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Summary: The Skin Color Of Water By James Mcbride

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“She would ride in slow motion across our street, Murdock Avenue in the St. Albans section of Queens, the only white person in sight, as cars swerved around her and black motorists gawked at the strange. middle-aged white lady riding her ancient bicycle.
p. 7
Queens is a substandard area. Around this time, racial discrimination existed. James McBride’s mother, Ruth, is a white and Jewish woman who has several dark skinned children. As she rides her bike, she disregards comments about her skin color. Her bike symbolizes her difference. Ruth rides it with pride while black fellows gaze and judge. The bike represented her constant need of movement to manage …show more content…

Ruth does not want them to discover how difficult her life used to be. She could also be hiding it because she does not want to reminiscence about her family, mostly her mother. Her “distrust of authority” might have been caused by her father, Tateh. He was extremely controlling, demanding, and selfish. His authority on his family significantly impacted Ruth as a child. As a result, she has a distrust of authority. I think the author should have used the word, unique instead of “odder” to describe his family. McBride’s family is special because it is not like anyone else's and he should be proud of that. By using the word, “odd,” it implies he dislikes or is ashamed of …show more content…

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From the quote, I am assuming Ruth considers Christians to be better than Jews. This is because in the text she states, “Being Jewish and having a handicapped mother. I was ashamed of my mother, but see, love didn’t come natural to me until I became a Christian.” When she converted to Christianity, Ruth discovered love. Although she had no appreciation for her mother, once she became one she understood how it felt to be one. Religion is mentioned often in this novel and has either a positive or negative connotation. By becoming a Christian, her life was affected positively.
“I was afraid of Tateh and had no love for him at all. I dreaded him and was relieved anytime he left the house. But it affected me in a lot of ways, what he did to me. I had very low self-esteem as a child; which I kept with me for many, many years; and even now I don’t want to be around anyone who is domineering or pushing me around because it makes me nervous.”
p.

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475 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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1022 Words | 5 Pages

Ruth was never physically harmed nor did she ever harm anyone else. How would this fragile, old woman’s spirit ever have allied with the Devil to hurt young children? The simple and concrete answer is. . . it never did. Rebecca Nurse, despite what some townspeople may suggest, has never harmed anyone in this

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1479 Words | 6 Pages

Ruth May narrates how God is watching her all the time. Because God is monitoring her, she tries to avoid bad thoughts. Ruth May, who is only five years old, is already fearful of making a mistake because she fears making God mad. The idea of always being observed, and the fear of getting punished for bad actions came from Nathan, “So if we suffered in our little house on the peanut plain of Bethlehem, it was proof that one of us had committed a failure of virtue.” ( Kingsolver, 200) Orleanna shares how her husband believes that any unfortunate event is a punishment for their sins.

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1830 Words | 8 Pages

Her mother was crippled, spoke no English, and was not loved by her husband. Ruth was sexually abused by her father and began to look for a better life filled with friends, a home, and love. The day after high school graduation she fled Virginia to New York to live with her grandmother and aunts. She got a

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817 Words | 4 Pages

They do not try and sugar coat it. Ruth was especially having a hard time with life as she has dealt with a lot of different things right now, like how both of her husband's dying, losing kids and she was basically ‘Dead’ with her Jewish relatives. But certain things in her life made her want to change to a whole new person," Rachel Shilsky is dead as far as I'm concerned. She had to die in order for me, the rest of me, to live" (McBride, 1). This quote really made me think since this was in chapter 1 and Ruth could not mentally move on from her past without killing her past self, which is why she wanted to change her name.

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805 Words | 4 Pages

She grows old with the self-condemnation of staying with Nathan for as long as she did, for if she mustered up the courage to leave the Congo earlier, Ruth May would not have died. Ruth May’s plea for Orleanna to forgive herself, just as Ruth May has forgiven her, presents the possibility of repentance for anyone, no matter how great of consequence their mistakes are. Though she never passed the age of 6, Ruth May seems to have learned better than most the importance of finding strength from and learning from wrong-doings. Urging her mother to “Move on. Walk forward into the light”, Ruth may passes along her own moral reassessment to anyone whom will listen, telling the error in letting so-called sins weigh down ones self forever

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1813 Words | 8 Pages

One example of how Ruth’s sorrow is shown to the reader is early in the story when the narrator introduces Ruth, saying that “Ruth’s arm, linked with Matt’s tightened, he looked at her. Beneath her eyes there was swelling from the three days she had suffered” (111). This introduction to Ruth’s character is able to display her feelings of loss because of the fact that one of the first traits the reader learns about Ruth is that she had cried for three days after the loss of Frank, which does clearly show her sorrow because of the fact that three days is definitely a strangely long time to be crying for, especially since it seems like the entire family, besides her, had already moved on from crying about the loss. Another example of how Ruth is affected by loss is shown the night of Richard’s murder when Matt reflects on how “he believed Ruth knew... When Ruth said good night she looked at his face, and he felt she could see see in his eyes the gun, and the night he was going to” (116-117).

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757 Words | 4 Pages

The boy gives her the impression that he knows she gains from his struggle, “I don’t know if I am in his power…or if he’s in my power” (14-18). The woman possibly begins to question the idea that the boy is actually living in a subservient white world and wonders who actually has the power now as they sit face to face in person. The woman may be at the top of the social pyramid but is now held at the mercy of this boy who sits across from her. This portrays that there are undistinguished lines between black and whites and leads the woman to doubt if her fortune and social position can defeat the boy’s hostility towards her.

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564 Words | 3 Pages

Ruth took her father’s death hard, internalized the pain the house guest possess and wants to be successful at school. She is embarrassed of her

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633 Words | 3 Pages

Dennis is different from the other men she has dated in her life, him being black is the biggest difference. He was more mature than other guys, a characteristic she really appreciated about him. The older she got, the more Ruth realized how important Christianity is to her. After moving to New York, she needed something to believe in, something that would take the guilt away from her and make her feel better. Other than having a religion forced on her, like her parents did it with Judaism, she discovered Christianism for herself and didn’t feel pressured into doing anything.

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832 Words | 4 Pages

So who is Ruth? How does she act as a person? Well the author uses indirect characterization to show us how strong and determined Ruth is to not let Stan see how much he hurts her: “[t]hen, I stood up. Nothing hurt. The blows I had received ceased to hurt”

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1170 Words | 5 Pages

“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

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1129 Words | 5 Pages

Ruth always turns to Barbra thinking that one of these times something will change. I really think that that's a bad idea and she shouldn't do that. If i were Ruth and i kept getting nervous calls concerning a child i would try to do so much more than give the mother another chance. Dawn almost killed herself because of her mother not being there for her and loving her like normal parents would do for their children. I think Ruth is awful and really should try a lot harder to help

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898 Words | 4 Pages

Yet, at home, she devotes love and curiosity to her family. This contrasts to multiple other characters, as the relationship between Ruth and her single mother is inspiring. Accordingly, she respects her mother, who provides encouragements like, “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” With pure gratitude, Ruth seeks to apply her mother’s words. When bullies trouble Philip, Ruth can empathise with him.

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1194 Words | 5 Pages

When the white conductor rudely confronts Helene, she “turns to jelly” (22) and has “an eagerness to please and apolog[ize] for living” (21). Helene’s responses display her belief that submitting to racism will end it; on the contrary, her submissiveness to the conductor’s bigotry act proves only to degrade and dehumanize her, illustrating the manner in which racism degrades African Americans. Rather,

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