Review: Color Of Water By James Mcbride

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. Secondly, Ruth is against welfare and never applied for it even when they needed it, but she endorsed those that took advantage of it. Lastly, she pushes her children to be the best in everything but hates when parents brag

It’s stated multiple times that she wants the very best for each and every one of her children, so she will send them to the best schools possible and teach them to value intelligence and education over money. She very clearly wants her children to strive for greatness and excellence, as is stated on page 29, “... Mommy had no model for raising us other than the experience of her own Orthodox Jewish family... represented the best and worst of the immigrant mentality: hard work, no nonsense, quest for excellence, distrust of authority figures, and a deep belief in God and education.” (McBride 29). That quote shows that she runs a tight ship within her home, and that she wants her children to use their potential to the fullest. She wants them to achieve wonderful things. But in the same breath, she disliked parents who bragged about their own children’s achievements. The book says that, “she wouldn’t be bothered with parents who bragged about their children’s accomplishments, yet she insisted we strive for the highest professional goals.” (McBride 30). One reason why she feels this way about others, despite it being wildly contradictory, is because she views her children as more important or more special than others. This is a perfectly reasonable viewpoint from a parent, simply because most parents care deeply about their children and have a bias in favor of them. Or, another reason is that she could view the other parent’s as annoying or idiotic in some way based on their boasting, since it isn’t stated that she herself brags about her children. It’s a concrete fact that she doesn’t tolerate any sort of foolishness from anybody, and she may just be unable to stand parents who coo and fawn over the tiniest little achievement from their children. Plus, the accomplishments of other kids could be meaningless or subpar in her