Summary: The Color Of Water By James Mcbride

James McBride describes in his memoir The Color of Water that “I felt like a Tinker toy kid building my own self out of one of those toy building sets; for as she laid her life before me, I reassembled the tableau of her words like a picture puzzle, and as I did, so my own life was rebuilt”(270). In this quote he emphasizes that finding one's identity is complex, and it is hard to find oneself in this world. McBride experienced confusion about his identity throughout his childhood and emerging adulthood. It was not until he began listening to his mother’s story that his own identity was uncovered. In James’s life, it was apparent that when he learned about his roots, he was able to use that knowledge as a tool to construct his identity. Thus,

The power of this shared experience allowed him to see his mother as a real person and not simply as his mother. Likewise, upon hearing his mother's challenges with her own identity and finding her place in the world, he again was able to come to an understanding of himself. James struggled with belonging and finding his purpose, but by using his mother's narratives to help him, through her experiences, he was able to come to a deeper understanding of his identity. Furthermore, James and Ruth often felt like they did not fit in with their communities. Ruth was seen as an outsider in her white, Christian southern town because of her Jewish ethnicity. Meanwhile, James, who appears black, feels different from the other black children in his neighborhood, because his mother is white. James struggles with his mother looking different than him and he recalls, “When I asked her where she was from, she would say, ‘God made me,’ and change the subject. When I asked her if she was white, she’d say, ‘No. I’m light-skinned,’ and changed the subject again”(McBride 21).