity crisis to ferment within James. As shown in previous chapters, James recognized his struggle as
James McBride’s memoir, The Color of Water, was written in a way that told his life story alongside his mother’s. Their entwined stories helped readers better understand how the effects of both his and his mother’s life changed him. He wrote about the struggles he experienced due to the racial inequality within his lifetime as well as the racial battles his mother faced. Not only did these tales create who he is today, they have entailed a new meaning. They have managed to touch people’s hearts and expose a struggle that has long been forgotten.
In The Color of Water, author James McBride writes both his autobiography and a tribute to the life of his mother, Ruth McBride. Ruth came to America when she was a young girl in a family of Polish Jewish immigrants. Ruth married Andrew Dennis McBride, a black man from North Carolina. James's childhood was spent in a chaotic household of twelve children who had neither the time nor the outlet to ponder questions of race and identity. Ruth did not want to discuss the painful details of her early family life, when her abusive father Tateh lorded over her sweet-tempered and meek mother Mameh.
The story The Color of Water is a memoir by a young boy who lives with his 11 black siblings and his white mother. The book was written by James McBride later in his life after he had been successfully raised by his mother Ruth, despite the fact she was the only white person he knew. James credits Ruth with molding him into the excellent man he grew up to be, in his early years he viewed her as unable to understand him but in reality she was trying to do the best she could for him. Thought the memoir James slowly transitions into a stellar young man who takes advantage of the opportunities life hands him. James biological father had died when he was young and therefore James did not have a strong memory of him.
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
He had thick jet-black hair just as Jurgis did. They do share some differences in their appearances that do stand out. James was born and raised in the United States. Their work lives were very weathering on these men. “The poor fellow looked like a homeless ghost, with his cheeks sunken in his black hair straggling into his eyes; he was too discouraged to cut it, or to think about his appearance” (Sinclair 122).
James watched as Mommy continued to avoid her life. He started to avoid everyone and everything just like his mother would do. He analyzed that, “Just like Mommy did years before me, I began my own process of running, emotionally disconnecting myself from her, as if by doing so I could keep her suffering from touching me” (138). Watching as his mother suffered instilled his feelings. He couldn’t bear it anymore, anymore, which forced him to “run away.”
Throughout the 1960s racial oppression was at it’s highest. Blacks were treated horribly compared to whites mainly supported by Jim Crow laws, a series of laws that enforced racial segregation. African-Americans were often threatened by hate groups led by white individuals, such as the Ku Klux Klan, and weren’t safe anywhere. Throughout the 60s many colored people found themselves suffused with issues of race and identity. James McBride, the author and narrator of The Color of Water, lived in Harlem, New York and recounts many instances of racism and hate crimes aimed towards him and his family.
The Color of Water is a heart-warming true story about a black man discovering the past of his white mother. The novel goes back-and-forth between James McBride and his mother, talking about their past and how they grew up. The book brings up ethical issues of race, religion, civil rights, and the power of family. Ruth McBride Jordan was a Jewish immigrant from Poland. Her father was a rabbi and began a synagogue in Suffolk, Virginia.
In the book, Color of Water, James McBride struggles to understand his place and identity in the world. He also struggled to understand his mother’s eccentricities because she, too, doesn’t seem to fit in a defined box either. Ruth McBride seems to follow her own rules that appear contradictory to James, her son. There are three main contradictions that Ruth believes and James tries to understand. Firstly, she sends her children to a white school even though she knows that white people would be mean to her black children.
“When I asked her if she was white, she’d say, “No. I’m light skinned,” and change the subject again.” (Ch.4, pg.15) Ruth’s changing the topic of racial issues caused even more perplexity and insecurities within James. Because of his uncertainty, it was very difficult for James to decide how he fits into his conservative society. Also, in his community it was only the McBride siblings who seemed to come from the interracial family which made them partially feel like
Ruth would not associate the Jewish religion with white people so it made her children think that they were very different. James stated that he and his siblings took this feeling into adulthood (McBride 87). This affected him in a couple good ways including a better understanding of the Jewish people and their relationships with blacks. James said that he understood the relationship to the bone as an adult (McBride 87). These religious values also have some ties with the racial problem referenced in the
They might say this because a lot of colored people have gone through racism and many different cultures have gone through a lot. However, this is a coming-of-age story because it shows how James might think it's better to be diverse. At first, James believed that it would have been easier for him and his family for everyone to just be one color, one race so nobody would treat each other differently. But James can see that it is a privilege for him to have multiple races of blood in him. He can see both worlds the black and the white ones.
